Introduction

Sandy truly returned in 2005, in fact, we have never been closer as if she is sitting right next to us. Watching her falling in love again, watching her performing on TV, listening to her voice through the airwaves in the most familiar language, everything kept us closer together than ever. Thank you to Sandy, thank you to all the fans, thank you those who is behind the scene working so hard to put things together – 2005 marked the 20th anniversary of Sandy in the music biz; and yet, it just marks the beginning of another 20 years.

Awards/Nominations

Malaysia (Won)
Outstanding Achievements Award
5th Global Chinese Music Awards

China (Nominated)
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Best Song Written For A Motion Picture Or Television
5th Pepsi Chart Music Awards

Year to Remember

January

Rumor that Sandy is going to get back to Snow Wolf Lake project once again, and her Mandarin album would release at the end of Jaunary, but of course it didn’t happen.

Interesting Post:
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新浪 2004 我最喜愛的女性產å“代言人

February

æœ‰æ·šç›¡æƒ…æµ was nominated as Best Song Written For A Motion Picture Or Television at 5th Pepsi Chart Music Awards. Also we finally found out that Sandy wasn’t going to perform again on Snow Wolf Lake. (Link) Later this month, someone reported Sandy went to London for pleasure with Chan Fai Hung. (Link)

March

More rumor comes in March, first we thought the 20th anniversary concert would be held in December (Link), but later on it changed to November (Link). There were more news on the Mandarin album (Link), but nothing seemed right. Not only Virgin was firing people, moreover, Sandy hadn’t renew the contract with them yet. (Link)

April

More news on the concert this month, first it came a scary news saying the concert couldn’t be held (Link), thank god it was only a rumor and finally we got the confirmation that it would be held in November. (Link) And of course, it’s Sandy’s birthday! Sandy spent her first birthday with Chan Fai Hung this year, along with some closer friends. (Link)

Interesting Post:
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EOL Asia TOP 10 下載歌
最深刻å°è±¡å»£å‘Š

May

More and more news came along this month, not only the new Mandarin album was finished (Link), Sandy’s 20th anniversary confirmed as well, yet to our surprise, Sandy was about to record an all new Cantonese album, and the producer would be Mark Lui! (Link) Also, Sandy would work with Paco once again, in which Gold Label would take care of the 20th anniversary concert along with the new Cantonese album. (Link) Mark Lui as the new producer really shocked many fans, and most of the reactions were rather negative. Anyway, while we were hoping the news was wrong, Sandy was on the cover of Marie Claire magazine, the June issue, and Marie Claire launched the 15th anniversary with this issue as well. (Link)

Interesting Post:
Marie Claire (Scans, Ad., and Video Clips)
Marie Claire (English Summary)
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June

About the new contract confirmed this month on the news, Sandy is going to release one Cantonese album and two Mandarin album through Gold Label and EMI. (Link) Singer under Gold Label were really excited about such news. (Link) There were also rumors saying the concert date changed to September and the Cantonese album should be done in August or September (Link); but later we confirmed that the new album should arrive in September (Link) and concert on November 9 – 12. (Link) At the same time, we heard from the news that Sandy was looking for a new home in Hong Kong, and for the first time in 9 years, we finally realized Sandy is really staying this time. (Link)

Interesting Post:
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July

As usual, every time Sandy comes back to Hong Kong, her old record companies would release new greatest hits. Sony BMG has done it again, but this time, they re-issued all the albums during the Sony/CBS years. (Link) So, there were more news on the album and concert, we found out that Sandy hadn’t gone into the recording studio yet! (Link) Also, the exact date of the concert confirmed – November 10 – 13. (Link)

August

More news came in this month saying Mark Lui has written 7 songs for the new Cantonese album, but Sandy was satisfy with only one song. (Link) Moreover, promotion kicked off since Sandy joined Gold Label, Sandy was scheduled to perform at Po Leung Kuk’s annual Gala Spectacular charity show in September. (Link) Also, advance booking began through Manhattan ID card, while the Cantonese album release date pushed back to October. (Link)

Sandy went to her brother’s Jyou Syou Japanese restaurant Grandng; Paco was also there and confirmed that is going to be a press conference later on. (Link) In addition, through the organizer, there was a Concert Naming Competition. The organizer was hoping to get everyone to participate. (Link) At the end of the month, Sandy was on the cover of the JET magazine. (Link)

Interesting Post:
我們的50經典唱片
黃å‰æ–‡ “å年鸔
第三批星工場復刻CD

September

On September 3, 2005 at 5th Global Chinese Music Awards, Sandy received the Outstanding Achievements Award. Sandy sang a 7 minutes Medley including Scar, Home Without You (02 concert version), Day & Night, and At Least I’ve You. (Link | Articles)

On September 9, Sandy attended Christian Dior F/W 2005 fashion show as a special guest. (Link)

On September 13, there was a really grand press conference organized by Gold Label held at Harbour Plaza Metropolis, at 7pm. It was outdoor and there were fireworks! Managements from CRHK, TVB, RTHK, Metro Radio, and many other media. Sandy has a two-year contract with Gold Label and she is going to release one Cantonese album, two Mandarin albums, HK concert, and a world tour afterwards. (Link) The music video for the first plug “True Color” was aired that night, rumor said Gold Label spent 7 digits on this video with 2 different sets and 50+ dancers. (Link) The music video was playing on the big screen at Time Square everyday for at least 20 times! (Link)

