Liu Yuning (simplified Chinese: 刘宇宁; traditional Chinese: 劉宇寧; pinyin: Liú Yǔníng; born 8 January 1990) is a Chinese singer, actor, and the lead singer of Modern Brothers. In 2018, Liu rose to stardom by his covers on platforms YY's Live Streaming and Douyin, and released his solo debut single "Imagination" on September 15, 2018.[1][2][3] He released his debut studio album Ten in 2019, and held his first concert tour Growing Storm in 2020. Forbes China listed Liu on their 30 Under 30 Asia list in 2019. His debut album won the "Media Recommended Album" award at the 2020 Chinese Top Ten Music Awards, and his second extended play Listen•Ning (2020–21) won the "Most Popular EP" award in 2021 Chinese Top Ten Music Awards.[4] Besides singing, he also gained recognition as an actor through his roles in television series.[5]
Liu Yuning was born in Dandong, Liaoning Province. His father passed away when he was 4 years old. He's been living separately from his mother since childhood and grew up under his grandparents' care. Liu developed a passion for music from a young age, although his family's financial situation prevented him from pursuing formal music education or lessons, his love for music persisted.
Liu graduated from Dandong Vocational-Technical Secondary School where he received professional training as a chef.[6] He admitted he doesn't like to cook but chose to learn the skill so he could make a living early on and support his grandparents. His career as a chef came to an end due to a sudden pneumothorax. After recovering, Liu worked as a waiter at restaurants until he got promoted to manager. He also worked as a server at bath houses and sales associate at fashion stores. Unwilling to abandon his initial dream of pursuing music, Liu used his first month's salary as a chef to buy a guitar. He began his musical journey as a singer at local bars.[7] Subsequently, he formed the rock band Modern Brothers with his best friends.
In 2010, Liu took part in Hunan Television's Super Boy, but was eliminated in the audition stage and failed to advance.[8]
In 2013, he went back to take part in the same competition but got eliminated again in the second round of auditions.
In 2014, Liu formed Modern Brothers band with A Zhuo and Da Fei, and joined the YY's live streaming platform in March 2015 where they covered dozens of songs.
In 2016, he starred in the web film Class 952 produced by YY.
In 2017 he moved his band's live streaming stage from indoors to outdoors, to a historical street market in his hometown, Dandong.
Liu Yuning and the Modern Brothers band had a phenomenal rise to stardom after 3 years of live streaming (singing) on the YY platform. It was after his post of short singing videos on Douyin in June 2018 which resulted to Liu gaining more fans for his unique guttural singing voice.[9] Liu and his band were invited to various television shows to perform. In July and August 2018, Liu was invited to a number of television shows includes Hunan Television's Day Day Up[10] and CCTV3's Setting Out for Happiness, but his first professional music stage performance was Jiangsu Television's Finding Gold Song.[11]
On August 17, Liu and Modern Brothers held their first offline singing club event at the exhibition center of Guangzhou Central Station.[12]
Liu landed his first drama acting role in the TV Series Hot-Blooded Youth starring Huang Zitao and Zhang Xueying which was filmed from early September and aired in the later part of 2019.
On September 15, Liu officially debuted as a solo singer with the release of his first solo single "Imagination."
On October 19, he attended Zhejiang Television's Autumn Gala with his Modern Brothers band.[13] In November, he participated in Jiangsu Television's Mask Singer. On Dec 31, he attended Jiangsu Television's 2019 New Year Concert.
Liu Yuning also sang OSTs for various films and TV series that year. Among them, the popular ones are "Toast the wine" (让酒) for Tomb of the sea (沙海) and the theme song for Jia Zhangke's film Ash Is Purest White.[citation needed]
In January 2019, Liu Yuning was voted the "National recommended singer" to be a contestant as the challenger singer in Hunan Television's singing competition Singer 2019.
