Vitas: Wo Ai Ni, "I Love You"

from many countries,
singing "I Love You"

I sense in my reading and watching videos, that Vitas has a strong connection to his audiences. I will focus on the Chinese.

I believe that Vitas has a further role in China besides cultural- it is emotional as well. He says in interviews that he performs "for the love of my audience." I believe him. He works too hard to be doing it only for the money.

The Chinese people have been through a lot and their heritage was destroyed. I believe that China feels an emptiness, a hole in her heart.

I saw a photo of a small rural church in the Shaanxi province in 2005. It had no crucifix, and on the altar were only a modest cross and the Chinese word for "Love" in red.*

Vitas listens to his
audience singing

Vitas a has loving, welcoming persona and gives the sense that he has pure admiration for everyone. He never relaxes his shining smile. I think this is emotionally satisfying to his audiences. Once again, I feel that Vitas was the right person at the right place at the right time.

Here is a typical comment of a fan:
"This voice both flows with tenderness from the depth of the soul. . .
I want to embrace all the world with fine feeling of gratitude, happiness and love!"
People also use his recordings for healing.

Here is a video of a group of distinguished singers from all over the world. They are performing the finale, the theme song of China's Spring Gala 2010. It's not a Vitas song, though he is one of the performers, and he gets the best part!

The title and refrain is "Wo Ai Ni": "I Love You. " In Chinese, it's a song about loving people all over the world. I was surprised at the open, emotional quality of the lyrics. It gave me an unexpected impression of the Chinese. It's a sign of the times, I suppose, and Vitas fits right in.

WO AI NI (I LOVE YOU)- with lyrics



Here are most of the words:

Wo Ai Ni (I Love You)
by Xiao Ke

Wherever we come from
Today we get together
Don't ask me who I am
I just really want to be with you
Everything turns out to be easy
When we stand hand in hand
Open the map, all around the world. . .

Everybody is saying
I love you, I love you
We are brothers and sisters
I love you, I love you
We meet each other and we love being here together
I love you, I love you. . .

Full Lyrics Here

Seems almost about to bow

"ASIANIZING"

Vitas seems to have has become more "Asian" in a way. His boyish agility has smoothed out into a suave polish. Besides wearing more tuxedos and having more Chinese singers and dancers, he moves more gracefully- he studies dance- and when he is with a Chinese person he seems almost about to bow. He studies the Asian technique of breathing for singing, with Asian teachers, and now speaks Chinese.

rugged Russian 2001

One peculiar observation is that over the years, Vitas's face has become less rugged, lost its carved Russian cheekbones, become more round, Asian you might say.

Perhaps it is vegetarianism, or meditation, but it's more fun to think of it as more than that, that he is 'asianizing.' And as his face goes rounder, he grows younger and younger, almost seems to glow. The smile has sweetened, his demeanor has softened, his movements are more fluid, and his look of innocence intensifies.

younger and younger (2011)

*from the book China Road by Rob Gifford 2007, from which I gathered a lot of the information in these posts