In Xu Ruyun's life trajectory, "timely" seems to be an accurate but not precise word. She was lucky enough to usher in the heyday of the development of the Chinese music scene. At the age of 22, she had life masterpieces such as "If the Cloud Knows" and "One-Man Show" with her un

In Xu Ruyun's life trajectory, "timely" seems to be an accurate but not precise word.

She was lucky enough to usher in the heyday of the development of the Chinese music scene. At the age of 22, she had life masterpieces such as "If the Cloud Knows" and "One-Man Show" with her unique "Yun-style singing voice", and she was at ease in the turbulent entertainment industry. But looking back at the path she has taken, every important choice she has made seems to be a brave departure from the established life paradigm, whether it is career, love, or life. In her, we see how a woman with a self-consistent and full heart resolutely makes the best of every stage of her life.

Xu Ruyun. Picture provided by the interviewee

Witness the growth of life through concerts

In 2019, Xu Ruyun’s tour concert "Blooming Blooming Blooming" came to an end at the Taipei Arena in China.

"Your love completes me at this moment, and also completes this unparalleled concert." When singing the last song "Only Singing for You Tonight", Xu Ruyun emotionally expressed her gratitude to all fans.

From the first concert held in 2000 to now, Xu Ruyun has worked hard to organize such a gathering with fans almost every two or three years. "The concert is like a rhythmic music time tunnel, which can present my thoughts on life, feelings, and myself for a period of time on the stage." Xu Ruyun said.

This is why Xu Ruyun started preparing for the next concert non-stop after "Blooming Blooming Blooming". However, this meeting came later than expected. After five years of absence, Xu Ruyun's "A Time to Love" tour will kick off at the National Stadium on April 27. She will travel through five cities including Beijing, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Ningbo and Shanghai with her "Yun-style singing" narration and confiding.

Xu Ruyun's "The Time for Love" tour poster.

If the "blooming blooming blooming" in 2019 expresses the destruction, reshaping and rebirth of flowers, implying that Xu Ruyun's musical journey blooms again after going through hardships, then 2024 is the "time for falling in love" It's more like another branch of her life: after blooming, the flowers shine with new brilliance at the most suitable moment.

This is like Xu Ruyun in the past five years. Joined the music variety show "Time Concert" to bring Xu Ruyun's new interpretation of her classic works; boldly tried the reality show "Riding the Wind and Waves 3", showing to the outside world her frankness, heartiness and love for creation in addition to her "Yun-style singing" The other side of the story - Thirty years since her debut, and having passed 40 without any doubts, Xu Ruyun has continued to set new levels in her life.

During this tour, Xu Ruyun also wanted to tell everyone what Xu Ruyun is like now.

She carefully selected many random videos taken in her life in recent years, as well as essays to record her emotions - for Xu Ruyun, her fans are like her old friends. Whenever I see fans sharing that Xu Ruyun's songs accompany them through the pain of broken love, or accompany them to experience a new love, go through the college entrance examination, or even those difficult moments when they are crowded on the bus, Xu Ruyun will feel it. To the healing that music can do to each other. This kind of sympathy makes Xu Ruyun eager to share her interesting observations about life with everyone at every concert.

The concert playlist hides what Xu Ruyun wants to say to everyone at the moment. For example, for this tour, Xu Ruyun has chosen many of her own songs such as "Suddenly Want to Love You", "Cat and the Piano", and may also perform surprise performances of new songs that have never been released. Not only can she sing love songs, but she can also create other styles of music. This is what Xu Ruyun wants more people to know in recent years. She also deliberately included "unpopular songs" such as "Four Seasons" and "Heart Eclipse" that are difficult to hear live versions on public stages - they are said to be "unpopular", but to many die-hard fans they may be "life theme songs" .

"Time cannot travel, but it can change into a new one. The moment we met was a very private and shared memory that I created with the fans at the scene. I very much hope for more different memories. Works can allow everyone to re-understand their past selves in their current state."

Xu Ruyun carefully designed every aspect of this tour.

And for classics such as "If the Cloud Knows" and "One Man Show" that must be performed in every show, Xu Ruyun also tried to bring a completely different emotional touch to the audience this time. . Many people have asked her, "You have sung these songs hundreds of times, do you still find them boring?" "But on the contrary, she injects new feelings every time. "When I was 25, 35, and 45 years old, I would also sing "Sea of ​​Tears" and "One Man Show". I really feel that each moment (these songs) are meaningful to me. The feelings are different. "Xu Ruyun said that when she was a child, she might have understood that love was very simple and direct, and that falling out of love meant crying and breaking your heart, so the feeling when singing was the same; but after you have gone through different ages and experienced different emotional experiences, you You will find that you can wipe away your tears even if you are bruised. You can explore the meaning of "love" in different ways and get different answers. "On the contrary, I prefer the state of singing love songs from the past. Fans can also connect their past and present through my performance. "

returns to the theme of this concert: "The right moment for love." This is not only the name of Xu Ruyun's 2024 single - what is "the right moment"? This is also what Xu Ruyun wants to share with fans at the moment. : Life, like love, cannot be accurately calculated by formulas. There is no most suitable time. Every moment is the most suitable time in life.

has the ability to turn hard work into romance.

