In the second week of December, the Billboard album chart leader, "Don Quixote"!

More than half a year ago, after careful consideration, Lan Li was finally moved by George Sland's sincerity and nodded and agreed to record an album. Putting aside commercial considerations, putting aside pop orientation, returning to the original intention, returning to simplicity, returning to simplicity, everything is about music and art, and creating an album that returns to purity.

Just like Amy Winehouse's classic album "Back-To-Black", which shows her pain and struggle to fall back into the darkness, in a way, Lanli's album can be called "Back-To-Music", but Lanli abandons such a simple and crude and straightforward naming method, and chooses the artistic and idealized name "Don Quixote".

It can be said that whether it is Lan Li or George, including Studio Eleven, the fundamental reason why they nodded and agreed to the album "Don Quixote" is that everyone has reached a consensus, this is an album that is destined to be forgotten, ridiculed, and excluded by the market, and this is an album that is destined to lose money, doomed to failure, and doomed to be silent.

It's not just the market, even the Grammys, George didn't have any hope. Now that the Grammys have become more and more commercialized, the organizing committee's pursuit and dedication to art has gradually drowned in the torrent of the fast food era. As those veteran professional fans ridiculed, gaining the Grammys is a recognition of popularity, and encountering the ignorance of the Grammys is precisely the performance of personality and professionalism. This statement is somewhat extreme and extreme, but it is also a true portrayal of reality.

But now, thirteen weeks after the album's release, "Don Quixote" has climbed to the top of the Billboard album chart, and the Grammys have also given six nominations, four of which came in the general category, making Lan Li the only singer to be nominated for four general awards this year.

This is a great mockery. Just like the name "Don Quixote", Don Quixote holds his spear high against the windmill giant, dreaming of a resurgence of chivalry, just when the whole world thinks he is a madman, just when everyone discourages him from continuing to go crazy, but the windmill in front of him has truly transformed into a giant, waiting for the arrival of the "Dragon Slayer Knight".

Is this a step forward or a step backwards? For George, for Studio Eleven, deep down they would rather believe that this is a step forward. In the torrent of the fast food era, people finally began to miss the classics of the golden age, people finally began to miss the beauty of pure music, and people finally resonated with the album "Don Quixote".

It's not just six Grammy nominations, it's not just a Billboard champion of the week, it's a return to a dream, a historical evolution, and a microcosm of life!

Real music still has supporters, real music will not die out, real music still has a soul after all, and real music still exists after all.

George Slander, old tears.

Of course, an important part of the reason why "Don Quixote" was able to win the championship was the recent off-season in the market, in order to catch up with the registration time of the Grammys, September and October are the intensive release times for albums, and after December entered the holiday season, the market cooled down.

This week was runner-up by Michael Buble's Christmas season album "Chirstmas," followed by Nickelback's new album "Here-And-No," Rihanna's "Talk-That-Talk" at No. 4 and Drake's "Beware," which won last week, at No. 5.

With the exception of the album "Christmas", which sold 80,000 copies, all other albums sold less than 50,000 copies. It was against this background that "Don Quixote" burst out with amazing energy at the right time and won the championship!

But a thousand steps back and 10,000 steps, "Don Quixote" can win the championship, and the sales of more than 120,000 copies in a single week, this is the Christmas of the entire independent music industry, and the whole country cheers!

It's a pity that all the singles of the "Don Quixote" album have no channel, no music videos, and the direct result is that the album's sales have skyrocketed, but the streaming data and radio on-demand data have not improved much, which also restricts the further breakthrough of "Firmly Believe".

At the top of this week's Billboard singles chart, the ending song of "Love is Crazy" is still stuck in second place, continuing to lag behind Rihanna's demon single "We Found Love", and unfortunately not being able to take advantage of the album's momentum. It can also be seen from the side that as a single, folk songs are still difficult to be widely accepted by the mainstream market - of course, the second consecutive week of runner-up position, which is already an incredible achievement.

It is no exaggeration to say that the album "Don Quixote" is writing history.

