Chapter 437 God Is a Fake

"How does it feel to hold a Grammy? I feel that three golden phonograph-shaped trophies stacked together are still quite heavy."

"What I said on the red carpet? I was just telling the truth. I was indeed much happier when I was a part-time singer in a bar before. I didn't need to worry about this or that."

"Are you worried that you will make too many enemies in Europe and the United States? No, no, no, everyone who knows me knows that I am actually kind to others."

"Yao Ming? I haven't met him yet. Houston is a bit far from New York. He has to play games and I have to do publicity. Both sides can't spare the time."

"Is it possible for Apple to put the two of us together to shoot an advertisement? I don't know. My agent will only tell me about the business aspect after it is confirmed..."

Facing the interview with the two CCTV reporters, even Zhou Yi, who has always been eloquent, was relatively honest. Because he had to be in the camera for the shooting, Zhou Yi also deliberately changed his flashy flowered shirt into a formal white shirt and black suit.

"Congratulations, Zhou Yi."

After a brief quick question and answer session, Zhu Zhenping and Xie Wenjie, who had just finished their interview, smiled and shook hands with him: "You have made us Chinese proud this time. The domestic excitement is even bigger than that of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the first Chinese-language film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It is also the first Chinese-language film to win four Oscars: Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography.

However, the film received more positive reviews abroad than at home. Many people even said that the plot of the film was not meant for Chinese people.

For this reason, many people criticized it when it was released. However, after winning the Oscar, the voices of those opponents were instantly drowned out by the wave of blind support because the moon was rounder abroad.

Zhou Yi's English album benefited from the two songs "Baby" and "Wavin Flag" that were also very popular in China. Although the sales volume was not as good as the Chinese album, at least it was praised a lot - although I couldn't understand it, as a song, its melody was pleasing to the ear.

Even many students have never bought Zhou Yi's English album, but they can always hear the extremely brainwashing "babybaby, ohoh~" on the school radio station. During the World Cup, thanks to the popularity of football and the promotion of Coca-Cola, "Wavin Flag" became a household name.

The starting point of favorability is different, so the movement in the domestic market after winning the foreign award will naturally be different.

Moreover, the speed of information dissemination in this era is indeed too slow compared to the later mobile Internet era. Even with the assistance of the fledgling Internet, the information of Zhou Yi's award will take several days to ferment under the joint reports of multiple newspapers-

Not only in China, but also in other countries in Asia, Europe, and America.

Zhu Zhenping and Xie Wenjie came for this.

"If you were not so young, I would even suspect that CCTV might have the tendency to make a documentary about you."

After the two left, Qian Jiang, who was quite emotional, joked: "Especially after the broadcast of the "News Network."

The first singer to appear on the network in 18 years, this gold content is much stronger than any big pot meal.

You know, even when "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won four Oscars, the network did not even watch it.

Going back further, Deng Lijun's songs were so popular and influential in the mainland, but when she died, she did not get the news of the network broadcast. Only the "China News" column of CCTV-4 reported the news of her death for the first time.

"It's hard to say, what if they are already preparing."

Zhou Yi smiled and walked out of the interview room: "It's not possible at the age of 22, so let's release it in a few years."

CCTV is indeed the best in the country in making documentaries, let alone other things.

"Oh, by the way, when you go to Japan to promote, remember to thank your Japanese fans for supporting you."

On the way to Disney, Qian Jiang, who was sitting in the car, handed Zhou Yi a document. The latter took it with surprise. The moment he opened it, he saw the information and price of the Tokyo Ginza outdoor advertising screen, as well as a photo of himself holding the Grammy trophy.

"What is this?"

"Japan is indeed the favorite backyard of American singers. Fans are not only rich and willing to pay, but also very loyal. Thanks to the prevalence of fan culture, there are all kinds of support activities. This is an example.

"They want to celebrate your winning of the Grammy by buying the Ginza outdoor advertising screen. "

On February 24, 2003, after Warner (Japan) officially announced that Zhou Yi won the Grammy and created history for Asian singers, Zhou Yi's several major Japanese fan clubs got together and discussed that everyone would spend money to buy the outdoor screen billboard in the most central area of ​​Ginza for one day -

It was not for anything else, it was purely for cheering.

