Judge: Sun ho’s music success was ‘inflated’

Patriot · Oct 25, 2015

NOT SUCCESSFUL: Ms Ho Yeow Sun, seen here outside court yesterday, posted later on Facebook that she was disappointed by the verdict.
TNP PHOTO:  GAVIN FOO

[h=1]JUDGE: SUN HO’S MUSIC SUCCESS WAS ‘INFLATED’[/h]

BASED ON PERFORMANCE OF SUN HO'S PREVIOUS ALBUMS,  JUDGE SEE KEE OON DESCRIBES HER PERCEIVED SUCCESS AS 'INFLATED'

3167

Oct 22, 2015 6:00am

[h=4]BY ZAIHAN MOHAMED YUSOF[/h]

The sales projection of Ms Ho Yeow Sun's planned US Crossover album of more that 200,000 copies was unrealistic and "no more than an optimistic hope".

Judge See Kee Oon said this yesterday in convicting six City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders of criminal breach of trust or falsifying accounts involving $50 million.

He said: "I am unable to see how there can be any genuine or honest grounds for their claims that they expected far higher sales for her planned US album well in excess of the projection of 200,000 units."

Ms Ho, 43, who uses the stage name Sun Ho, is married to CHC founder Kong Hee, one of the six convicted. The church had planned to use her secular music to evangelise in what was called the Crossover Project.

The trial revealed that $24 million in church funds was misused to finance her music career and a further $26.6 million was used to conceal the earlier sum.

This was facilitated through music production firm Xtron Productions and glass manufacturer Firna.

Other details emerged on how the church leaders had projected selling 1.5 million copies of Ms Ho's English album and earning $10.5 million from it.

But that appeared impossible given the losses of her previous albums, said the judge.

He cited former finance manager Serina Wee as readily conceding that Ms Ho's Asian Crossover albums had lost money, leading to Xtron incurring substantial accumulated net losses.

In 2002, Ms Ho released her first Mandopop album, Sun With Love, and went on to release more Mandarin albums till 2007. Two of her Mandarin albums made losses of almost $1 million.

"I am unconvinced that they could have had a genuine belief in Sun Ho's prospects of success for the US Crossover given their consciousness that much of her earlier success was contrived and contributed to by CHC itself," said Judge See.

Between 2003 and 2010, Ms Ho was largely based in the US to pursue her music career. There, she released several singles in English, five of which made it to the Top 10 of Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs.

But the judge said her perceived success was "inflated".

Xtron and the Crossover team had relied heavily on sponsorship from CHC members or supporters to boost Ms Ho's Mandarin album sales and promote her career.

TEMPORARY

"The mindset was thus that Xtron bond issues were only yet another temporary plan, albeit one which involved borrowing from CHC's building fund and hoping that the funds would somehow find their way back to CHC at some unspecified future point," said Judge See.

The US album was never released.

Yesterday, Ms Ho wrote on the church's Facebook page that while disappointed with the verdict, she and her husband were humbled by the tremendous outpouring of love and support shown to them.

"Thank you for your unwavering faithfulness in loving God and loving one another... We are not alone as many of our friends and churches around the world are also interceding fervently for us," she wrote.

I am unconvinced that they could have had a genuine belief in Sun Ho's prospects of success for the US Crossover given their consciousness that much of her earlier success was contrived and contributed to by CHC itself.

- Judge See Kee Oon

- See more at: http://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore-news/judge-sun-hos-music-success-was-inflated#sthash.si3Twc1l.dpuf

Patriot · Oct 25, 2015

Pastor-turned singer Ho Yeow Sun, also known as Sun Ho, performing at a concert on June 1, 2006.
TNP FILE PHOTO

SUN WHO? WHY SUN HO FAILED TO CRACK US MARKET

WIFE OF CITY HARVEST CHURCH FOUNDER COULD NOT REPLICATE HER ASIAN POP SUCCESS IN THE US

Oct 25, 2015 6:00am

BY NG JUN SEN

Ho Yeow Sun wanted to be a pop star but also someone who could use her celebrity status to promote the church she co-founded with her husband, Kong Hee.

But did she have a real shot at making it big?

By 2002, she had already scored a number of hits in the Mandopop scene and had a following in Taiwan.

While her fortunes were good in Asia, her attempt to make it in the US was followed by a police complaint here alleging misuse of church funds and a trial that led to six church leaders being found guilty of fraud.