It's not because the album won the championship, just this one, the album "Cave" of the Blessed Son won the championship as early as a month ago, although the folk songs have declined, but the support of senior professional fans is still unwavering, and they can always achieve good results on the album chart, as for the singles list as a pop vane and market commercial attributes, the results of folk songs are terrible.

It's absolutely unbelievable that this independent album has reached such heights just by relying on word-of-mouth and the influence of hot news. Even if Billboard actually announced the charts, the majority of independent musicians still strongly doubted whether it was a dream, or maybe the Billboard's statistics were wrong?

For this reason, Billboard officially released a special confirmation news: this week's album chart and singles chart have been checked, and everything is true.

It can be seen that behind this news announcement, even the billboard was frightened, and they did not expect that "Don Quixote" could really create miracles, and they themselves released the list after repeated confirmation. Such a feat is even more powerful than the two works of "Love is Crazy" and "I Fight Cancer"!

And so all the fans went on a binge, indie musicians, veteran professional fans, folk lovers, indie labels...... All of a sudden, the Internet became a sea of joyous celebrations.

Perhaps, they don't like the album "Don Quixote", maybe they're not interested in ballads, maybe they don't even know Ranley Hall. However, this is not important, the important thing is that independent music has once again entered the mainstream sight, not to compromise with the mainstream, but to declare its own existence, declare its own artistic persistence and pursuit, with professional, pure, persistent and sincere music, moved the market, wrote miracles, and left a mark!

Then, "Don Quixote" is their hero, the hero of every independent musician, the hero of every dreamer.

In fact, it's not just on the Internet, it's not just Seattle and Los Angeles where musicians gather, it's Manhattan in New York, it's in Pioneer Village, they're partying, they're celebrating.

From afar, Lan Li could see the bustling scene of people coming and going at the entrance of the pioneer village, everyone holding a glass of beer in their hands, talking and laughing, and some people couldn't help but stand on the side of the street and start dancing—this kind of scene is really not seen in a long time.

When it comes to Europe, people always like to gather at bars after night and share a little bit of fun. If the bar is full, people don't care, they go outdoors with a glass of wine, sit on the floor, or just stand casually, and a "good evening" can welcome a friendly greeting from everyone. This is true in Barcelona and the same is true in Scotland.

The Pioneer Village is a jazz pub, and people are still more interested in sitting inside the bar, and the sight of gathering outside the bar can be seen once in a while, but not much. Tonight, Lan Li saw him again after a long absence.

The bustling crowds weren't crowded, they were standing in small groups, laughing and laughing, and in order to avoid blocking the main roads, people even stood across the street and scattered, and a glass of beer could find like-minded friends.

Lan Li was a little unsure. First the airport, and then Lincoln Center, the recent circle of fanatical fans really left a deep impression, and the taboo of "once bitten by a snake for ten years and afraid of the well rope" inevitably made Lan Li hesitate. But after realizing this, Lan Li himself laughed dumbly-

He always thought he was ready, and swore that he understood what it meant to live under the spotlight, what it meant to be exposed to the camera at every moment of life, and what it meant to be surrounded by all eyes, but only after really experiencing it could he understand that an outsider is always an outsider, and the scene inside the siege is different.

Exhaling lightly, Lan Li finally took a step. He could choose to leave, it was the last night of his stay in New York, and the intensive publicity itinerary for the past three days was breathless, not only for the movie, but also for the album, and the average sleep between three days was only two hours, even during the filming of "Fighting Cancer".

There is no itinerary tonight, he can sleep well at home, sleep until he wakes up naturally, and then go to the 11 a.m. flight. Still, he wanted to visit the pioneer village, to visit Stanley, to visit Neil, to visit his old friends, even if it was just to sit at the bar and have a beer.

He misses these old friends.

So, here he is. Since the footsteps have already arrived here, there is naturally no reason to go back.

As she got closer, Lan Li saw a sign at the entrance of the bar, which was particularly eye-catching, "Celebrate 'Don Quixote' to the top of the Billboard album chart, the first 1,000 beers are free tonight!" ”

The smile on the corner of his mouth couldn't help but rise.