In this case, Warner (Japan) naturally could not have heard of it. After questioning and investigating, they directly organized the news into a file and sent it to Qian Jiang, so that Zhou Yi could be mentally prepared to thank the fans in advance.

Although he did not understand this behavior, Qian Jiang was undoubtedly happy to see this kind of scene, which could not only expand Zhou Yi's influence, but also reflect his commercial value.

"In addition, Armani is very satisfied with your performance at the Grammy Awards and intends to reach further cooperation with you."

"Armani?"

"Yes."

Speaking of this brand, Qian Jiang suddenly became excited and said with great interest.

As we all know, the fashion circles in Europe and the United States mean one thing to artists - resources.

The so-called endorsement fees in the fashion circle are actually not too high. But even so, they are still sought after by global stars, just because of resources.

Whether it is the exposure of various advertising blockbusters or the promotion of various media channels, top fashion brands have extraordinary organizational capabilities and influence in all regions of the world, which is reflected in the stars as the so-called style.

Hermes, Chanel, Gucci, Prada, and Armani are all luxury brands that often appear in Hong Kong movies in the past. Thanks to the influence of Hong Kong movies, even in the mainland in 2003, many people have heard of these luxury brands -

One word: damn expensive.

"So, they are interested in my body?" Zhou Yi took the information and stroked his chin with one hand, teasing while reading.

"I guess so."

Qian Jiang smiled like a Maitreya Buddha, and then said with some regret: "It's a pity that it's not Dior, Louis Vuitton and other blue-blood brands."

"There is no such thing as red blood and blue blood, don't be brainwashed."

Zhou Yi shook his head after looking at the information.

In the fashion circle in early 2003, the fashion model website models.com, which directed the birth of the blue-blood concept, had only been established for three years.

At present, there are only six so-called blue-blood brands, namely Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada and Calvin Klein, and the concept of the future red-blood brand has not even been established.

But even so, Armani's resources as one of the top luxury brands are not inferior to the blue-blood brand concept that this website has hyped up.

models.com obviously realized this, so in the future, it will create a new "red blood" concept, and include eight top fashion brands for major models and celebrity fans to fight crickets in cyber battles-

Yes, this so-called red and blue blood was actually created by models.com to increase popularity and discussion. The original intention of its creation is essentially no different from the water award data list such as the Global Chinese Music Chart.

"EA series global spokesperson, 10 million US dollars for three years?"

Zhou Yi, who didn't take Armani seriously, suddenly became excited after seeing this price-the top luxury brands these days are looking for celebrity endorsements, and the endorsement fee of 10 million US dollars can basically be said to be extremely important.

"In the Grammy red carpet report submitted by Giorgio Armani's subordinates, he noticed you wearing Armani couture..."

In the European and American entertainment circles these days, there has actually always been a non-conventional saying about men's clothing on the red carpet - when you don't know what to wear, you can't go wrong wearing Armani.

This is also the reason why Warner found Armani couture suits for Zhou Yi before.

And these red carpet shows are often occasions where major brand companies pay special attention to the effect display. There will be special people in the company to collect data and give public opinion feedback.

With superior height, outstanding temperament, handsome cheeks, and extremely high popularity, Zhou Yi has all the qualities that a clothing spokesperson should have.

If he wants to endorse Armani's main brand GA series, Zhou Yi is not only not old enough at present, but his young and arrogant temperament is not quite in line with it. Then the EA series, a branch line that is under one person and above ten thousand people, is very consistent with Zhou Yi's personal image.

As the most successful sub-brand among all luxury brands so far, the EA series, which represents youth, fashion and creativity, can almost be said to have single-handedly helped the Armani brand complete the transformation from a top designer brand to a fashion kingdom.

In addition to the main brand GA series, the EA series is the only series that founder Giorgio Armani personally designed in the Armani empire with many categories, and its status is evident.

"This endorsement is in line with your philosophy of quality over quantity, and these luxury brands generally start with the branch series when they want to find spokespersons. If the cooperation is pleasant and the performance is good, they will upgrade you or have other brands come to poach you..."

Qian Jiang, who was afraid that Zhou Yi would feel that endorsing a branch line was a loss of face, said slowly.

For Zhou Yi, Armani's global channels have indeed made up for a large shortcoming...

In fact, Qian Jiang's excitement is not without reason.

