Voting for the TV advert theme song for automotive giant Toyota's latest release lasted more than 20 days. In the end, "Colourful Days", by Pu Shu, was chosen by close to 50,000 fans as the theme song for the hyped up TV commercial.
It was released as a single and has been on the Asia Music Billboard for the past five weeks.
Pu Shu
In addition to the thirty-second version we now see on TV, there is a five-minute music video to keep the music and the plot in one piece.
Having given up school for music 10 years ago, without ever pondering what life as a musician would be like, Pu Shu's fame and success were never planned.
"I'm an unqualified commercialized singer and a child looking for comfort" is how Pu Shu describes himself. "I'm ambiguous, contradicting myself in between the pursuit of authentic music and the compromise of Vanity Fair."
Perhaps that ambiguity lets him push for better music. "Everyone's aiming for 'mainstream' music these days. There's no more originality, just a bunch of copycats. There's a lot we could learn from the West in terms of music. You don't have to play mainstream music to get noticed there," Pu Shu says openly, without thinking too much, as always.
Compared with those around him, Pu Shu just feels lucky to be able to turn his inspirations into the final product. "I used to believe that I had to 'wait' for inspiration to come. I realized that I've got way too many messages that I want to communicate in such short time. Waiting for inspiration is to fool myself and is a waste of time."
Pu Shu's last album, "I'm Going to the Year 2000" was released in 1999. Since than, the audience anticipation never declined, in spite of the long wait. Preparations for the latest album are well under its way, and it's due at the end of the month.
