Author | Qingye Juan
Editor | Xiang Wanwan
It’s the Spring Festival again, and TV stations all over the country have held Spring Festival Gala.
But when the CCTV Spring Festival Gala ended, some attentive netizens exclaimed: "Why is Li Guyi missing from "Unforgettable Tonight"?"
This is indeed the case. Netizens watched it carefully during the replay.
Sure enough, I didn’t see teacher Li Guyi who sings the lead in the finale of the Spring Festival Gala every year, "Unforgettable Tonight". The first few lines were sung by Huang Qishan.
In which year did Li Guyi first appear on the Spring Festival Gala? Why didn't she show up this year? This matter has to start from the 1980s.
01
Speaking of Li Guyi’s songs, they can be said to have historical origins.
On December 21, 1979, Li Guyi's "Hometown Love" was called the first pop song in mainland China in the new era, and it was also her first pop song.
But the most popular song is her song "Unforgettable Tonight".
As we all know, the first CCTV Spring Festival Gala was in 1983. At that time, the Spring Festival Gala was founded, so not only did it not have a dedicated host, but it also did not invite many singers.
As a result, Li Guyi became the singer who sang the most songs in that Spring Festival Gala. She sang six songs alone. No one has been able to break this record so far.
Of course, Li Guyi did not sing "Unforgettable Tonight" in the first Spring Festival Gala, after all, the song did not exist at that time.
After the first year of attempts, the director of the 1984 Spring Festival Gala had more ideas.
A little-known sketch at that time appeared on the Spring Festival Gala. Hong Kong and Taiwan songs that were once regarded as popular music appeared on the Spring Festival Gala. "Unforgettable Tonight", which has a melodious melody, simple and catchy lyrics, also appeared on the Spring Festival Gala that year. of.
Back then, people didn’t have much entertainment programs throughout the year. Fortunately, there was the Spring Festival Gala, which naturally made people’s eyes brighter.
And the song "Unforgettable Tonight" was also designated as the closing song of the Spring Festival Gala by directors in subsequent years.
The original singer of "Unforgettable Tonight" is Li Guyi. The song was also sung by Li Guyi for the first time on the Spring Festival Gala. In addition, at that time, Li Guyi was already popular all over the country.
Therefore, in the following years, Li Guyi sang this song solo as the closing song of the Spring Festival Gala.
Later, as the Spring Festival Gala became more and more popular, more and more singers wanted to appear on the Spring Festival Gala stage, so "Unforgettable Tonight" also changed from Li Guyi's solo to a group of stars.
No matter how many powerful singers there are, Li Guyi still shines among the stars with his deep understanding of "Unforgettable Tonight".
Unconsciously, from 1984 to 2024, "Unforgettable Tonight" became a fixed project of the Spring Festival Gala, symbolizing the end of the Spring Festival Gala and the arrival of the new spring.
Until the Spring Festival Gala in 2023, Li Guyi was still singing "Unforgettable Tonight" at the end of the program. Although she was 78 years old at the time, she still sang loudly and had a beautiful voice, driving every chorus performer with her steady style.
But on the evening of February 9, 2024, the CCTV Spring Festival Gala came to an end as time went by, and the annual "Unforgettable Tonight" ushered in. This time the lead singer was not the familiar Li Guyi, but Huang Qishan.
Because of this, a question arises in people’s minds: Why didn’t Teacher Li Guyi show up? In fact, this has a lot to do with her age.
02
On November 10, 1944, Li Guyi was born in Kunming, Yunnan.
When the country was liberated when she was five years old, Li Guyi's parents' jobs were transferred, and the family returned to their ancestral home in Changsha to settle down. Both parents were teachers, which also had a great impact on Li Guyi.
My mother likes sports, so when Li Guyi won first place in six events at the primary school sports meeting, many people thought that she would develop into the sports world.
But unexpectedly, when he was 14 years old, Li Guyi was admitted to Hunan University of the Arts. This was the influence of his father who loved singing and listening to operas on Li Guyi.
Li Guyi was about to graduate three years later. The Hunan Huagu Drama Theater took a fancy to her. This girl with outstanding temperament and soft appearance was exactly what they needed. With constant practice, 19-year-old Li Guyi took on the starring role and appeared in the movie. Big stage.
Li Guyi's achievements in Huagu Opera also cleared many obstacles for her later music career, and she also got married to music educator Jin Tielin.
With the encouragement of her husband, 30-year-old Li Guyi plucked up the courage to sign up for the Central Orchestra. The skills she honed in Huagu Opera performances over the past few years allowed her to successfully pass three rounds of interviews and join the Central Orchestra.
In the first five years of the band, Li Guyi sang many songs that were very popular with the audience, but most of the audience were middle-aged and elderly people.
It was not until 1979 that Li Guyi and his team created "Nostalgia". Since then, Li Guyi has opened up the audience market of all ages and truly entered the national stage.
By the 1970s and 1980s, Li Guyi had become a singer loved by people all over the country. This is why she became known to the common people.
