Fahrenheit’s Biography

飛輪海

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Pinyin: Fēi Lún Hǎi
Managed By: Jerry Fen’s Comic Productions Co., Ltd. and WOW Music (Hong Kong)
Records Albums With: HIM International Music
First Album Released: September 15, 2006
Debut Song: “我有我的Young” (I Have My Youth)

Fahrenheit is a Taiwanese boy band consisting of four members: Jiro Wang, Aaron yang, Wu Chun, and Calvin Chen. They’re often associated with their seniors, S.H.E, who are supposed to be making a comeback this year (they were unable to do any group work because Selina Jen experienced some really bad burns 2 years ago).

So what is the meaning behind their name, Fahrenheit? Each member represents a season or temperature that corresponds with their different personalities – on the Fahrenheit scale. Jiro Wang is at 95 degrees, Calvin Chen is at 77 degrees, Wu Chun is at 59 degrees, and Aaron Yan is at 41 degrees – each separated by 18 degrees.

After graduating from Taiwan’s Fu-Shin community college in 2000, Jiro Wang started to work and did part-time jobs wherever he could. Even commercial modeling. The label that signed him, BMG, originally planned to form a boy band called 3J with Jiro, Jay Chou, and Jordan Chan. Because of 9/11, BMG’s stocks crashed and the plan for 3J was tossed. Jiro joined the army later, for 2 years, and came back around 2003. Since his popularity was still growing in Taiwan, he was given two guest starring roles in the dramas The Pawnshop No.8 and I Love My Wife. Then he was approached by Comic Productions and was given the supporting role as Ah Jin in It Started With A Kiss. This was where he was grouped alongside Aaron and Calvin.

Fahrenheit first gained minor recognition around late 2005 when their first drama series that they were altogether in, KO One, was broadcasted on television in Taiwan. They felt that having only three members in a boy band was awkward, and Wu Chun joined the group later on in late 2005. On December 28, 2005, Fahrenheit became a vocal quartet boy band – officially.

Before their first album was even released they were gaining minor attention as singers from their contributions to several Taiwanese drama soundtracks. Their popularity rose after these soundtracks were released – but it was limited to Taiwan and Mainland China. Their fan base extended out to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia after the first album. It’s even extended out to some North American and European fans.

On August 30, 2006, as soon as announcements were made to pre-order their debut album it broke past 10,000 copies. Once the album was released on September 15, 2006, the album entered the G-music charts and was ranked at #2 – less than 1% below Jay Chou’s Still Fantasy album which had came out two weeks prior to Fahrenheit’s album. Within the first month of it’s release it had sold more than 80,000 copies in Taiwan! On the G-music Mandarin Charts their album ranked 11th for the top 20 of 2006 and stayed in the charts for 17 weeks. Their debut and primary song (also called a zhuda song (Chinese: 主打; pinyin: zhǔ dǎ)], “I Have My Youth” (我有我的Young) was on Hong Kong’s Global Rhythm List as the Top 16th song for weeks. “I Only Have Feelings For You” (只對你有感覺), their duet with S.H.E member Hebe, also won them several popular awards. Fahrenheit also was the first first new foreign boy band to have won third place for Best Group at Hong Kong’s TVB8 Awards. They have surpassed Hong Kong’s local boy bands such as Sun Boy’z and Soler (while being unable to defeat their seniors S.H.E and Twins). In less than a year Fahrenheit was able to win eight awards. Although there have been debates where fans have disagreed with the awards that Fahrenheit had won. The most debated topic was when Fahrenheit won HITO Music Awards 2007’s Best Male Group award – they argued that Fahrenheit was too inexperienced to have won that award.

By starring in popular dramas, Fahrenheit’s popularity grew fast and are known as one of the top boy bands in Taiwan. Within a year they had already debuted in over 30 different magazine covers all throughout Asia. After their predecessors, F4, they are the second Taiwanese boy band to hold a concert in Indonesia with only one album released.

After their rise to stardom, HIM had Fahrenheit doing promotions in two of S.H.E’s major concerts in Taipei, Singapore and Malaysia, where they not only performed their duet with Hebe but they also performed their own songs. In the winter of 2008 they debuted in the Hong Kong Coliseum as part of their All-Asia Concert. Parts of the concerts stops included Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. They had several more concerts in China with S.H.E for their Mengniu Promotion concert.

Fahrenheit’s songs mainly fall in the pop and pop ballad categories. Although some songs fall into the light R&B approach [such as “Love’s Arrived” (愛到) and “Teachable Child” (孺子可教)]. Other songs lean more towards the pop rock and rap genre [such as “The Secret of Immortality” (不死之謎) and “Superb” (出神入化)].

Their much anticipated second album, Two-Sided Fahrenheit, was released on January 4, 2008. This album showed more harmonizing techniques and they progressed into more mature ballads (such as “Ten Thousand Joys” (一萬個快樂). But they still showed off their youthful energy in songs such as the opening song for the drama Romantic Princess – “New Home” (新窩), which is also a duet with Fahrenheit and S.H.E. They also sang the Disney theme song for 2008, “Little VIP” (小小大人物).

