Anita Mui - Heart Sutra

This is one of my favorites. In 1995, a bunch of singers banded together to put out a fund-raising CD to benefit a local Buddhist temple. They chose a famous prayer (I guess a "sutra"), set it to a tune, and produced 15 different arrangements, each to be interpreted by one singer or more. The results were, well . . . ahem . . . mixed. The words mean something, but many of the less gifted singers were so preoccupied with showing off their "personalities" and "style" (neither of which they truly possessed) that they completely neglected to express the meaning of the prayer. (I will discuss this general idea in a later post).

One commentator remarked, "The best was Anita Mui's version - you do get a sense of epiphany and understanding after listening to her. Prudence Lau made it sound like she was singing something about a one night stand; the Grasshoppers made it sound like a dance party." You get the idea.

So listen to how she made it her own, without sacrificing the purpose and meaning of the song.