F4 (band)

F4 is a Taiwanese boy band. The group began in the Taiwanese drama Meteor Garden as F4 with members Jerry Yan, Vanness Wu, Ken Chu, and Vic Chou. They have also attained popularity in other part of Asia, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and in the Philippines.

Musical career

F4 (2001–2002)

The Meteor Garden series is an adaptation of the Japanese shōjo manga series, ' (Hana Yori Dango). Yan plays the lead role of Dao Ming Si, an extremely arrogant and rich university student who meets his match in the poor but proud girl, Shan Cai - played by Barbie Hsu. Chou, Wu and Chu play his friends Hua Ze Lei, Mei Zuo, and Xi Men respectively. The four boys were the most popular and handsome boys at the university; they were recognised as the group named the "Flower Four", hence the title: F4.

Meteor Garden was released in Taiwan in 2001 and turned the leads into stars virtually overnight. In 2002 Meteor Garden was released in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and in the Philippines in 2003. It was also released in some place of Europe. The series was aired on Xing Kong channel, and later remade title Meteor Shower, which was a commercial flop. A sequel, Meteor Garden II, was shot in Spain later and released in 2002.

In 2001, F4 became a boy-group and signed a record deal with Sony Music Taiwan. Together they have released three albums, Meteor Rain, Fantasy 4ever, and "Waiting for You". In 2002, F4 sang the Mandarin cover of "Can't Help Falling in Love" included in the Asian version of Walt Disney's Lilo & Stitch soundtrack.^[1] The English version of this song is sung by A*Teens, which is a cover of the 1961 Elvis Presley hit of the same title. They also made the Mandarin cover of Yo Te Amo by Chayanne.

JVKV (April 29, 2007)

On April 29, 2007, Meteor Garden producer Angie Chai announced that the group would no longer be known as F4. The change in name stemmed from copyright-related issues. Japanese publisher Shueisha, who owns the copyright to Hana Yori Dango allowed the group to use F4 as its band name in 2001. However, as Japan had filmed and aired its own live action versions of the popular manga, with its own cast of four, the publisher felt that there may be confusion over the name in different countries.^[2][3] Due to this conflict, the group was renamed JVKV using the first initials of each of the group's members. According to the producer, the members are listed in the new name by the order of their birth dates from oldest to youngest, thus Vanness Wu's name appears before Vic Chou's.^[4]

Despite rumours of disbanding,^[5] JVKV released their third album, Waiting For You, on December 28, 2007.^[6] Their third album still bore the name F4, not JVKV.

2008

F4 were the first foreign artists to hold 7 consecutive concerts in Japan. Thousands flooded Narita Airport when the band's plane touched down. Jerry Yan even attracted two thousand fans at the airport during his solo fan meeting.

Solo projects

JVKV are also concentrating on their solo careers in acting and music.

Wu has focused more of his attention on movies and music. He released his 2nd album, titled V.Dubb (his nickname), in April 2007, five years after his first album, Body Will Sing, and has released his 3rd album titled In Between 2008 new song + collection album in June 2008. He's been in numerous music videos, such as "Ai Cuo" with Wang Leehom, the Chinese version of "Crazy in Love" with Beyoncé Knowles, and Coco Lee's "Hip Hop Tonight". His latest album C'est La V has also been released in July 2011. He has been acting in many shows as well. He was best known for acting in Autumn's Concerto (下一站，幸福）with Ady An, which received good comments. He has also been involved with several big-screen movies such as Star Runner, Kung Fu Fighter, Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, and Dragon Squad, among others. Many of his movies relate to his love of stunts and martial arts. Many of his albums feature him dancing to his songs, as he is a great dancer, and dancing is his favorite hobby. Other than just singing in Chinese and English, Van Ness also went on to sing Japanese songs and Korean songs. His Japanese albums include Reflections and Reason. He collaborated with Kangta from H.O.T and the album Scandal, was produced, by SM_Entertainment.

In August 2004, Yan came out with his first solo album titled, The First Time (第一次 Jerry for You). He's acted in Taiwanese drama series such as Spicy Teacher, Meteor Garden, its sequel Meteor Garden 2, Meteor Rain, Come To My place, Love Scar, The Hospital, and made a movie, Magic Kitchen 魔幻廚房 (2004). Hot Shot (2008) was broadcast in Taiwan, and Starlit aired in Taiwan in 2009; and Down With Love, with Ella Chen of S.H.E.

Chou has come out with 3 solo albums, Make a Wish (2002), Remember I Love You (2004), and I'm not F4 (2007), and has acted in at least one drama series every year since 2001, with the exception of 2003. Within the last year, he came out with two movies: Linger and Tea Fight.

Chu, known to love food and cooking, came out with his own cookbook, Delicious Relations (美味關係) in 2006, after starring in a string of idol dramas. He has also starred in at least one drama per year since 2001, except 2005, where he came out with his own solo album, On Ken's Time. He has released his 2nd solo album "2009 Getting Real new songs + collections album" in January 2009 (just before his birthday). He has filmed three movies to date. In a recent interview with F4, Chu has mentioned that he is growing increasingly more interested in music.

Three of the four appeared in Wish To See You Again, starring Vic Chou and Ken Chu, while Vanness had guest appearances in a few episodes. Due to scheduling conflicts, Jerry Yan did not appear; his part was played by Kingone Wang. Yan filmed a series in Taiwan alongside Wu Chun of Fahrenheit and Show Luo, called Hot Shot otherwise known as 篮球火 which was released in the Summer 2008. The series revolves around basketball and the boys' competition on court. This series was highly anticipated due to the star status of thethree male leads.

Discography

Awards

References

External links

• (Chinese) Official SonyMusic F4 360 site
• F4 in CNN's Talkasia
• Van Ness' Wikipedia page