And among the six was her husband, who helped engineer and support her singing career.

The music business can be a cut-throat industry and Sun Ho's (her pop moniker) team may have been naive in their westward push.

For one thing, the timing was off, says US music career consultant Robert A. Case.

He says: "I've never even heard of any of her music. If I had $24 million back then, I wouldn't even put the money in the music business."

He tells The New Paper on Sunday that Ms Ho entered the market at a bad time as the US music industry was in a downwards spiral. She had moved to the US in 2003 to carve out her singing career.

But in 2003, the emergence of online music services such as the iTunes Store was killing off the retail music industry there, says Mr Case.

Many upcoming independent artists failed to see that and simply kept on spending.

For her, the seven years in the US were the glamorous years. She received personal dance lessons from top choreographers and worked with top artists, directors and producers for her music videos.

She was even invited to an awards show.

PAYING TO GET A BREAK

But where she had success in the East, her team had to pay for her to work with personalities just to get a break in the US.

A total of $24 million in church funds was spent on Ms Ho's singing career.

E-mails revealed in court showed that US$1.5 million (S$1.9 million) went to rapper Wyclef Jean. Another US$1.5 million was for rapper Missy Elliott to get her to appear in Ms Ho's music videos, in the "worst-case scenario".

The money spent also got her the chance to work with veteran record producer and 16-time Grammy Award winner David Foster, who helped produce her debut English single, Where Did Love Go.

The song reached the top spot of Billboard's dance breakout chart.

But Mr Case, who has managed several artists who made it to the Grammy Entry List, in categories such as Best New Artist and Album of the Year, said making the charts is also "useless" if she was unable to capitalise on the momentum.

"So she charted on the Billboard. That's cool. But if she didn't have the team or the experience to go out and follow up on this success, then it doesn't matter," says the consultant, who has been in the business for 28 years.

The chart is also not representative of success, says London-based freelance actor Alex Liang.

The Billboard dance chart is compiled from reports from a nationwide panel of club DJs, detailing the tracks that elicit the most audience response, according to the Billboard website.

Says Mr Liang: "It really reflects the opinions of a relatively small handful of DJs in the US who are willing to play these songs, so while it is nice to be popular among this small group of influential DJs, it doesn't necessarily translate into commercial success."

Mr Liang wrote a scathing review of Ms Ho's US endeavours from his perspective as a freelance entertainer on his popular blog, Limpeh Is Foreign Talent.

The UK citizen has worked on music videos alongside Madonna, Duffy and Mylo. 

'Right song, production & image more important'

Sun Ho had signed on with David Foster's record company, Tonos Entertainment, in 2003.

He said of the singer: "I am happy to report that I have given up being financially driven many years ago... When you do things for money, it will never work out. Ever."

But cracks emerged soon after.

By Sept 2003, Tonos was out of business and Ms Ho had moved on to work with Wyclef and Mr Justin Herz of JH Music.

Mr Gingio Muehlbauer, founder of several international artist management firms, believes it is unnecessary for newcomers to collaborate with established stars.

"The right song, production and image is way more important.

"Take (Korean singer) Psy for example, he used a dance move, a beat and a fun video to get there," says Mr Muehlbauer.

While Ms Ho did assemble established production teams which included Mr Foster and Wyclef, they took a big chunk of the budget, says Mr Muehlbauer.

Speaking in general, he says that it is common for Asian artists with large budgets to spend millions without any guarantee of success.

"It's all about people. I think it is very clear that Sun Ho got connected to the wrong people instead of starting with a humble beginning, with very talented and humble people."

Collaborating with high-profile artists can still be a good thing for newcomers as it would bring them exposure and establish their credibility, says Mr Case.

But there is a caveat. The music still has to be good.

"You can be working with the greatest producer in the world but a piece of crap will still be crap," he says.

Mis Ho's singing career ended in 2010 after the police began probing into misuse of funds at CHC.

Her swansong was an English single, Fancy Free, in 2009. It was meant for an album that never materialised.
June 26, 2012, changed everything.

Her husband, Kong Hee, and five other senior CHC members were arrested that day.

All six were found guilty of misusing $24 million to fund her singing career and another $26 million to cover it up.

She found out during her husband's trial that her earlier success may have been overstated too.

UNSOLD ALBUMS

Her apparent success in the Mandarin-speaking market also turned out to be unfounded as church members had to fork out $500,000 to buy 32,500 of her unsold albums.

