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'I felt like I just started my career again': British Elvis revivalist finds his voice in China_我的网站

进击的巨人

A | 羊城学子爱广州我为全运添光彩每个孩子都是天马行空的艺术家他们的眼睛善于捕捉最美好的风景越秀公园和市儿童公园邀请各位小朋友一起画出心中的新年做出奇思妙想的花灯征集详情为迎接即将到来的全运会，展现广州学子的创意与热情，弘扬传统文化，增强未成年人对本土文化的认同感与自豪感，在新年到来之际，特举办“羊城学子爱广州，我为全运添光彩”花灯创意设计方案征集活动。通过此次活动，旨在激发孩子们的创新思维，促进传统文化的现代演绎，同时为全运会增添一抹亮丽的岭南文化色彩。组织架构主办单位：广州市越秀公园、广州市儿童公园活动时间作品征集时间：即日起至12月31日征集对象及分组 1.广州市全体儿童及青少年 2.组别： A组：学前组 B组：小学组 C组：中学组（含中职学校）活动主题 “羊城学子爱广州，我为全运添光彩”—— 以花灯为载体，融合广州历史文化、自然风光、现代城市风貌等元素，展现广州学子对广州的深厚情感和对全运会的热切期盼。

Elliot James Reay sings on stage at a Chinese live show. Photo: Courtesy of UMG
Elliot James Reay could have copied every other Western act and sung a Taylor Swift cover. Instead, he took 1950s rock'n'roll to a live TV show where autotune is switched off and discovered a version of fame that Britain has forgotten.
Elliot James Reay was traveling in the US, trying to finish a song, when his manager called. There was an invitation to join Singer 2026, a prime-time live music show in China. Reay didn't hesitate. He had traveled the world before he was a full-time musician, but had run out of money before reaching China. "I went everywhere but China," he said while sitting for an interview with the Global Times, sitting in the office of his label in Beijing, from which the Palace Museum can be seen not far away.
Reay is, in the West, a very 2020s kind of artist. He began posting short covers on short video platform TikTok in 2019; during the UK Covid lockdown, he chose to focus on growing his fan base. He now has millions of followers across platforms, and his debut single notched 10 million views before it was even released. In the British industry, this is both a leg-up and a trap. "You can have all the followers," he says, "but they don't guarantee people will buy tickets."
In China, that equation flipped.
Elliot James Reay sings on stage at a Chinese live show. Photo: Courtesy of UMG

