Translating into success

"The songs deal with topics and emotions, which are universal. Though countries like Norway and Denmark are far from China geographically, we could reach out to each other through music," says Wang Lei, general manager of Tencent Musician, who is also a music critic.

"Compared to the last album we produced, Nordic Echo, we not only asked the Chinese singer-songwriters to perform purely based on translations but also let them re-create based on the original lyrics, to show their own understandings about the songs," Wang says. "When the COVID-19 pandemic goes away, we would love to have the musicians from both China and Norway give live performances together."

Wang adds that the Tencent Musician program has generated 590 million yuan ($76 million) in revenue for original music content creators since its inception. It aims at creating a comprehensive social community to connect and benefit users, record companies, and talented musicians.