Mike Tsang

In 2024, Tsang was further introduced to Southeast Asian and Taiwanese audiences when he sang for Wong Kar-wai's Blossoms Shanghai and TVB's Happy Ever After?, with his drama songs topping streaming charts for the first time in Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.

Times were hard and Tsang has often expressed admiration for his mother's tenacity and strength, as she allowed her children to pursue their dreams despite limited means.

He was selected to participate in a major Mainland China reality singing competition Infinity and Beyond (Cantopop Season) jointly produced by Hong Kong TVB and China's Mango TV/Hunan Television, and created such an impression that Mango TV invited him to join a second programme back-to-back, their signature reality performance show Call Me by Fire (season 2).

Infinity and Beyond Tsang's surprise win in Episode 1 (24 April) of Infinity and Beyond, where his cover of Samantha Lam's 1984 hit "First Love" (初戀) was voted top performance among all 16 participants who included veterans George Lam, Sally Yeh, Hacken Lee, Li Jian, Miriam Yeung and Coco Lee,[2][10] coupled with his lively personality; iconic afro hairstyle, and most notably his singing prowess,[8] made him into one of the most exciting breakout stars of the series.

"First Love" recorded 1.4 million views on the official YouTube channels within 2 weeks of posting, making it one of Mango TV's most popular stage performances of the year.

[12] Infinity and Beyond was aired over mainstream TV in both Hong Kong and Mainland China, and by the end of 13 episodes, recorded an accumulated viewership count of 160 million people, not including online release.

Invited to join on the back of his previous success, Tsang had by far the least experience among all participants in the show's history, having debuted just less than 18 months when filming began in June 2022.

Compared to the other seasoned musicians and performers who had been in the industry for at least 5 to 40 years, including superstars like Alex To, Richie Ren, Vanness Wu, Alec Su etc., Tsang was almost an unknown to non-Cantonese speaking audiences at the start of show.

[15] In a contest where audience popularity voting was the determining factor, he was able to impress sufficiently with his few performances, and avoided elimination to reach the finals.

[16] Although he could not make the final selection, Tsang called this a highly rewarding experience, both in terms of personal growth and friendships with fellow contestants who were top tier performers and musical minds in their own right.

[17] Call Me by Fire (season 2), broadcast online via the Mango TV platform, had an audience reach nationwide, with Episode 1 alone recording 171 million views on the first day of upload.

Running over seven months, Mike on shuttle Concert Tour (曾比特穿梭巡迴音樂會)* consisted of ten stops spanning nine cities from the Greater Bay Area to Shanghai and Chengdu.

[43] On 27 September 2023, Universal Music Hong Kong released its SING OUTSIDE THE BOX project, a digital compilation album of collaborations between 13 UMGHK artists.

Blossoms Shanghai first aired nationwide in China on CCTV-8, CCTV-1, SMG Dragon TV, Tencent Video and Jiangsu Television between December 2023 and January 2024, followed by Hong Kong's TVB and Taiwan Mobile's MyVideo channel in June 2024.

[56] On 7 September 2024, Tsang was invited by the Chinese Government CMG Multi-platform Media Showcase for the Greater Bay Area (「勇立潮頭大灣區」中央廣播電視總台系列融媒體行動發佈會)* to give the first public rendition of the song "Blooming into the Future" (盛開到未來) in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Macau's return to China.

[59][60] Between September and November 2024, Tsang once again participated in a Mango TV/Hunan Television music reality show: the live telecast singing competition The Next Singer (下一戰歌手).

[65] Tsang emerged on the Hong Kong music scene at a time of unprecedented social unrest and a polarised society where businesses, media, and even artistes were often discerned according to presumed rather than actual affiliations.

Young locals generally associated ViuTV with social activism and a stance against establishment, which in turn, they deemed was historically represented by TVB.

[68] When he was selected in the Infinity and Beyond auditions, young netizens further turned their wrath on him for performing in the Mainland and filled his social media with politically fuelled attacks.