Elliot James Reay sings on stage Photo: Courtesy of UMG
Nervous again
The Chinese show, Singer 2026 is broadcast completely live, with no pitch correction. For Reay, who had played enough small gigs to feel comfortable in his own skin, it was a shock. "I haven't felt nerves in a long time," he says. "But I've never been in a competition before. To have my singing judged against other people made me really nervous."
He watched Week One's performances from the wings and saw why. "The standard was terrifying," he says.
But the format, he admits, is something the UK no longer has: a televised singing contest that treats vocal ability as a public event, not a pre-packaged product. "It made me feel like I just started my career again."
Reay's lane is retro. Not as pastiche, but as lineage. He wears the silhouette of Elvis Presley, sings in the grain of 1950s pop, and writes songs that sound like they were cut from a Sun Records demo. He could have sanded it down for Chinese audiences, but he didn't.
"Someone has to start the wave before you can see it," he says. Among the songs he performed were "Unchained Melody" and his original track "I Think They Call This Love," which he co-wrote with his girlfriend. He points out that the Beatles still sit next to Taylor Swift on the radio, and that pop started in the 50s. "It's the foundations of pop," he says.
Learning to feel the words
In the final, Reay performed a bilingual version of the Chinese song "Hou Hui Wu Qi" (The End of the World). It was his first time singing in another language. He spent five days learning the Chinese lyrics, listening to the original on loop.
"There are sounds in Chinese we just don't have in English," he says. "I couldn't hear the difference at first. I'd say it, and Helen (his translator) would say, 'No.' I thought I was saying the same thing." Eventually, he stopped trying to hear it and started trying to feel it. "It became more about how it felt to say it. How I place my tongue in my mouth," he says.
He didn't understand the meaning until day three. "Helen gave me a card with the Chinese characters and the English translation. It's very poetic," he says. The performance received a strong reaction, with it being called an attempt at "cultural fusion."
He had saved his own original, "I Think They Call This Love," co-written with his girlfriend, for the same final. He had held the song back deliberately. "I knew that any week was my last week," he says, "but I knew that if I made it to the grand final that I had to do it then." He had no idea it would become the last song of the entire show.
When he finished, he walked straight off stage, took his girlfriend's hand, and the two of them left together, a moment that trended on Chinese social media that night.
The song is about the exact point they realized they were in love; it was also the first track of his career he fully believed in and pushed into the world. Having her there to watch it live, after weeks of her only seeing performances on a phone in a hotel room, "tied the whole thing in a bow at the end."
A touring musician, not a TikToker
Reay is open about the tension between his origin story and his ambition. "I don't want to be a TikTok celebrity," he says. "I'm a musician. I want to tour."
The platform gave him an audience, but it also boxed him in. He remembers friends who wrote incredible songs during lockdown, while he chose to build a fan base. Now, he says, some of those friends have had to stop writing and make TikTok videos instead.
China, he says, gave him permission to be both an online creator and a live performer. Universal Music, his label, didn't push him to chase trends. "They never said, 'Do this, do that,'" he says. "They supported what I wanted to sing, and then they made it the best version they could."
Before Reay, a string of international artists had already found warm receptions and career-shifting opportunities in China. Kazakhstani singer Dimash Kudaibergen, Malaysian star Shila Amzah, US country artist Mickey Guyton, British vocalist Jessie J, and French singer-songwriter Joyce Jonathan all won large Chinese audiences through high-profile television appearances and live performances, each using the platform to open a new chapter in their careers.
He's already planning a return. He wants to bring a tour. He wants to buy the traditional instruments he saw on set and take them home to England. "I'm going to learn how to play them," he says, "and maybe put them into my music."
The advice he'd give other Western artists looking East is to stay loyal to yourself. "Be yourself," he says. "It's very easy to want to change yourself to fit into a market, but at the end of the day, if you stay true to yourself, you'll be happy."
"In the UK, I felt like I needed to do other things to make other people happy," he says.
"If I hadn't stopped doing that, I wouldn't be sitting here. I wouldn't have done the show. My whole journey would be different," he says.
。作品要求一、创意绘画类：绘画作品名称+创意说明（不少于50字）+稿件（绘画格式不限，纸质手绘采取电子扫描形式，电子手绘需要提供矢量图，分辨率不低于600*600dpi）+作者个人介绍及联系方式。

B | 二、手工花灯类： 1.参评的花灯必须由学生亲手制作，或与家长共同收集材料制作完成的手工花灯，能充分体现出春节节日氛围，凡购买的花灯一律取消参评资格。 2.注重作品的整体美感及环保意义，花灯大小适中，色彩搭配协调，制作工艺精美，材质不限。 3.作品具有一定的寓意。作品能充分体现学生的想象力与创造力，紧扣“羊城学子爱广州，我为全运添光彩”主题，展示对美好生活的向往与新年传统文化的传承。投稿方式一、创意绘画类：将作者名字、年龄、学校、班级、联系方式、作品稿件及介绍，发送至广州市越秀公园官方邮箱： [email protected] 二、手工花灯类：将手工花灯作品（在作品边缘处或附卡片标注姓名、年龄、学校、班级、联系方式、作品简介）交至越秀公园东门门岗（小北花圈）。版权说明 1.参赛作品应为具有独立知识产权的原创作品。未在报刊、杂志、网站及其它媒体公开发表过。如有抄袭和其他侵权行为，一经发现，主办方将取消其参赛及获奖资格，有关法律责任由参赛者全部承担。 2.参赛过程中发生任何侵权行为均由参赛者自行负责，与大赛主办方无关。作品如有违背民族传统习俗、国家相关法律法规等情况，将采取一票否决制，不予入选。 3.参赛作品著作权归设计者所有，主办方对参赛作品享有在2025广州新春灯会活动举办期间的再创作权、使用权、展览权、发行权、信息网络传播权、汇编权等权利。作品评选主办单位将从征集作品中挑选出优秀作品，并在公众号上发布获奖名单。

C | 奖项设置创意绘画类与手工花灯类两组投稿分别评出：学前组：一等奖3名，二等奖5名，三等奖8名，优秀奖若干名；小学组：一等奖3名，二等奖5名，三等奖8名，优秀奖若干名；中学组：一等奖3名，二等奖5名，三等奖8名，优秀奖若干名；上述获奖人员分别颁发获奖证书及纪念品。作品展示创意绘画类优秀作品将有机会在广州市越秀公园、广州市儿童公园新媒体平台进行展示；手工花灯优秀作品将有机会在广州市越秀公园和广州市区儿童公园内进行展示。咨询电话：020-86661950 【END】。