黃霑書房

The First Singtao Amateur Singing Contest took place in 1960. Among the thirty finalists was Wong Jum-sum, who had adopted the stage name ‘Wong Jim’ for fear of being embarrassed from losing.

The contest was divided into a Mandarin and a Western pop section, with, rather symptomatically, no Cantonese section. More than a thousand people joined. Their choice of songs reflected closely the musical leanings of the time.

Wong Jum-sum was ousted at the final 15, an event he regretted for life. By contrast his good friend Judy Jim comfortably got the grand prize in the Western pop section, by taking a leaf from the Patti Page songbook.

The winner of the Mandarin section was Cheung Hoi-wan. She received classical music training and sang the ever-popular Liang Le-yin composition ‘The Song about Selling Sweets’ with a tantalizing mix of inflections.

Very soon, singers from both sections would take a big stride forward, stepping into a brave new world we call the 1960s.