This is because most of the episodes in film and television dramas back then were sung by Li Guyi.
With her sweet singing voice, melodious melody, and rare movie scenes, Li Guyi was undoubtedly the most popular female singer of that era.
The saying "Every movie must be a song, and every song must be Li Guyi" came out at that time. Li Guyi, who had mastered the resource of film and television drama inserts, obviously grasped the most important traffic password of the year.
Li Guyi, who has a beautiful voice and a sweet voice, seems to have reached the peak of her life, but she also caused a lot of controversies back then, the first of which was her popular singing style.
Modern pop songs dominate the Internet, but pop songs back then were regarded by countless people as "confused and mesmerizing sounds."
Therefore, as the singer who sang the first pop song in mainland China, Li Guyi was under tremendous pressure that we cannot even imagine today.
03
At this time, conflicts also occurred between Li Guyi and her husband. After many years of marriage but no child, the two chose to divorce after quarreling to no avail.
A few years later, Li Guyi met Xiao Zhuoneng, a super fan. Whenever Li Guyi performed, he would always send flowers after the curtain call and talk to the tall and straight young man.
Li Guyi couldn't help but feel good about her. Coupled with Xiao Zhuoneng's careful, patient and considerate pursuit, the relationship between the two developed rapidly. It didn't take long for him to propose to Li Guyi.
The second year after marrying Xiao Zhuoneng, Li Guyi gave birth to the fruit of their love - daughter Xiao Yi. Even her name was full of the husband's love for his wife.
The happiness of marriage seems to have brought good luck to Li Guyi. She has entered a period of rising career and has sang countless well-known classics. At the same time, she has little time to spend with her husband and daughter.
But this time, Li Guyi’s husband chose to understand, and his daughter was also very considerate of Li Guyi. Not only did
not blame her mother, she later worked at CCTV. Even when she resigned, no one knew that Xiao Yi was actually the daughter of the famous singer Li Guyi. With a debt to her husband and daughter in her heart, Li Guyi's career as a singer continues.
As Li Guyi's most popular song, "Unforgettable Tonight" was only in 2012 when it failed to appear on the Spring Festival Gala.
In the Year of the Dragon Spring Festival Gala 12 years ago, the performance team tried to use "We Are One World" as the closing number of the Spring Festival Gala, but it was not well received, so later the Spring Festival Gala still ended with "Unforgettable Tonight".
After all, singers do not rely on youth like actors do, so it is normal for Li Guyi, who is in his 70s, to still be active in the singing industry.
What's more, as a cross-generation singer who has moved from the old era to the new era, Li Guyi can still co-create pop songs of the new era with young singers in 2016.
But at this time, she already felt that her energy had dropped significantly, so Li Guyi later gave up a lot of work and only participated in the recording of a few programs such as the Spring Festival Gala and the Lantern Festival Gala.
Although Li Guyi appears less and less in people's sight, for the Spring Festival Gala, as long as "Unforgettable Tonight" is still there, Li Guyi will be there, which has become a complex in the minds of the majority of the audience.
But when the 2023 Spring Festival Gala was about to begin, Li Guyi was staying in the hospital for treatment.
Although everyone is looking forward to her recovery as soon as possible and returning to the Spring Festival Gala stage, health issues cannot be ignored. Li Guyi was absent from the 2023 Spring Festival Gala.
In addition to the influence of age, Li Guyi's absence is also related to the new crown epidemic.
Before the Spring Festival of 2023, Li Guyi was hospitalized because he had COVID-19. After all, he was 78 years old. Even if he recovered, he would still have many sequelae.
If you don’t recuperate well, let alone participating in the Spring Festival Gala, your future singing career may be ruined.
However, at the Year of the Dragon Spring Festival Gala, Li Guyi still did not appear, and the lead singer of "Unforgettable Tonight" was replaced by Huang Qishan, which made people worried about the health of Li Guyi, an old artist.
is written at the end
As a singing artist who has grown up since the founding of the People's Republic of China, singing has long been integrated into Li Guyi's life. For her, singing is "unforgettable tonight."
In 2020, Li Guyi’s husband Xiao Zhuoneng passed away.
In 2022, Qiao Yu, the lyricist of "Unforgettable Tonight", also passed away.
Two extremely important people in Li Guyi's life left one after another. Although nothing could be seen from the outside, Li Guyi was sad inside.
At the end of that year, Li Guyi was infected with the new coronavirus again.
Although he was cured later, he was ultimately unable to participate in last year's and this year's Spring Festival Gala. It is difficult to say whether Li Guyi will be included in next year's Spring Festival Gala.
It’s a pity, but you might as well think about it.
40 years ago, Li Guyi appeared on the Spring Festival Gala with a song "Unforgettable Tonight". This song reached her old age. How many people in the world have such an opportunity?
Although Li Guyi was absent from the Spring Festival Gala, we will never forget her song "Unforgettable Tonight".
As the Spring Festival Gala spreads wider and wider, I believe that more and more people will become more and more "unforgettable tonight"...
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