A cardigan representing a faded connection, blue roses evoking elusive love, and a final letter to someone whose heart belongs elsewhere.
These quiet emotions unfold like petals in the latest music from Hong Kong singer Nancy Kwai. At 25, the budding artist is exploring the intricacies of love through the language of flowers in her second EP, Blossoming.
Reserved and delicate, yet radiant, the young artist’s temperament mirrors that of a flower – a central theme in her EP that highlights love’s cycles: its joys, heartbreaks, arrivals and departures.
“I wanted to use the language of flowers to express messages I’ve always wanted to say,” Kwai explained. “Sometimes, when it’s hard to speak directly, metaphors help us find resonance.”
For Kwai, the EP’s last track, “The Last Letter”, stands out as the most personal. It is the first song for which Kwai wrote lyrics herself.
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“It feels like something truly mine. I didn’t use difficult or fancy language. I just wanted it to be honest. Writing it was like recording my feelings as they were,” she said.
“That felt bold for me. Normally, I wouldn’t say these things out loud, not even to myself. But through writing, I found the courage to face that sense of loss.”
The song tells the story of unrequited love – realising someone you care for has fallen for another and coming to terms with letting go.
One line captures the singer’s lingering regret: they never made it to the fireworks festival in Tokyo together.
“Regrets like that are hard to say face-to-face,” Kwai said. “So I wrote them into the song. Maybe it’s my way of talking to myself, of making sense of how I feel – of asking whether I want to hold on or finally let go.”
Emotional connections
Kwai shared about her hopes for a relationship that feels like a deep friendship.
“In the past, I always thought that intimate relationships often made us moody and impulsive,” she said.
“But what I really hope for is something more grounded, like the rational dynamic I have with my close friends but with the added depth of intimacy – a balance between the closeness of a romantic relationship and the stability of a friendship.”
The singer shared that she hoped to find a balanced relationship in which both people share life together and are willing to commit for the long run.
Released last month, Kwai’s latest album includes not just ballads like “Let Go”, “The Last Letter”, “Cardigan” and “I Tried ...”, but also genres the singer has rarely explored before, such as pop rock in “Miss You in My Ways” and synth-pop in “Out of the Blue” and “Blue Roses”.
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The opening track, “Cardigan”, reflects on an old friend – someone you might never meet again, the singer said.
“For me, it was a kindergarten friend I lost touch with. That friend mattered a lot to me, and the memories we shared were happy ones,” she said.
“People come and go. How we remember them ... is up to us. Maybe this song can gently remind listeners: ‘Hey, remember that person from before?’ Maybe it’ll even inspire them to reconnect.”
Emotional connection is what drives Kwai’s songwriting.
“As an artist, I don’t always get to connect with people directly,” she said. “So I hope my songs can give them a sense of comfort or companionship – somewhere they feel understood or safe.”
Exploring her next steps
With her deep appreciation for literature, Kwai is especially drawn to lyrics with depth. She named veteran lyricist Albert Leung Wai-man, known by his pen name Lin Xi, as a major influence.
Kwai recalled one of her favourite lines from him, the opening of Miriam Yeung’s “Small Town, Big Event”: “Youth seems to have started the moment I loved you.”
“Just one line can hit straight to the heart,” Kwai said. “It immediately connected me to an entire world view. That’s the power of a well-written lyric. In just a three-minute song, it can feel like you’re watching an entire film.”
Another artist she admires is Adele.
“Her voice is full of imagery. It’s comforting, and her music supports that in the most minimal yet effective way,” she said.
As a young artist navigating Hong Kong’s music scene, Kwai said the biggest challenge is staying globally relevant while staying true to her local roots.
“Cantopop has always had a strong foundation and a loyal audience,” the singer said. “But younger generations today are listening to so much more from the West, Japan [and] Korea.”
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Reflecting on the state of the city’s music, she observed a growing willingness among artists to experiment.
“More people are trying to combine global sounds with meaningful Cantonese lyrics,” Kwai said. “Now, you hear elements of lo-fi, heavy autotune, even indie influences. That kind of mixing makes the scene more vibrant.”
Kwai herself is still in an exploratory phase: “I’m open to creative sparks from all directions.”
One of her goals is to write more in Cantonese: “Compared to Mandarin, which often leans toward more direct expression, Cantonese has a kind of elegance that I find beautiful,” she said.
As for future themes in her music, Kwai hopes to delve deeper into love.
“I want to explore what love really means. Do we need to get married? Do we need to have children? I’m not saying we need to spell everything out, but I’d like to share more of my own views and questions about relationships.”
That openness, she says, is still a work in progress.
“Maybe I have many different sides – I’m still discovering them. I just hope people can be patient with me and that I can be patient with myself too. I tend to warm up slowly,” she said.