Two of her Mandarin albums made losses of almost $1 million, the court heard.

In his 270-page written judgment, Judge See Kee Oon criticised Kong Hee saying he had exaggerated the success of his wife's music career.

The trial ended her pop career. But to followers at her church, she remains a star.

On Oct 19, Kong posted on Facebook that Ms Ho had been ordained as a pastor. She was back to where she started all those years ago.

Ms Ho declined to be interviewed when asked.

- NG JUN SEN

She wouldn't succeed in the US

Her provocative music video, China Wine, caused a stir in 2007. It showed a scantily clad Sun Ho gyrating to the music.

Mr Gingio Muehlbauer, who also has a management firm in Los Angeles where Ms Ho was once based, saw the video for the first time last week. He found it wanting.

"Sun aka Geisha, what a confusing name. She is a new artist and already she has two names," he says.

"The message is not clear. The title of the single is also poor."

There were other warning signs that Ms Ho would not be successful in the US, adds Mr Robert A. Case.

He explains: "(Foreign) artists have to be established in their regions first."

Alex Liang agrees, pointing out that even K-pop bands such as 2NE1 and Wonder Girls had limited success in the US.

He says: "The Wonder Girls had so much support from the Korean-American community and still failed. So what made Sun Ho think she could succeed where others have failed?"

- NG JUN SEN

- See more at: http://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore-news/sun-who-why-sun-ho-failed-crack-us-market#sthash.beLB9f7a.dpuf

bigboss · Oct 25, 2015

Just a case of ownself help ownself when her CD sales plummeted by asking church followers to snap up her CDs.

This is similar to the euphemism that Woody used which is ownself check ownself. You can never go wrong if you follow Woody's worldly advice.

bigboss · Oct 25, 2015

...In his 270-page written judgment, Judge See Kee Oon criticised Kong Hee saying he had exaggerated the success of his wife's music career...

How could he get so much money from the goons if he had not exaggerated? More exaggeration, more money for him to throw.

bigboss · Oct 25, 2015

He says: "The Wonder Girls had so much support from the Korean-American community and still failed. So what made Sun Ho think she could succeed where others have failed?"

The difference is that she thinks she has free unlimited money given by followers to throw away to make her succeed and her followers think she can succeed as she is able to throw.

Jah_rastafar_I · Oct 25, 2015

she was dumb to get wycleff to collaborate with her. Pure dancehall hits rarely make it big in the US market. The most successful dancehall acts are still sean paul and shaggy.

NanoSpeed · Oct 25, 2015

All these angmohs are horse back cannon lah. They are just jealous that the millions didn't end up in their pockets but the niggers'.

tanwahtiu · Oct 25, 2015

dump the fucking British Empire English law. Firstly, they were already criminals, and racist, trading in opium with Far East North Asia China and SEA Singapore and Borneo. When you started with criminal background their legal and laws should be dumped.

What this site wrote make sense. http://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1545026/chinas-unprecedented-quest-peaceful-rise

As the totally illicit opium trade caused economic and social ravages, the Chinese pleaded with Britain to be a "responsible stakeholder". In an impassioned letter addressed to Queen Victoria just prior to the outbreak of hostilities, commissioner Lin Zexu appealed to Her Majesty's better moral self to intervene so that the heinous trade be brought to an end. Commissioner Lin pointed to the flagrant double standards (a recurrent theme among risen Western great powers) in noting: "I have heard that the smoking of opium is very strictly forbidden by your country; that is because the harm caused by opium is clearly understood. Since it is not permitted to do harm to your own country, then even less should you let it be passed on to the harm of other countries - how much less to China!"

This is Chinese thinking, 5000 years of civilization cannot go wrong!

http://blog.chinadaily.com.cn/blog-787069-29313.html

The 'thinking ways' of two ancient societies formed the basis by which westerners and East Asians find themselves today. First, there was the thought processes established by ancient Greece. Likewise, there were the thought processes developed by ancient China.

The Greeks followed the law of the excluded middle while the ancient Chinese followed the Confucian doctrine of the mean. He points out that the Greeks resided in mountainous regions that depended on providing a livelihood based upon hunting, fishing, trade and herding. The Greeks were more independent than the ancient Chinese who, due to the terrain of the geography of much of China, depended more on cooperative and collective efforts of sustaining a livelihood. Settled agriculture came to ancient Greece about 2,000 years later than China, and was, by this time and in their paradigm of thinking, more of a commercial endeavor than a collective, cooperative one. The Chinese learned to live by 'guanxi', or relationships while the Greek was independent and was self-reliant.

