Samuel Hui
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Samuel Koon-kit Hui (許冠傑, pinyin: Xǔ Guànjié) (born September 4, 1948) was a star in Cantopop and movie industry in Hong Kong's 1960s to 1990s. He and his brothers Michael and Ricky made several comedy blockbusters in the 1970s. Many credited Sam for popularizing Cantonese music into Cantopop that we know today.
He started his career as a host to a youth music TV show on TVB. At the time, he was the lead musician of his band named The Lotus. In the early years of his career, he sang Western songs from Britain and the US. He started on Cantonese songs when he wrote and sang the theme songs for the comedy movies produced by his brother Michael Hui.
His music appealed to the Hong Kong masses and working class people with its simple lyrics and easy-on-the-ears nature which was the rage in Hong Kong music in the late 1970s. His style was undoubtedly unique as he penned most of the compositions and personally wrote most of the humorous lyrics that generally encompassed current issues in Hong Kong such as the song 话知你97 (Could Not Care Less About 1997) which literally encourages the Hong Kong public to throw caution to the wind and enjoy their life instead of worrying about the imminent takeover from China in 1997.
Sam also collaborated with several popular singers like Leslie Cheung both musically and on the silver screen culminating in the hit single co-written by both Sam and Leslie Cheung titled 沉默是金 Silence is Golden which Leslie Cheung also sung in solo form and is a track in his album Hot Summer.
Sam also starred in the Aces Go Places series of Hong Kong action–comedies in the 1980s, with Karl Maka.
He also had a farewell concert in 1993 where he invited other music celebrities and officially declared that he would not be active in the movie industry nor in Cantopop in the future.
He was once seriously injured during a filming an action movie in Tibet due to lack of oxygen.
Sam came back for a short stint in the movie Winner Takes All co-starring Nicholas Tse and Ruby Lin.
Apparently, the life as a retiree from the entertainment industry in Hong Kong proved to be too uncomfortable for someone who was widely acknowledged as the "God of Song" in Hong Kong. He decided to come out of his retirement recently in 2004 and held many concerts where he was still warmly received from musically fickle Hong Kong public where every concert had a sold-out turnout. In these concerts, he cited the recent deaths of close colleagues, Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui in 2003 influenced his decision to retract his earlier retirement affirmation.
He recently performed a concert in Kuala Lumpur on the February 19 and February 202005 with his sons and his brother Ricky Hui.