They were often criticized for their lack of character in their music, and by their third album, Love You More & More (越來越愛) they moved towards carving a more distinct musical style. It features a new maturity that is brought out by rock ballads like the main track, “Lonesome Sprint” (‪寂寞暴走‬) and “Stay With Me” (留下來). “Stay With Me” was written by Monster, the lead guitarist of popular Taiwanese band, Mayday. The album also features “Artery (動脈) which was the theme song of The Clue Collector (霹靂MIT), “Shining Star” (恒星) [theme song of Rolling Love (翻滾吧！蛋炒飯)], and the ending song of the drama Superstar Express (ToGetHer) [愛就宅一起] starring Jiro and Rainie Yang, “The Love of Silence” (默默).

On June 13, 2011, Aaron Yan revealed that Wu Chun would be leaving the group. Aaron had been attending a promotional event in Hong Kong for the movie Transformers: Dark Side Of The Moon and during this event he revealed (indirectly) that Wu Chun would be leaving Fahrenheit.

One of the reasons for Wu Chun leaving was so he could concentrate on his movie career. His career had been taking off after having hit roles in movies such as My Kingdom. Promotions with the group took up a lot of his time, and he wanted to spend that time on acting. Another reason for him quitting the group was so he could spend more time with his family.

“A 4 member Fahrenheit may feel more complete, but a 3 member group will still have their own strength.” – Aaron

Later on, HIM Records released a statement saying “Fahrenheit member, Wu Chun, is no longer interested in singing and has shift his current focus to acting. HIM respects his decision. The remaining three members: Aaron Yan, Jiro Wang, and Calvin Chen will continue on as Fahrenheit”

HIM tried negotiating with him and promising him that there will be future developments and advancements for Fahrenheit and tried to convince him to stay in Fahrenheit but Wu Chun made up his mind to leave and HIM Records respected his decision and wished him the best.

A week after HIM Records confirmed Wu Chun’s leave an insider revealed that during Wu Chun’s negotiation with HIM Records he had asked to get half of the group’s earnings – the other half would be split between the other three members. Fans of the remaining trio quarreled with each other online and flooded the Fahrenheit discussion forum at HIM Record’s site. To make things worse, Chinatimes pointed out how Aaron had unfollowed Calvin’s micro-blog right after HIM Records announced Wu Chun’s leave. But yet Jiro and Aaron never followed each other on their micro-blogs and Jiro had only been following Calvin’s. After being asked why Jiro responded through his management company: “They always get to see each other, so they don’t use their micro-blogs to chat. As to why he only follows Calvin is probably because they had something to discuss at the time.”

A few days after this report Fahrenheit has been performing in Mainland China when a fan hit Aaron in the head with a lighter and expressed that Aaron should “get lost from Fahrenheit.” In response to this HIM Records said “There was indeed a fan throwing things, but it’s most likely due to their frustration of changes happening with the group. We believe it wasn’t intentional.” There was a rumor that Aaron had wanted to hit the fan during the incident but Him Records denied this by saying Aaron loved his fans and wouldn’t hit them.

While HIM Records explained that they had plans for the group as well as solo projects, they wouldn’t give a definite answer to the rumors about Wu Chun asking for half the group’s earnings. Wu Chun, who was filming in Hong Kong at the time, had said he didn’t ask for any criteria in renewing the contract and only HIM Records made the offers. He chose to not renew the contract in the end and he had felt unfortunate that they wouldn’t be working together anymore.

“We should respect everyone’s decision. With age, you begin thinking about your future and plan your life accordingly. The only position I’m in is to bless each member’s decisions in life.” -Aaron

In more recent news, Calvin is to star alongside Victoria Song [the Chinese member of Kpop group f(x)] and Zhou Mi [Super Junior M] in the Taiwanese drama The Prince Who Lost His Castle [失去城堡的王子] which will air in August 9, 2012. Jiro Wang is starring in the currently airing drama Absolute Boyfriend [絕對達令] alongside Korean actress Koo Hye Sun. The theme song “Mr. Perfect” is sung by Fahrenheit and the ending song is sung by Jiro himself, called “Pretend We Never Loved” [假裝我們沒愛過].

Official Website: www.fahrenciti.com The website closed December 31, 2010.

HIM Website: http://www.him.com.tw/

Fahrenheit was one of the very first Mandarin groups I started listening to – actually one of the very first Asian groups in general. I think they might’ve even been the first Asian boy group that I started listening to about 5 years ago. I discovered them through Hana Kimi (Taiwan) along with S.H.E and have loved them ever since. It makes me sad that Wu Chun left the group, although I hear that they still consider him part of the group. I’m glad that Fahrenheit has stuck together and even with it being only the 3 of them now they’re still making music and still doing well! Currently watching Absolute Boyfriend right now for Jiro and can’t wait to see Calvin’s drama (: –crazy4you

Also Check Out:

Jiro Wang’s Gallery

Sources:

http://www.last.fm/music/Fahrenheit/+wiki

http://www.jpopasia.com/news/wu-chun-to-leave-fahrenheit::7338.html

http://www.jpopasia.com/news/him-records-confirms-wu-chuns-departure-from-fahrenheit::7545.html

http://www.cpopaccess.com/2011/06/wu-chun-asks-for-half-of-groups.html