BLAST FROM THE PAST: 1985 JSG Awards – Opening Music Segment

In a few of my recent posts, I had mentioned the general sentiment that the quality of TVB’s series has declined drastically over the years and there are very few series worth watching anymore.   Well, the same sentiment applies to TVB’s variety programs as well.  Ok, actually, on second thought, the situation with TVB’s variety programs is actually worse than what’s been happening with their series.   At least with their TV series, I can still find a handful of series that are either ‘worth watching’ or I’m willing to sit through (however begrudgingly) in order to support certain artists I may like (though technically, nowadays I just watch certain episodes or scenes and skip the rest of the series)….with their variety shows however, I’ve pretty much lost all motivation to watch.

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, TVB’s variety shows used to be ‘must-watch’ events for me back then.  From JSG to Miss HK to the annual charity shows and of course the anniversary galas, all were grand events where the ‘big’ stars (as well as the ‘not-so-big’ stars) would usually all be in attendance.  Every minute of each show was truly worth watching and it was so easy to be drawn in to the point that I would pretty much do nothing except stare at the TV screen for an hour or two.  Even their specialty programs, game shows, documentaries, etc. were excellent and worthy of watching regardless of whether well-known / popular celebrities were involved or not.  Anyone here remember TVB’s flagship variety program E.Y.T. (Enjoy Yourself Tonight)?  That program served as a ‘launching pad’ for many of HK’s biggest stars, as it gave artists – especially newbies – a platform to showcase their talent (whether in acting or singing) and hone their skills (I personally feel it was especially beneficial for actors/actresses, as they got to ‘practice’ their acting skills by participating in various skits in front of live audiences every night).  E.Y.T. was one of my favorite variety programs back then, so you can probably imagine how sad I was when it ended back in the mid-90s (note:  I’m referring here strictly to the ‘original’ E.Y.T. program that lasted from 1967 to 1994, NOT the ‘failed’ revival attempts of the program that TVB did in the late 90s and once again in the mid-2000s era). 

It’s a shame that TVB is no longer capable of making good variety programs anymore.  Yes, part of it is the lack of talent, but a lot of it also has to do with TVB’s own antiquated policies and ‘modus operandi’, especially where music-related programs are concerned.  This is why TVB has not been able to draw any star power into its music programs for at least 10 years now.  Of course, I don’t blame the big name stars, as I wouldn’t cave in to TVB’s restrictive policies either if I were them – I mean, why limit yourself to only appearing on TVB and be forced to speak only Mandarin in all non-TVB interviews when there are so many media platforms/options to choose from nowadays, especially as it pertains to music?

Anyway, the reason for my post is actually to share the below video (my ‘intro’ above was intended to set-up for this video clip, but I ended up ‘venting’ again about TVB – sorry, couldn’t help myself..LOL).  This video clip is an excerpt from TVB’s 1985 JSG Music Awards.  For those who might not be familiar with how the awards ceremony worked back then (can’t speak to whether it’s the same thing now since I stopped watching JSG more than 10 years ago), the ceremony always started with a huge musical number where all the artists with nominated songs would sing snippets of their songs – think of it as a huge 15 minute remix segment.  Well, the below clip is that ’15 minute remix’ – the intro segment to 1985’s JSG where all the nominated artists who attended sang a few lines of their songs as a refresher for audiences (even those who didn’t attend got to ‘sing’).

In watching this clip, I was of course super-excited -- it has been a long time since I watched the 80s era JSG awards (that’s the next ‘binge re-watching marathon’ that I intend on doing after I finish re-watching all these old 80s/90s era TVB series that I’m doing currently), so getting to re-live that moment was absolutely awesome!  And of course, since I’m familiar with all the songs that were nominated (ah, 80s Cantopop – boy do I miss it!!!), I couldn’t help singing along for the entire 15 minutes (gosh, can’t even remember anymore when I felt the urge to sing along to a TVB music program!).  With that said though, I must admit that part of me was a little bit sad at the same time – one reason of course is because I miss those stars who left us already (Anita, Leslie, Danny), but the other reason is because of the dismal state of the HK music industry nowadays (and the dismal state of the entire HK entertainment industry as a whole).  It definitely makes these ‘nostalgic’ moments worth treasuring, no matter how fleeting they may be….

So, for the next 15 minutes, sit back and enjoy this ‘blast from the past’ (or if you’re an ‘old-timer’ like me, you might feel the urge to stand up and actually sing/jam along to each song and have your own personal karaoke session for 15 minutes…LOL).  For convenience’s sake, I also posted the song list underneath the video clip (wow – they actually sang 40 songs in the clip….it went by so quickly, I didn’t even realize they were actually able to cram all 40 nominated songs into the opening segment!).  And yes, in case you were wondering, I DID go back afterwards and pull all 40 songs from my music collection so I could re-listen to the full versions, since only listening to a few seconds worth in the video wasn’t enough in my opinion.

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**Video credit to cyberwarrior**

Song list:

1) 十分十二吋 - 林子祥

2) 愛情陷阱 - 譚詠麟

3) 此刻你在何處 - 譚詠麟

4) 蔓珠莎華 - 梅艷芳

5) Smile Again 瑪利亞 - 張學友

6) 愛情組曲 - 張學友、鍾鎮濤、蔡國權

7) 誰可相依 - 蘇芮

8) 不羈的風 - 張國榮

9) 少女心事 - 張國榮

10) 情已逝 - 張學友

11) 200度 - 葉蒨文

12) 等 - 陳百強

13) 空凳 - 夏韶聲

14) 雪山飛狐 - 關菊英、呂方

15) 愛不是遊戲 - 蔡楓華

16) 邁向新的一天 - 梅艷芳、李中浩

17) 為你而歌 - 甄妮

18) 日本娃娃 - 許冠傑
19) 壞女孩 - 梅艷芳

20) 雨夜的浪漫 - 譚詠麟

21) 玩的格言 - 譚詠麟、彭健新

22) 長夜 My Love Goodnight - 葉蒨雯

23) 夢幻的擁抱 - 梅艷芳

24) 淚之旅 - 鍾鎮濤

25) 再坐一會 - 鄺美雲

26) 第一次 - 張國榮

27) 全賴有你 - 張國榮

28) 深爱着你 - 陳百強

29) 花店 - 陳慧嫻

30) 你令我快樂過 - 呂方

31) 聽不到的說話 - 呂方

32) 順流逆流 - 徐小鳳

33) 辛運星 - 譚詠麟

34) 情是永願着迷 - 譚詠麟

35) 輕撫你的臉 - 張學友

36) 我願意 - 張國榮

37) 每一個晚上 - 林子祥

38) 從未如此深愛過 - 呂方

39) 暴風女神 Lorelei - 譚詠麟

40) 最緊要好玩 - 許冠傑