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Liu Yuning
Musical artist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Liu Yuning (simplified Chinese: 刘宇宁; traditional Chinese: 劉宇寧; pinyin: Liú Yǔníng; born 8 January 1990) is a Chinese singer, actor, and the lead singer of Modern Brothers.[1] In 2018, Liu rose to stardom by his covers on platforms YY's Live Streaming and Douyin. Forbes China listed Liu on their 30 Under 30 Asia list in 2019. His debut album won the "Media Recommended Album" award at the 2020 Chinese Top Ten Music Awards, and his second extended play Listen•Ning (2020–21) won the "Most Popular EP" award in 2021 Chinese Top Ten Music Awards.[2] Liu also gained recognition as an actor through his roles in television series such as A Journey to Love in 2023 and The Prisoner of Beauty in 2025.
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Early life
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Liu was born in Dandong, Liaoning Province. His father passed away when he was 4 years old.[citation needed] His mother remarried and he grew up under his grandparents' care. Liu developed a passion for music from a young age, although his family's financial situation prevented him from pursuing formal music education or lessons, his love for music persisted.
Liu graduated from Dandong Vocational-Technical Secondary School where he received career training as a chef.[3] He admitted he doesn't like to cook but chose to learn the skill so he could make a living early on and support his grandparents. He worked various temporary jobs as chef, waiter, and sales associate at fashion stores. Unwilling to abandon his initial dream of pursuing music, Liu used his first month's salary as a chef to buy a guitar. While working as a chef, he developed pneumothorax (collapsed lung), having no money to seek treatment, he could only lie in bed at home waiting for his time. Luckily, his boss at that time found out and lent him money for surgery. He later left his job as a chef due to this ailment. He began his musical journey as a singer at local bars.[4] Subsequently, he formed the rock band Modern Brothers with his friends.
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Career
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2010-2017
In 2010, Liu took part in Hunan Television's Super Boy, but was eliminated in the audition stage and failed to advance.[5] He returned to the same competition in 2013 but was eliminated again in the second round of auditions.[citation needed]
In 2014, Liu formed Modern Brothers band with A Zhuo and Da Fei, and joined the YY's live streaming platform in March 2015 where they covered dozens of songs.[6] In 2016, he starred in the web film Class 952 produced by YY. In 2017 he moved his band's live streaming stage from indoors to outdoors, to a historical street market in his hometown, Dandong.
2018
Liu Yuning and the Modern Brothers band rose to stardom after 3 years of live streaming (singing).[7] Liu gained significant number of fans for his unique guttural singing voice.[8] In July and August, Liu was invited to a number of television shows, including Hunan Television's Day Day Up[9] and CCTV3's Setting Out for Happiness, but his first professional music stage performance was Jiangsu Television's Golden Melody 2.[10]
On August 17, Liu and Modern Brothers held their first offline singing event at the exhibition center of Guangzhou Central Station.[11] On September 15, Liu officially debuted as a solo singer with the release of his first solo single "Imagination."[12] On October 19, Liu attended Zhejiang Television's Autumn Gala with his Modern Brothers band.[13] In November, he participated in Jiangsu Television's Mask Singer. On December 31, he attended Jiangsu Television's 2019 New Year Concert.[citation needed]
Liu landed his first drama acting role in the TV Series Hot-Blooded Youth starring Huang Zitao and Zhang Xueying which was filmed in September 2018 and aired a year later.[14] He also sang OSTs for various films and TV series that year. Among them, the popular ones are "Toast the wine" (让酒) for Tomb of the sea (沙海) and the theme song for Jia Zhangke's film Ash Is Purest White.[citation needed]
2019
In January, Liu was voted the "National Recommended Singer" to be a contestant as the challenger singer in Hunan Television's singing competition Singer 2019.[15] On March 25, Liu won the Best New Artist and the Internet Influence Honor awards at the Chinese Top Ten Music Awards. His "Toast the Wine" was also awarded the Media Recommended OST. In March 2019, Liu participated as regular member in Hunan TV's variety show Our Brilliant Masters.[citation needed]