In 2003, these top luxury brands had not lost their mysterious color even in the United States, and the Chinese people who didn't know why were also influenced by the top luxury theory of Americans.

After the powerful American journalists exposed this incident, Zhou Yi, who had already caused a stir in the United States because of the Grammy Awards, caught Norah Jones' team off guard.

In this year's Grammy Awards, Zhou Yi won three Grammys alone, with 3 wins out of 6 nominations;

Norah Jones lost to Zhou Yi in the Best Pop Vocal Album and Best New Artist awards, but won all the others, taking away six Grammys alone, with 6 wins out of 8 nominations.

To a certain extent, Zhou Yi was the one who snatched food from the tiger's mouth.

Norah Jones herself was willing to befriend Zhou Yi, but it did not mean that the company behind her was willing to be robbed of the limelight by Zhou Yi.

After the Grammy Awards ceremony, a large number of media channels were mobilized, directly drowning out the news praising Zhou Yi with a large amount of reports, and also invited many celebrities to assist in interviews.

Zhou Yi was nominated for six awards, and she directly won six trophies.

If Zhou Yi's popularity in East Asia is far ahead of the second place, then in the United States, Zhou Yi only stayed on Google's hot search for one day before falling behind - Norah Jones took the third place while he was ranked third.

Eminem ranked second because he had to hold a draft paper when reading his acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards, which was in sharp contrast to Zhou Yi, not to mention that Zhou Yi was merciless after defeating him head-on, which fully demonstrated what it means to be red even if you are black.

After the news that "Armani suspected of inviting Zhou Yi to be the global spokesperson" spread, Zhou Yi miraculously regained the top spot in Google's hot search on the 27th, and fans gathered again under his personal blog to ask whether it was true or false -

This group of people did not forget to step on Eminem, who did not even endorse any luxury goods.

"It's sad that a native American, a white man who should be more favored by luxury brands, has been in the industry for so long but has never been rumored to endorse a luxury brand, while Spike has an Asian endorsement."

"What do you mean by emphasizing white people? Are you racist?"

"I only discriminate against Eminem."

"I x-on:#%x-on:#￥%!"

Tom fans who really have nothing to say about this can only turn into fucking idiots and spit foul language.

There is no way, Eminem's personal image is really incompatible with luxury goods.

On February 28, when Disney announced Zhou Yi's schedule, saying that he had watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" and would start composing the theme song for "Pirates of the Caribbean" after finishing the album promotion work, Zhou Yi's popularity instantly rose to a higher level despite being deliberately suppressed!

Because, at this time, there is only one day left before the release of Zhou Yi's second English album - or, tomorrow.

"This album is what Warner forced Spike to release to reap fans' wallets. I can guarantee it!"

"Bullshit! If your idol can't do it, don't say Spike can't do it!"

"..."

As the biggest controversy of this year's Grammy Awards, the New York Times also used an editor's words to implicitly express the fact that Zhou Yi used the Grammy Awards to hype in the preview-

"Will the Magic from the East be renewed?"

"Los Angeles Times" even became a staunch guardian of the American music scene, righteously pointing out the sinister intentions of Warner's hype-

"God is a fake! 》

"From the so-called Chinese pop music emperor to the number one in the Asian music scene, and then to the American music scene, he hooked up with Mariah Carey through hype, and defeated Eminem with a sneak attack. Warner Music's intention to develop and monopolize the Chinese market has been obvious.

"Warner spared no effort to publicize the Grammys for him, and to help him connect with Armani, and even Disney, Nokia, Samsung and other groups, just to hype this upcoming album. At this time, it has only been seven months since he released his last English album.

"Spike was shaped by Warner into an unprecedented music genius, or rather, they deliberately deified Spike's talent in music - everyone loves Spike's talent, everyone recognizes his talent, and for this reason he can do whatever he wants.

"Warner wants to implant the inherent impression of Spike's omnipotence into the minds of every American, which is a kind of ideological invasion..."

March 1, 2003, the day when Zhou Yi's new album "Forever Young" was officially released.

The Los Angeles Times said that it would not take advantage of the popularity, but it was honest and released this highly inflammatory and controversial report on this day - even the release time was one hour earlier than the release time of Zhou Yi's new album...

At 10:08, "Forever Young" was officially released across the United States.