On September 16, Sandy attended at Metro Radio’s anniversary concert, and performed her first plug (Link) “True Color”. (Link | Photos) On the 17th, Sandy was the first to perform at the Po Leung Kuk’s annual Gala Spectacular charity show (Link | Photos), and it was reported that the show got the highest rating that night when Sandy was on! (Link)

Interesting Post:
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Concert Poster High-res

October

Sandy showed Ming Pao magazine her new home in her style in advance in able to beat the paparazzi. (Link) On the 18th, one additional show of the concert was announced. (Link) As for the first plug, it didn’t do too well on 903, it was on the chart for 3 weeks only. The highest it got was on Metro Radio at #3, however, it was much well received overseas, it was #1 on 澳門電å°è¯èªžæ­Œæ›²æŽ’行榜, 中國音樂先鋒榜, 988精彩è²å‹¢æŽ’行榜. (Chart Results) The 2nd plug, 為何他會離開你 Why Did He Leave You plugged on the 27th. At the end of the month, Sandy had an interview with Sandra Ng on Cable TV. (Link)

Interesting Post:
愛情滋潤 林憶蓮胖了?有了?
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憶蓮CD櫃檢閱
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倫永亮讚憶蓮è²è‰²è—俱全
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SIMPLE re-issue
SANDY Greatest Hits
Wildflower SACD

November

On Novemeber 1, Stardust re-issued SIMPLE, Sandy’s first Japanese album, and yet another greatest hits named SANDY, with 6 post cards and ten music videos. (Link) On the 6th, the early design of the Cantonese album cover went online on YesAsia.com (Link), the first design focus a bit more on the male model, while the final design focus on Sandy herself.

On the 10th, Sandy released her first full length studio Cantonese album in 9 years, named S/L本色. Base on the sales on HMV chart, the album debut at #2 on the best selling chart! (Link) According to unconfirmed source, S/L本色 should have sold more than 25,000 copies base on the amount of copies have been sent to the outlets, it could be one of the best selling album in 2005. This source is heard from some wholesale in Hong Kong. (Link) Sandy donated 5 signatured CDs for charity fund raising. (Link)

Concert tickets were doing fine at the box office, especially the 400 dollar tickets, it was running out fast. Sandy also donated 10 front row tickets for charity fund raising as well! (Link)

On November 10 through 13, Sandy held her 20th anniversary concert. Theng night was a full house, the rundown was mainly side tracks from her previous albums. The rundown was slightly different on those four nights, and there were even more additional songs on the final night. Soler was the only guest at the concert singing “Family Man” with Sandy, and late Anita Mui’s student, Chan Kan Ho, was the guest dancer at one of the medley. The concert received positive reviews.

On the 18, Sonly BMG released another greatest hits named SANDY BLOSSOM with new remix (Link), while WEA released greatest hits in XRCD format.

On the 21, Sandy was the guest of honor for the Christmas Lightsng at Time Square. (Link | Photos)

Special Report:
夜色無邊二åå¹´ | 20th Anniversary 1985-2005

December

Base on the airplay between November 30 to December 7, Sandy’s 2nd plug “Why Did He Leave You” went on to #1 on 903 music chart. (Link | Chart Results) The album stayed in the top 10 within the first six weeks on HMV chart. We got rumors that Sandy was working on the concert CD and DVD already, and the CD should release in early January.

Sandy went on to 903 and 881 for many different interviews with Mark Lui and Miriam Yeung. She was a guest DJ on 881 for a fund raising events too. (Link) On the 16, Sandy went to Miriam Yeung’s 10th anniversary show. (News | Video)

On the 21, Sandy performed at TVB JSG and performed “Wish 願”, “Mercy 心野夜”, and “Why Did He Leave You 為何他會離開你”. (Photo | Video) 50 fans were there to support Sandy, according to the news, Sandy got the biggest crowd there!

At the end of the month, Sandy was the cover of Bazaar magazine. (Link)

Gallery Highlights

夜色無邊林憶蓮演唱會 Hong Kong
Marymount Years

淅江嘉興 巨星演唱會
Jyou Syou Grandng
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Christian Dior Party
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TVB å‹æ­Œé‡‘曲

Magazine In Review

Sandy was in the news and magazines a lot this year, but only 5 covers while they were all major magazines in Hong Kong, including: Marie Claire #177 (June), Ming Pao #1922 (September 10), Amy #133 (September), Jet (September), and Bazaar #208 (January ‘06). For more news and magazine clips, you can click here to read them all.

Music In Review

To many of us, this is the year to remember, Sandy released her first Cantonese full length studio album in 9 years – S/L 本色. (Info + Reviews) As usual, there were tons of greatest hits of Sandy from her past labels, there were 3 major releases however, including: SANDY by 星工場 (Info), 盛放憶蓮 SANDY BLOSSOM by Sony BMG+è¯ç´ (Info), and SANDY LAM XRCD by WEA.

In addition, re-issues were selling like hot cakes last year, Sandy’s past labels wouldn’t miss the chance of course, there were 16 re-issues, and there were 3 different re-issues of Sandy’s classic Wildflower in different format: from Sony BMG - 林憶蓮, 放縱, 憶蓮, ç°è‰², Ready, and æ–°è£æ†¶è“®; from Star Factory – 野花 (復黑 Version), 野花 (SACD Version), 野花 (91 CD Version), 回來愛的身邊, ä¸å¦‚é‡æ–°é–‹å§‹, ä¸å¿…在乎我是誰, 天地野花1993情撼紅館, Sandy ‘94, 關於她的愛情故事, and SIMPLE.