On March 25, 2019, Liu won the Best New Artist and the Internet Influence Honor awards at the Chinese Top Ten Music Awards. His "Toast the Wine" was also awarded the Media Recommended OST. In March 2019, Liu participated as regular member in Hunan TV's variety show Our Brilliant Masters.
In October 2019, Liu participated as a regular member in Shanghai TV's music show Our Song 2019. As one of the eight young singers, he teamed up with older generation singer Richie Jen.[14]
Liu and Modern Brothers also held their first concert tour in 5 cities from August to November 2019 (the last stop, planned to be held on February 14, 2020, in Wuhan, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic).[15][16]
In December 2019, Liu released his first solo studio album "Ten" (十).[17]
In July 2020, Liu brought his new single "Talking about Love" (你说爱情啊) to the stage of Chinese Top Ten Music Awards, he also won the All-rounded Artist of the Year award, the People's Choice Singer Award, and the Media Recommended Album for his first studio album "Ten" (十).[18]
In early 2021, Liu and Modern Brothers' 5 years contract with YY ended. They chose to leave the company, and Liu created his own artist studio with a few staffs to manage his solo works. Liu also released more than 30 OSTs for various TV series, movies, documentaries, and video games, including "Heavenly Questions" (天问) for the popular TV series Word of Honor, which won 3 consecutive top hits in Uni Music chart.[19][20] In March 21, "Magical Surprise" (奇妙的惊喜), the new theme song Liu sang for the 5th anniversary of Shanghai Disneyland was released. Liu is the first Chinese pop singer to sing a Chinese theme song for Disney.[21] Liu also sang the character song for Wei Wuxian in the Anime series Mo Dao Zu Shi.
In October 2021, Liu returned as a regular member in Shanghai TV's music show Our Song 2021. He teamed up with Penny Tai.[22]
In November 2021, Liu again won the All-rounded Artist of the Year award, the Internet Influential Male Singer award, and the Most Popular EP award for his second EP "Listen∙Ning" at the Chinese Top Ten Music Awards.[citation needed]
In summer of 2022, the theme song "Looking for you" for popular TV series "Love Between Fairy and Devil" won him 4 consecutive champions in TenCent Music Billboard.[citation needed]
Besides his music career, he gains growing recognition for acting through dramas. His popular roles include "Hei Yanjing" in TV series "Ultimate Note", Hao Du in TV series "the Long Ballad", and Bai Choufei in drama "Heroes".[citation needed]
Even though he has debuted as a singer and actor, Liu still does regular livestream on his Weibo page that can lasts 2 ~ 5 hours. He mentioned that livestream is a bridge for him to sing and communicate with his fans. He mostly does live performances without his band members too as they're now focusing on family business, but the group hasn't disbanded and they're still close to each other, hence his self-introduction will always be "Modern Brother's Liu Yuning."[citation needed]
On March 27, 2023, paparazzi and blogger YangYang broke the news that Liu had been married in April 2012, got divorced in December 2013. Within two hours, Liu, who was still in hair and costume for drama filming, opened a live broadcast and stated, "I, Liu Yuning, was married once; of course I am now divorced, and I have no children." He explained that he hasn't been in contact with his ex-wife and expressed extreme remorse for disrupting her life. Liu also scolded the paparazzi for exposing the pictures of his ex-wife and her little child, who is not related to him, to the public eye, calling the act inhumane. He said his past marriage isn't something hidden because there's no secrecy in the entertainment industry. However, he didn't believe it was necessary to bring it up to the public since it happened long before his debut. With his current status as a celebrity, he thought disclosing this information wouldn't bring any good to his ex-wife. He announced his intention to take legal action to restore justice for her.[23]
Originally scheduled for 7 shows, on January 22, 2020, Liu Yuning announced on his personal Weibo that the concert in Wuhan will be postponed due to severe COVID-19 epidemic and to ensure everyone's health and safety. The rescheduled performance time will be notified separately. Tickets sold remains valid after postponement and rescheduling. [31][32]