Mao Buyi


Wang Weijia, better known by his stage name Mao Bu Yi is a Chinese singer-songwriter from Heilongjiang who rose to prominence for winning the all-male singing competition The Coming One in 2017. He released his debut album Perfect Day in 2018, and achieved two number ones on the Billboard China singles chart in 2019.

Early life

Mao, whose real name is Wang Weijia, was born in October 1994 in Tailai County, Qiqihar, in Heilongjiang province of Northeast China. He studied nursing at Hangzhou Normal University and began his internship at a hospital in Hangzhou in 2016, his last year in university. To "ease the pressure" from work, which he found stressful, he played the guitar and began writing songs in his dormitory prior to appearing on The Coming One.

Career

2017: ''The Coming One''

Mao first came to attention after appearing as a contestant on the Tencent Video singing competition The Coming One. He was noted for standing out from the other contestants, who wore costumes and makeup, for his "normality" and "round face, large glasses, and slightly crooked teeth". He also had very little prior experience in music. He had to record his introduction three times due to technical glitches, broke a guitar string as he began playing, and "gawked" at the celebrity judges when he first saw them, which was considered to contribute to his appeal amongst the public. The media began referring to him as "cute sang", a nod to the apparent lack of ambition and apathy of Chinese youth, and the Mandarin slang word for "frightened". In contrast to the "typical" songs about romance, Mao sang songs about "hopelessness, frustrated ambition, and his dreams of getting rich"; the title of his first song in the competition translates to "If I Become Very Rich One Day", which he wrote when he was working as a nursing intern and short of money.
He won the competition on September 23, 2017, and "Xiao Chou", his song debuted during the competition, later stayed at the top of the QQ Music chart for 11 days, and was streamed over 500 million times. He then embarked on a three-date tour of Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu from September 22 to November 17, which was attended by 300,000 people.

2018: ''Perfect Day''

On May 31, 2018, Mao released his debut album Perfect Day, produced by the singer Li Jian, which was streamed and downloaded over one million times on its first day of release. The album was also a critical success in China, with several critics noting its natural and "warm" qualities, as well as Mao's "poetic lyrics and melancholy melodies".

2019: ''Billboard China'' chart success

In 2019, Billboard China launched the Billboard China Top 100, which is compiled based on radio play, streaming and digital sales in mainland China. Mao has spent five weeks of the year so far at number one with his 2017 songs "People Like Me", and "Get Rid of Blues".

Discography

Albums