In October, Liu participated as a regular member in the first season of Shanghai TV's music variety show Singing with Legends. As one of the eight young singers, he teamed up with older generation singer Richie Jen.[16]
Liu and Modern Brothers held their first concert tour in 5 cities from August to November; the last stop, planned to be held on February 14, 2020, in Wuhan, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[17][18] In December, Liu released his first solo studio album Ten (十).[19]
2020
In 2020, Liu performed his new single "Talking about Love" (你说爱情啊) at Chinese Top Ten Music Awards, where he also won the All-rounded Artist of the Year award, the People's Choice Singer Award, and the Media Recommended Album for Ten.[20]
2021
In 2021, Liu and Modern Brothers' 5 years contract with YY ended. They chose to leave the company, and Liu created his own artist studio with a few staffs to manage his solo works.[citation needed]
On March 21, Liu became the first Chinese pop singer to sing a Chinese theme song for Disney with the song "Magical Surprise" (奇妙的惊喜) for the 5th anniversary of Shanghai Disneyland.[21] In October, Liu returned as a regular member in season three of Shanghai TV's music show Singing with Legends, where he teamed up with Penny Tai.[22] In November, Liu again won the All-rounded Artist of the Year award, the Internet Influential Male Singer award, and the Most Popular EP award for his second EP "Listen∙Ning" at the Chinese Top Ten Music Awards.[citation needed]
Liu also released more than 30 OSTs for various TV series, movies, documentaries, and video games, including "Heavenly Questions" (天问) for the TV series Word of Honor, which won topped Tencent Music UNI Chart for three consecutive weeks.[23][24]
2022
In the summer of 2022, Liu released "Looking for you", the theme song for the TV series Love Between Fairy and Devil, which won him 4 consecutive champions in TenCent Music Billboard.[citation needed]
Besides his music career, he gained growing recognition for acting through dramas. His popular roles included Hei Yanjing in TV series Ultimate Note, Hao Du in TV series the Long Ballad, and Bai Choufei in drama Heroes.[citation needed]
Liu continued to regularly livestream on his Weibo page, where each session can last for 2-5 hours. He mentioned that livestream is a bridge for him to sing and communicate with his fans. He mostly performs live without his band members too as they're now focusing on family, but the group hasn't disbanded and they're still close to each other, hence his introduction will always be "Modern Brother's Liu Yuning."[citation needed]
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Personal life
On March 27, 2023, paparazzi and blogger YangYang broke the news that Liu had been married in April 2012, got divorced in December 2013. Within two hours, Liu, who was still in hair and costume for drama filming, opened a live broadcast and stated, "I, Liu Yuning, was married once; of course I am now divorced, and I have no children." He explained that he hasn't been in contact with his ex-wife and expressed extreme remorse for disrupting her life. Liu also scolded the paparazzi for exposing the pictures of his ex-wife and her little child, who is not related to him, to the public eye, calling the act inhumane. He said his past marriage isn't something hidden because there's no secrecy in the entertainment industry. However, he didn't believe it was necessary to bring it up to the public since it happened long before his debut. With his current status as a celebrity, he thought disclosing this information wouldn't bring any good to his ex-wife. He announced his intention to take legal action to restore justice for her.[25]
Discography
Studio albums
2019: Ten (十)[26]
Extended plays
2019: Promise (如约)[27]
2020: Listen∙Ning[28]
Filmography
Liu has starred in films such as Line Walker 2: Invisible Spy and television series such as Ultimate Note, The Long Ballad, Medal of the Republic,Legend of Anle, A Journey to Love,[29] the Prisoner of Beauty, etc. He has also appeared on numerous variety shows.
Concert tours
2019 Modern Brothers Concert Tour "Growing Storm"
Originally scheduled for 7 shows, on January 22, 2020, Liu Yuning announced on his personal Weibo that the concert in Wuhan will be postponed due to severe COVID-19 epidemic and to ensure everyone's health and safety. The rescheduled performance time will be notified separately. Tickets sold remains valid after postponement and rescheduling. [30][31]
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Awards and nominations
As a singer and actor, Liu has received awards and nominations for both his music and performances.
Endorsements and ambassadorships
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References
External links
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