Camp 歌女皇 (80年代10大西歌投票之回響)

Until she hit it big with the theme song of 《上海灘》, the Canton pop career of Francis Yip (葉麗儀) was practically non-existent. However, once she made that breakthrough, with the exception of a few duets with Johnny Yip (葉振棠), she spent the rest of her career building up a repertoire of high camp that was as bloody and epic as 《上海灘》 the TV series itself. Dashing out overblown lyrics with much admired aplomb, Francis sings through the corniness and tackiness with a straight face. Regardless whether she is a real pro or just simply has no sense of humour, you can always count on her to give a performance that could make any drag queen proud.

Granted I haven’t quite grasped the definition of 西歌, but given the sheer outrageousness in Francis’ anthology it won’t convince me that you can’t find one single spawn somewhere in her compilation that should make the list of net friend Chi’s 80年代10大西歌投票. Well to correct this gross oversight, let’s pay our tribute to Francis’ monumental contribution to Hong Kong camp culture:

1. 女中豪傑

What appeared to be an undistinguished TV theme song was elevated to camp status, all thanks to a single line of lyrics: 俏嬌娃一呼千里響. 《女中豪傑》 was the theme song for 《雙葉蝴蝶》, a gender reversed follow up to capitalize the popularity of the TV detective series 《C.I.D.》. The aforementioned line obviously was inspired by the US program 《神探俏嬌娃》 (Charlies’ Angels). Instead of Sabrina Duncan, Jill Munroe and Kelly Garrett, 《雙葉蝴蝶》 gave us 黃淑儀, 楊盼盼 and a very mannish 葉德嫻, at least the director didn’t have the 俏嬌娃 jiggle their breasts to us.

2. 紅顏

There is only one thing you need to know about 《紅顏》: 無力挽　無力再挽. Let’s just say 一切盡在不言中

3. 紙醉金迷

What a grave injustice! Deanie Yip covered Grace Chang’s (葛蘭) 《我要你的愛》, 《我要》 finished No.8 in 80年代10大西歌投票結果. Francis Yip covered the equally flamboyant 《說不出的快活》 from the same singer, 《紙醉金迷》 didn’t even get mentioned. All I can say is 此葉不同彼葉

4. 女黑俠木蘭花

Poor 趙雅芝, not only did the TV series made her character look like a bimbo next to 高翔 (in the book, 木蘭花 is way smarter), they also made her wear that hideous outfit (in skirt!!) even the 夜行衣 of 雪妮 fifteen years before for the same role looked cooler.



If there was any consolation, at least 趙雅芝 landed herself a husband from the series. Too bad Francis never filmed a MV for this camp classic with delicious lyrics (木蘭花 美麗豪放) only she can deliver, one could only guess what impact the image of Francis in that outfit and pointy eye mask could have brought, completed with some high karate kicks no less.

5. 巾幗英雄

Following 《女中豪傑》 and 《女黑俠木蘭花》, the Amazon Heroine theme continued with 巾幗英雄, once again it was a theme song from TV series (《十三妹》) and once again it had 楊盼盼. Had Lisa Wang somehow turned down playing 穆桂英, I know for sure it would be Francis who belted out 英姿煥煥煥煥煥…發… On the other hand, 《巾幗英雄》 failed to live up to its predecessor, either because the formula had far too many outings, or it was just a tough act to follow. Seriously, how can anyone top 《女黑俠木蘭花》?

6. 大豪客



Adapting “Hey Big Spender” from fellow belter Peggy Lee, 《大豪客》 has long been considered a Hall of Famer in Hong Kong commercial history. Technically it was never released as an album cut but thanks to YouTube, the image of Francis sashaying down the stairs will forever live on. Unfortunately the version with 曹查理 dressing up like some kind of head honcho (a sight never fails to delight camp audience) is nowhere to be found.