Hong Kong Pop 60s Music - Queen Kong Ling

Kong Ling (image) never looked back when she was the winner in an inter-school singing competition in the early 50s in HongKong. Within three years, she became just as popular in Singapore as she was in HongKong when she became a resident song bird in a local nitespot.

Like many singers in the 60s, Kong Ling gained popularity by covering pop English songs translated into Chinese dialects and Mandarin.

In 1960 she cut her first album, but her second Long Playing record, “Theme from a Dream," made her part of the 60s family when Diamond Records had a full studio orchestra to back her.

Like Sakura Teng, Rita Chao and other Mandarin pop singers, Kong Ling has this distinguishable Cantonese diction and grammatical swings when she sings her English covers, but it's part of the Eastern charm many fans find enduring. She's best singing in Mandarin and dialect. "Roses are red, my love, violets are blue." Off beat and cha-cha-cha! But definitely not off-colour!
(Image: A rare find indeed).