A dozen Canadian musicians of Asian ancestry have collaborated on an upbeat, jazzy song to welcome the Year of the Horse. “More Than Money 恭喜恭喜 我有你” was written by recording artists from Toronto and Vancouver at last year’s Jade Music Fest in Vancouver. They sang in Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, and English.
Songwriters included Toronto musicians Jacq Teh, Eunice Keitan, Chinyi C, Dr. Holic, and Violet Ziyi Grace. The Vancouver songwriters were Caroline Ding, Dennis Law, James Tseng, Shinlok, Sunny Daydream, Kristin Fung, and Tony Choi.
“It was really inspiring feeding off each other’s energy and ideas,” declared Keitan on the LunarFest GTA website. “Really proud to have been part of this process creating—I hope—an earworm!”
Teh is a Juno-winning songwriter who teaches vocal jazz at the University of Toronto. She acknowledged experiencing joy co-writing and recording this song with a team of Asian artists.
“It felt like we were creating a new tradition and finding our own creative way of celebrating the new year,” Teh stated. “I feel honoured to have been a part of this process and am grateful to all the other artists for sharing their voice in music.”
Watch the Ewan Mac-directed video for “More Than Money 恭喜恭喜 我有你”.
More than Money project stirs emotions
Another Toronto musician, the Singapore-born and raised Chinyi C, described the whole experience as inspiring. And she loves what the musicians devised.
“I feel like I’ve grown more distant from Lunar New Year having been away from my family for over a decade,” Chinyi C added, “and the experience of writing this with so many talented artists in such a short time touched a core memory for me.”
Similarly, the Hong Kong-born Dr. Holic said that he hasn’t celebrated Lunar New Year with his family for a few years. Ziyi Grace called the recording session “a super unique connecting experience”.
At times, the musicians pass the microphone to one another in the music video as they each sing lyrics in their distinctive styles.
Law and Keitan served as the recording engineers, and Law mixed and produced the track. The video is available on various streaming channels as well as the LunarFest GTA website, which includes the lyrics.
The Year of the Horse begins on Tuesday (February 17).
LunarFest GTA takes place on February 21 and 22. It features a long list of family-friendly free events at the Varley Art Gallery (216 Main Street Unionville, Markham). For more information, visit the festival website. The Toronto Spark is on Bluesky @torontospark.bsky.social.