The theme of this tour is. "Round".

"Round" symbolizes perfection, peace, and continuity. This may also be the footnote of Xu Ruyun's music life, but in fact, it is her musical milestone in the past thirty years. The twists and turns in different stages finally formed the perfection seen by the outside world; her life was constantly broken and re-extended and grew branches, and she finally found the direction to continue.

The theme of this tour. It is "round", and the stage design echoes it. Photo provided by interviewee

In the 1990s, in the Chinese music scene at that time, Xu Ruyun was undoubtedly lucky to be highly praised by the company when she debuted at the age of 21; "Sea of ​​Tears" won the Top Ten Idols of the Year on the Channel V Global Music Chart - that year, Andy Lau won the Most Popular Singer Award in Asia.

But Xu Ruyun preferred to use "stumbling" to describe her state at that time. Being a singer was her first job in society. She was not good at socializing, and she never thought about getting something through hard work. She often had to use "brute force" to experience this field. "It seems that she has always been passive (moving forward). , not proactive. "In 1997, when her career was on the rise, she unexpectedly ran into a wave of record company mergers. In three years, her then-owned Shanghua Records was first acquired by PolyGram Records and then merged with Universal Music. "No matter the international record companies or Local record companies seem to change once I join them, which is a subject that I find very interesting. " She once joked in an interview with the Beijing News.

In 2001, Xu Ruyun signed with EMI Records. She thought she could finally calm down and reflect on her next music path. She released the album "Yun Kai", and since then she has "Yun Shi" turned to some electronic and jazz lyrics. This album also made her nominated for the Best Mandarin Female Singer at the 14th China Taiwan Golden Melody Awards. Almost at the same time, she also released the album "Yun Qie Liu". ", which contains ten covers of Qiong Yao's love movie theme songs. This album was inspired by her and her mother's preference for Qiong Yao's works over the years. At that time, she had a lot of things she wanted to do, and she had a lot of freedom. Completed.

However, if everything could be as it was, it would not be called life. "Every stage of life will have its own issues," Xu Ruyun recalled that in 2003, her contract with EMI ended. There was a new round of personnel changes; at the same time, she and her stable boyfriend also chose to separate, both in her career and relationship, when she turned 30.How will

take such a long road ahead? Do you want to continue being a singer? Is it chaos to live in the present, or is it courage to make changes?

In fact, before signing with a record company, Xu Ruyun always wanted to continue studying, but ten years of busyness made her forget about it. Music is an important part of Xu Ruyun's life, but it is not the whole story. So that year, she simply dropped everything and went to New York alone to study and relax.

In that era without social media, Xu Ruyun did not explain her whereabouts. For a time, the saying that "Xu Ruyun quit the music scene" became rampant. "But I don't think there's anything to explain." Xu Ruyun said bluntly, "Because I know that I will come back to release an album. I think it takes a lot of effort to explain something. As long as you identify it yourself, continue to complete it, and move forward. You don’t need to explain to others in which direction you want to go.”

Only Xu Ruyun herself knows what she gained in the year she “disappeared.” She finally has a lot of time to go to musicals, learn about new and interesting performances from various places, and often go to clubs to enjoy open mics. The local open mic is more like a small livehouse, and most of the audience are people who love art. There is a small box placed in front of the stage, and everyone can put in what they want to perform, and the selected person can go on stage to read poetry, sing, talk shows, or do whatever you want to express. Once, Xu Ruyun finally plucked up the courage to throw in a note, but she hurriedly fled the scene during the drawing of lots.

She also couldn't figure it out: In a place where few people know her, it should be easier to talk about herself. "Maybe (before) I accumulated too many things that exceeded my growth capacity. Only when you calm down, you can Only then will she slowly sort things out and find herself again."

When she was 30 years old, she learned yoga, oil painting, and tap dancing in a foreign country, including trying to roast a chicken by herself in the kitchen. She searched for a place to live and dealt with the rent alone. She even once foolishly advanced all her money to the landlord for a house she liked. At the moment when she almost ended up living on the street, Xu Ruyun sat in front of the grocery store and took her first puff of cigarette. She didn't know what brand of cigarette it was, but she remembered that it smelled very strong and choking, and she just wanted to wash it off immediately. "If God wants to test me like this, then so be it. I still have my hands and feet, so I can make money all over again." She learned how to comfort herself in difficult situations.