Ancient Chinese believed that the established of 'truth' in any argument, was found somewhere in the middle and arrived at only through compromise. They saw each party in a dispute as possessing some truth and some falsehood. The Greek mindset (also espoused in the writings of the famous, ancient philosopher Aristotle) was that in a dispute, one party must be 'right' and the other one 'wrong'. There was little room for compromise and fair judgment should be absolute in its findings.

To me, this is an eye-opener to many questions I've contemplated during my nearly 4 years in China. Questions such as, 'why is there so much ambiguity in so many matters?', 'how can people not see when things are obviously and indisputably unjust?' and 'why is the rule of relationship adhered to more than the rule of law?' The answer is simple. The ancient Chinese sought harmony with neighbors and others that he depended upon to maintain his life. He had to get along. Even in my city of Zhengzhou, the theme of the city is 'harmony.' President Xi is often heard talking about maintaining a harmonious society.

These thoughts and certainly the history of the two mindsets allows insight into questions I've long held. It allows me to live with a greater understanding and knowledgable compassion among Chinese. It gives me insight into how those around me are thinking and what their world-view is like.

I appreciate Mr. Baer's fine article and the wisdom he has exposed as a result of his research.

Patriot said:
[FONT=inherit]BASED ON PERFORMANCE OF SUN HO'S PREVIOUS ALBUMS,  JUDGE SEE KEE OON DESCRIBES HER PERCEIVED SUCCESS AS 'INFLATED'[/FONT]

[FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][COLOR=#000000][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=inherit][COLOR=#000000][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=inherit][COLOR=#000000][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=inherit][COLOR=#000000][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=inherit][COLOR=#000000][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=inherit][COLOR=#000000][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][FONT=serif][COLOR=#3C5595][FONT=Verdana]3167[/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][/FONT]
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[FONT=montserratblack][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit]Oct 22, 2015 6:00am[/FONT]
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[h=4]BY [URL="http://www.tnp.sg/authors/zaihan-mohamed-yusof-0"]ZAIHAN MOHAMED YUSOF[/URL][/h][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][/FONT][FONT=inherit][/FONT]
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[FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit][FONT=inherit]The sales projection of Ms Ho [/FONT]Yeow[FONT=inherit] Sun's planned US Crossover album of more that 200,000 copies was unrealistic and "no more than an optimistic hope".[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=inherit]Judge See Kee Oon said this yesterday in convicting six City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders of criminal breach of trust or falsifying accounts involving $50 million.[/FONT]

[FONT=inherit]He said: "I am unable to see how there can be any genuine or honest grounds for their claims that they expected far higher sales for her planned US album well in excess of the projection of 200,000 units."[/FONT]

[FONT=inherit]Ms Ho, 43, who uses the stage name Sun Ho, is married to CHC founder Kong Hee, one of the six convicted. The church had planned to use her secular music to evangelise in what was called the Crossover Project.[/FONT]

[FONT=inherit]The trial revealed that $24 million in church funds was misused to finance her music career and a further $26.6 million was used to conceal the earlier sum.[/FONT]

[FONT=inherit]This was facilitated through music production firm Xtron Productions and glass manufacturer Firna.[/FONT]

[FONT=inherit]Other details emerged on how the church leaders had projected selling 1.5 million copies of Ms Ho's English album and earning $10.5 million from it.[/FONT]

[FONT=inherit]But that appeared impossible given the losses of her previous albums, said the judge.[/FONT]

[FONT=inherit][I]I am unconvinced that they could have had a genuine belief in Sun Ho's prospects of success for the US Crossover given their consciousness that much of her earlier success was contrived and contributed to by CHC itself.[/I][/FONT]

[FONT=inherit][B]- Judge See Kee Oon[/B][/FONT]

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[FONT=Arial]- See more at: [url]http://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore-news/judge-sun-hos-music-success-was-inflated#sthash.si3Twc1l.dpuf[/url][/FONT][/QUOTE]

Papsmearer · Oct 25, 2015

I am waiting for the part where the judge explains how many times Wyclef and other niggers inflated Sun WHore's asshole with their big black cocks?

Judge: Sun ho’s music success was ‘inflated’

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