Frances Yip Lai-yee (born 1947) is a Hong Kong English pop and C… Read Full Bio ↴葉麗儀
Frances Yip Lai-yee (born 1947) is a Hong Kong English pop and Cantopop singer. She is best known for performing many of the theme songs for television series produced by TVB in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Born in 1947, Yip is of Hakka ancestry, and is the youngest of 5 siblings. She grew up in a rural area in Hong Kong, and studied in St. Clare's Girls' School, an English Catholic school.
Her first singing job was in 1969 when she won a talent contest called Sharp's Night Four Lights Competition on Hong Kong television where she met the composer, Joseph Koo. Koo used Yip to sing commercial jingles while she was working as a secretary in HSBC, one was the jingles was a song about savings account for HSBC. Her first record, Bu Liao Qing (Love Without End) was recorded in the same year. She recorded predominantly English covers of Mandarin songs and Mandarin songs then.
In 1972, Yip and Joseph Koo went to Japan's World Singing gathering in Nippon Budokan. In 1973, Yip was working for Cathay Pacific as an Ambassador of Hong Kong under Hong Kong Tourism Board for a year, and her album, Discovery, was based on her experiences travelling. Discovery was sung in nine different languages to represent the 9 major destinations for Cathay Pacific then, and the album inspired a London talent agent to find her. She signed onto EMI records and lived in London for two years.[3]It was a worldwide contract, meaning she can have one English album released in 6 different languages in different areas of the world. Since then, she had renewed her two-year contract until now.
Yip hit international fame with her signature tune, The Bund from the TVB drama of the same title.[4] After she recorded The Bund, she returned to Hong Kong.
In her 45-year career, Yip has released more than 80 albums, mostly of songs in American English, Indonesian, Thai, Malay, Mexican Spanish, Japanese, Tagalog, Hong Kong Cantonese, and Taiwanese Mandarin. She has performed on television, and in films, concerts and cabarets in more than 30 countries on five continents. Her linguistic skills, with unique interpretations of lyrics in English, Cantonese and Mandarin, as well as several other Asian languages, have led to a fan base across a wide range of cultures and countries.
Yip has worked with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the Macau Chinese Orchestra, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, the Youth Orchestra from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Thammasat University Philharmonic Orchestra in Bangkok as well as large orchestras in Kuala Lumpur.
Yip achieved worldwide recognition when she was selected by the Hong Kong government to be a co-presenter at the British Farewell Ceremony to mark the transfer of sovereignty in Hong Kong. The event on June 30, 1997, was watched by a television audience estimated at 120 million, in more than 80 countries worldwide.
In 2012, Yip recorded her first Christian album, Grace and Glory Psalm 84.
Yip is fluent in Chinese (Hong Kong Cantonese and Taiwanese Mandarin) and English. She often spends time in Sydney where her son and grandchildren live.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996, but was considered free of cancer in 2002. To celebrate eight years of being cancer-free, in 2010, she held a charity concert in Kuala Lumpur to benefit cancer research and treatment.
Since 2013, she and her husband have lived in the rural suburbs of Sydney, Australia with their son and grandson. They have Australian citizenship, and also own rental properties in England. She occasionally returns to Hong Kong to perform and make TV appearances.
The Way We Were
Frances Yip Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
唱：葉麗儀
曲：Bergman Alan / Bergman Marilyn / Hamlisch Marvin
詞：Bergman Alan / Bergman Marilyn / Hamlisch Marvin
編：David Packer
Memories, light the corners of my mind
Scattered pictures, of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were
Can it be that it was all so simple then
Or has time rewritten every line
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, could we, would we?
Memories may be beautiful and yet
What's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget
So it's the laughter, we will remember
Whenever we remember, the way we were
(Can it be that it was all so simple then)
Simple then
(Or has time rewritten every line)
Every line
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, could we, would we?
Memories may be beautiful and yet
What's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget
So it's the laughter, we will remember
Whenever we remember, the way we were
The way we were
The way we were
(Thank you 多謝你)
Frances Yip's rendition of The Way We Were by Bergman Alan, Bergman Marilyn, and Hamlisch Marvin is a poignant reflection on love and memories. The lyrics describe how memories, no matter how distant or vague, have the power to light up the corners of our minds. The misty watercolored memories of "the way we were" are described as scattered pictures of smiles that were exchanged between two people who were in love. Yip's delivery of these lyrics is highly emotional, and her voice conveys a sense of longing and melancholy that underscore the wistful nostalgia that characterizes the song.
The second part of the lyrics explores the theme of the passing of time and how it can change the way we remember our past. The lines "Can it be that it was all so simple then / Or has time rewritten every line" suggest that the memories we have about the past might not be completely accurate, and that the passage of time may have distorted them. The lyrics go on to ask if we had the chance to do it all over again, would we do things differently? The song ends on a hopeful note, acknowledging that while memories can be painful, we can choose to focus on the happy times and the laughter that we shared.
Overall, The Way We Were is a bittersweet reflection on love and memories. The lyrics are highly poetic and the melody is hauntingly beautiful, making it an enduring classic.
Line by Line Meaning
Memories, light the corners of my mind
Memories linger in the corners of my mind, like a subtle but persistent light.
Misty water coloured memories of the way we were
The memories are vague and hazy, like watercolor paintings, of our past selves.
Scattered pictures, of the smiles we left behind
There are only fragments of pictures left, capturing the happy times we had together.
Smiles we gave to one another
We exchanged so many warm and genuine smiles with each other.
For the way we were
These smiles were given to express our love and fondness for each other in the past.
Can it be that it was all so simple then
Is it possible that things were really that uncomplicated and carefree back then?
Or has time rewritten every line
Or have our memories of what happened been altered and distorted by the passage of time?
If we had the chance to do it all again
If we could go back and relive those moments together once more,
Tell me, could we, would we?
Would we make the same choices and decisions, or would things turn out differently?
Memories may be beautiful and yet
Our reminiscences might be delightful and touching,
What's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget
But we deliberately suppress the recollections that are too heartbreaking to recall.
So it's the laughter, we will remember
Instead, we cherish the moments when we laughed and celebrated together.
Whenever we remember, the way we were
Whenever we evoke that bygone era, the memories of our good times together come flooding back.
Simple then
Things were much easier and straightforward back then.
Every line
Our memories of the past may have been rewritten or distorted.
The way we were
Looking back on our past selves brings up so many emotions, both happy and sad.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Tratore
Written by: Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, Marvin Hamlisch
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@user-st7jv5oz5g
葉小姐華語歌首推上海灘，英文歌首推此曲!
@jackiewong1689
Wonderful performance👍👍👍👏👏👏 likeeeeeee thanks for sharing...
@user-lu7hh4vh4m
น้ำเสียงดี มีพลัง
@alexng162
Not easy to sing Barbra Streinsand's popular hit! But Frances Yip delivers it pretty well. Thks 環星音樂 WSM Music HK for uploading.