Actor Simu Liu flirts with possible album after singing again at Juno Awards
EDMONTON – Actor Simu Liu has a song in his heart and a debut album in his head.
After breaking into renditions of Avril Lavigne and Nickelback hits as host of the Juno Awards, the “Kim’s Convenience” star says he hopes to release some of his own songs in the future.
Liu says he has signed a deal with Los Angeles-based record label 88rising, which specializes in the careers of Asian-American artists.
He explained on the Junos red carpet in Edmonton that it has led to “working together on music that we are very excited to share”.
Liu, who grew up in Mississauga, Ont., says this could mean his own album could “happen sooner rather than later.”
The 33-year-old is not entirely new to the collaboration with 88Rising, as the label collaborated with him on the track ‘Hot Soup’ for the 2021 soundtrack of ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’.
Before he was a professional actor, Liu flirted with boy band stardom when he joined the short-lived high school group LX4.
Last year at the Junos, Liu surprised viewers when he whipped out a guitar and serenaded the audience with a parody of Lavigne’s “Complicated,” which raised the question of whether he planned to sing more.
He did so with the Junos on Monday, which led to a reporter in the media room asking Liu what he would sing on a hypothetical album of covers. He chose the ballad ‘All of Me’ by John Legend, the rousing ‘Go the Distance’ from the soundtrack of Disney’s ‘Hercules’ and ‘Lose Yourself’ by rapper Eminem.
“This album (would) make no sense, but it (would) be great because I’m going to have a lot of fun with it,” he joked.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on March 19, 2023.
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