Quiet emotions unfold like petals in the latest music from Hong Kong singer Nancy Kwai.
Flowers are a main theme in her second EP, Blossoming, which 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,” the 25-year-old said.
The EP’s final track, “The Last Letter”, is special to Kwai because it is the first time she has written her own lyrics.
“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.
“Normally, I wouldn’t say these things out loud, not even to myself.”
The song tells the story of realising someone you care for is in love with another person and coming to terms with letting go.
“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 ... making sense of how I feel.”
Writing about love
The album’s opening track, “Cardigan”, is about an old friend – someone you might never meet again.
“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,” Kwai said.
“People come and go. How we remember them – or whether we remember them at all – 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 music.
“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 ... somewhere they feel understood or safe.”
Kwai’s songwriting is inspired by veteran lyricist Albert Leung Wai-man, known by his pen name Lin Xi.
She recalled one of her favourite lines from him in 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. “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.”
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A work in progress
As a young Hong Kong artist, Kwai said her biggest challenge is staying true to her local roots while trying to reach a global audience.
“Cantopop has always had a strong foundation and a loyal audience,” she noted. “But younger generations today are listening to so much more from the West, Japan [and] Korea.”
Kwai herself is still in an phase of exploration: “There’s so much I want to try ... I’m open to creative sparks from all directions,” she said.
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?” she said.
“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.
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Reflect: What emotions are hard for you to discuss?
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Why this story matters: Music can help us express our feelings. Whether we are writing our own lyrics or just enjoying songs from our favourite artists, music is a great way to reflect and process what we experience.