It is these life variables that created Xu Ruyun today. Today, she always believes that no matter how bumpy the process is, as long as you have enough faith, good things can happen; even if the ending is not perfect, it is another growth gain in life. These are also a kind of "romance" in life. "I seem to be someone who can really turn a lot of hard work into very romantic memories." Xu Ruyun said with a smile.

Xu Ruyun is now more relaxed and comfortable. Picture provided by the interviewee

Enjoying a slow-paced life and getting along with yourself

"Hello everyone, I am Xu Ruyun, I am a singer-songwriter."

The first scene of Xu Ruyun in the third season of "Riding the Wind and Waves" in 2022, as introduced Own. The first stage of

was the only opportunity for this program to sing her own work. All the sisters assumed that Xu Ruyun would sing "If the Cloud Knows", but she silently sat at the piano and played and sang a relatively niche song with an alternative melody. The literary song "What should I do now". The song was composed by her and written by Wu Qingfeng.

For Xu Ruyun today, there are many choices in life. To do something, you must give it meaning to complete it. "Riding the Wind and Waves" is Xu Ruyun's first time participating in a reality show, and it is also the first time she has stepped out of the comfort zone of "a love song singer" to stand on a stage that requires singing and dancing. She hesitated for a long time and only asked one question: Can she perform the songs she composed? Can you freely present it in a way that you like and feel comfortable with?

"The program team also suggested that I sing "If the Cloud Knows" and "One Man Show", but these songs can be seen on many platforms. On the contrary, many people don't know that Xu Ruyun can play the piano and compose.Even though I have been doing this since 1995. This is what I want to present most at this stage. "

In the main film of the show, Xu Ruyun doesn't seem to have many scenes or topics. Most of the time she is talking and laughing cheerfully, practicing seriously, and working hard to complete the stage. Rather than attracting the attention of the outside world, Xu Ruyun is more willing to look inward. Observe yourself. She may also be the sister who is rarely "lucky" that she did not join the group in so many years of "Riding the Wind and Waves" "It was really perfect when I ended up (being eliminated) in the fourth performance! At that time, my body was in a relatively comfortable state, and I would definitely have to do a girl group dance with everyone next, and I might not be able to hold it anymore (laughs). "

When she was young, Xu Ruyun also worked hard to chase a result. For example, the album "Miracle" was released in 2014. This was a work that she thought was very qualified to compete for the Golden Melody Award. All her efforts and expectations were put into the award recognition. "But a lot of things are just 'you think', like the Golden Melody Award judges I met that year didn't think so. There is always a lot of luck involved in how things turn out. "After that, Xu Ruyun never made another album for the Golden Melody Award.

was not shortlisted for the Golden Melody Award, which did not affect her recognition of her favorite music; "Riding the Wind and Waves" did not create public expectations for "Memory Killing" and did not form a group. The so-called "become famous", but Xu Ruyun has still completed the process of "riding the wind and waves" to break the inherent impression of the outside world.

"My pace (of work and life) does seem to be a little slower, but every step of the process is very important to me. are all important. I don't want to have any phased regrets. "For example, in this "A Time to Love" concert, Xu Ruyun spent a long time adjusting and finalizing every detail. Even now, less than half a month has passed since the first performance, Xu Ruyun is still thinking about whether It is not possible to add more interesting "little easter eggs".

The same is true for love. Xu Ruyun only met the right person in her life at the age of 39, and the two decided to get married less than half a year after they met. "Everyone will always be influenced by some traditional society. The influence of concepts, how old you should be to fall in love and get married. Including one time I turned over a note I wrote when I was a child, saying that I will have a boyfriend at the age of 20, get married at the age of 25, and have a child at the age of 30 (laughs). But in fact, these things did not happen according to my settings at all. At this time, you will find that the result is actually not important. It doesn’t matter if you encounter it later. The most important thing is to know what you want. "A lot of things happen without deliberate effort.

Nowadays, Xu Ruyun will leave enough time for life outside of music. She likes to pick up a book and find a coffee shop, and the whole day will pass in a blink of an eye. Or go to the park, stand under the trees and watch the birds, listen to the wind blowing in the trees; sit by the lake and watch the mandarin ducks playing in the water, feeling the purity of the ripples in the blue waves. “Actually, I have a very impatient temper, and many problems will arise when I am impatient. So now I won’t let myself deal with many things in a short time. A slow pace is the most comfortable for me. "It is these quiet moments that allow Xu Ruyun to help herself slowly comb out her knotted hair, so that she can firmly catch her heart when she returns to the complex rhythm of work.

Beijing News reporter Zhang He

editor Tong Na

proofreader Chen Diyan