The top 11 most popular Mandarin songs that have the most views in YT – Part 1

When it comes to the most popular songs in Youtube, the songs which immediately flash in your mind might be “Despacito”(around 8 billion views), “Shape of You”(around 6 billion views), “Gangnam Style”(around 4.5 billion views), “Sorry”(around 3.6 billion views), “See you again”(around 5.6 billion views), etc. They are, though, English songs, Korean songs, or Spanish songs.

However, which Mandarin songs have the most views in Youtube?

Let’s look at the table shown below and the detailed information about those songs below the table!

Rank	Song Title	Singer	Views	Date of Upload
1	光年之外 Guāng nián zhī wài	鄧紫棋 G.E.M. Dèng zǐ qí	253,991,208 ♛The first Mandain song which has over 200 million views in YT	Dec 29, 2016
2	告白氣球 Gào bái qì qiú	周杰倫 Jay Chou Zhōu jié lún	234,801,391 ♛The first Mandarin song whose views accumulated to more than 100 million within shortest time(289 days)	Oct 27, 2016
3	演員 Yǎnyuán	薛之謙 Joker Xue Xuēzhīqiān	190,482,429	Jun 8, 2015
4	漂向北方 Piào xiàng běifāng	黃明志 ft. 王力宏 Huáng míngzhì ft. Wánglìhóng	190,028,603	Mar 4, 2017
5	以後別做朋友 Yǐhòu bié zuò péngyǒu	周興哲 Eric Chou Zhōu xìng zhé	189,509,128	Sept 19, 2014
6	小幸運  Xiǎo xìngyùn	田馥甄 Hebe Tien Tián fù zhēn	188,282,690 ♕The first Mandarin song which has over 100 million views.	July 20, 2015
7	你，好不好？ Nǐ, hǎobù hǎo?	周興哲 Eric Chou Zhōu xìng zhé	186,815,447	July 22, 2016
8	癡情玫瑰花 Chīqíng méiguī huā	Under Lover	180,761,143	Dec 20,2015
9	我的歌聲裡Wǒ de gēshēng lǐ	曲婉婷 Qū wǎn tíng	179,486,384	Aug 23,2012
10	那些年 Nà xiē nián	胡夏 Hú xià	174,351,766	Aug 1, 2011
11	不為誰而作的歌 Bù wéi shuí ér zuò de gē	林俊傑 Lín jùn jié	154,820,719	Dec 4, 2015

I just listed some of them in the table. For the rest of top 50 most popular Mandarin songs, please look here.

1st:光年之外 GUĀNG NIÁN ZHĪ WÀI

Singer:鄧紫棋 G.E.M.

ENG:light years away

鄧紫棋(Dèng zǐ qí), known as G.E.M.(Get Everyone Moving), was born in 1991, and made her first debut in 2008 in the Hong Kong music industry at the age of 16. She is not only the Hong Kong singer, but also songwriter writing several music works for other singers. She has gained fame and popularity since she joined the 2014-season of Chinese singing competition programe, I Am a Singer(我是歌手), and won the 2nd place in the competition.

G.E.M.’s Singing style

She is good at using the falsetto and head voice, and, at the same time, she is using less chest voice when singing in the live performance. Therefore, her voice and singing atomosphere seems to be drifting in the sky.

Let’s see video clips about her apperance in I Am a Singer program.

Moreover, in 2016, she became the only Asian artist featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30. She is the first female Mandarin-speaking singer to have four music videos that exceed 100 million views on YouTube.

2nd:告白氣球 Gào bái qì qiú

Singer: 周杰倫

Eng: Love Confession (to the balloons)

周杰倫 Zhōu Jiélún, known as Jay Chou, born in 1979, is a Taiwanese singer, songwriter, album producer, rapper, and actor. Due to his popularity, he is even dubbed “King of Mandopop”, and over 30 million of his albums have been sold worldwide.

Mixture of western musical elements and Chinese-style music

Jay Chou leads a new trend of music which combines western musical elements and Chinese literature terms. Because of this unique combination, he makes distinction between himself and other musicians by leading a “Zhongguo feng”(中國風), literally Chinese-style music, in Asian music history. The success of his Western-Chinese musical combination is built on his marketing strategies and the musical elements involved in his works.

The traditional Chinese cultural elements involved in Chou’s music contribute to his status in Asian popular music culture. The blowing “Chinese style” (中國風) in his music leads a new trend of Chinese pop music that involves a vast amount of traditional Chinese components, rather than simply following Western music format.

How does Jay Chou interpret Zhongguo Feng(中國風)?

Chou’s Zhongguo feng is highlighted in his lyrics and the use of traditional musical instruments in his music. Lyricist Vincent Fang(方文山) has worked with Jay Chou since 2000. Fang’s work is featured by addressing Chinese traditional elements, such as poetry and Confucianism. His representative work “Chrysanthemum Terrace” (Chinese: 菊花台; pinyin:Júhuā tái), released in 2006, shows a vast amount of cultural elements. In this work, Fang puts images which indicate certain traditional ideas to build an ancient monarchy setting. He uses chrysanthemum as a metaphor of love. In the line “Chrysanthemums broken, scattered across the floor, your smile has faded” (Chinese: 菊花殘 滿地傷 你的笑容已泛黃).

Jay Chou’s business outside music industry

In 2007, Chou founded his own record and management company JVR Music(杰威爾音樂). Outside the music industry, Chou has served as the President of his own fashion brand PHANTACi since 2006.

He also engaged himself in the movie industry. Chou made his acting debut in the film Initial D (頭文字D) in 2005, followed shortly by a starring role in the Curse of the Golden Flower(滿城盡帶黃金甲) in 2006. He has starred in a number of western movies, becoming known to Western audiences when he made his Hollywood debut in 2011 with The Green Hornet(青蜂俠), followed by Now You See Me 2(出神入化) in 2016.

3rd: 演員 Yǎn yuán

Singer: 薛之謙 Joker Xue Xuē zhī qiān

Eng: Actor

薛之謙(Xuē Zhī qiān), known as Joker Xue, born in 1983, is a Chinese singer-songwriter and album producer. His musical style mixes the classic pop with piano and strings with folk-tinged acoustic guitar and R&B beats.

Comedian in variety show and reality shows

Joker Xue made his debut firstly as a singer, but except for the timing of the release of new music works, he mostly shows his image as a comedian appearing in many reality shows. Let’s see several video clips below.

Sideline Job: selling clothes online and run a restaurent

Joker Xue’s clothing brand is Dangerous Peoples and his resaurant is called “上上謙“

“Making money for creating new songs and keeping exposure during the time when no new music production is published. Due to the music industry being more of a public service benefit in China, Xue has said that it was much harder to work and to earn a liveable wage in the career.“

Joker Xue said in one interview

We just list 3 songs and singers in this article due to the length of the articles. Please follow the Part 2 and Part 3 articles if you are interested!!

謝謝!