A Golden Voice and Life of Triumphal Hope: Jackie Li 擁抱不是必然•李金凱

ENGLISH 英 : Deborah Lau-Yu • CHINESE 中 : 文禮
Location: TVB City, Hong Kong
Photography: Alex Lam
Art Direction: Deborah Lau-Yu
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Esther Cheung, Steven Dong
As Featured in Annual Book of Incredible People Edition No. 11: The next Chapter

For the live audience and the thousands tuning in from their living rooms around the world, time seemed to stand still as a deep, velvety voice filled the room and stirred the souls of everyone listening. The lyrics of an Alan Tam classic were being sung with a storied richness that felt like the warm glow of love that was longed for. An unlikely silhouette emerged and Jackie Li stepped into the light to greet the judges.

At that moment, people may not have known how to react to the figure on stage—someone without arms, yet radiating a smile so disarmingly charming it lit up the room. His warmth and overwhelming positive life spirit quickly drew everyone into his presence. Sharing his life story in his mother tongue of Mandarin, it was even more astonishing how his performance captivated the room into complete silence with such a moving rendition of a Cantonese classic — something he says he grew up falling in love with and gave him hope during his darkest times. It was an immediate connection between the artist, his music, and his story that left no dry eye in the room. Through a reality show all about music, dreaming, and second chances, a star was born.

「也許我這輩子沒辦法主動擁抱大家，但我約定你們，下輩子，我一定會衝過去抱。」—— 李金凱

光與歌聲中的擁抱

燈光徐徐打在台上，站在台中的歌者沒有雙臂，卻有一把穿透人心的聲音。

三十九歲的李金凱（Jackie Li）用純正的廣東話唱出譚詠麟的《一生中最愛》，一字一句，像用生命唱出溫柔而堅定的旋律。觀眾不只是聽歌，而是屏息凝神地見證一段從雲南到香港，跨越千二公里的追夢旅程。

這位 2024 年 TVB 真人騷《中年好聲音 3》殿軍得主，同時是擁有大批粉絲的網絡博主，活躍於舞台與社交平台之間；他用現場演出感動觀眾，平日則以影像與文字陪伴遍佈世界的追隨者。

What would it mean to someone to have the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream in their middle-aged years? Whether that time lies ahead or behind them, the prospect of such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is what makes it truly precious. For Jackie, who was thirty-nine at the time of this story, the opportunity might even seem surreal. At the young age of ten, he encountered an accident with a seismic amount of electrical currents that took away both of his arms and severely damaged many of his organs, according to his doctors in charge of his case. What could have taken his life instead became a life-altering ordeal—devastating and somber, yet carrying a glimmer of hope. He credits his father, who didn’t spiral into darkness in the situation, but has been his rock and foundation. His father never once told Jackie that he is unlucky, or that he should feel sorry for himself for losing his arms. One might think the natural inclination for a parent would be to become more protective and limit the activities of a child who just lost his arms. Instead, his dad did the opposite: he dispelled those fears by letting go fully, which cultivated a deep trust and unshakable bond that formed Jackie’s courageous and untethered perspective towards the world. While the world around him might have seemed to shrink with fewer opportunities, his own world expanded with an open heart.

父親是生命中的強大後盾

十歲那年，一次意外讓李金凱不慎觸及碰五千伏高壓電，雖然命保住了，雙臂卻永遠離開了他。

醫生曾預言，他的身體器官受損嚴重，可能活不到二十歲。可他不但活了下來，還活得比很多健全人更有力量、更有笑容，更無畏無懼，活出他自己的凱歌。

「父親的信任，讓我無畏地探索世界。」李金凱坦言，父親的支持和鼓勵是他人生中最堅定的擁抱。意外發生後，父親從沒有否定他，反而在背後默默支持，放手讓他去嘗試。第一次出遠門時，儘管父親萬般不捨，不斷在腦海中演練可能遇到的危險，最後仍選擇放手，讓他出去闖蕩。

After he graduated from primary school in China, he enrolled in sports programs and competitions for athletes with disabilities. He encountered situations that felt unfair or imbalanced, such as competing in the same category or sport with others who had one arm, or sometimes people who had both arms with a milder disability than his. Throughout this process, his father remained his stalwart supporter, which pushed him to keep his momentum. Even when Jackie left home for an extended period for the first time, his father felt nervous but conveyed his trust through a firm, reassuring embrace.

Jackie has been committed to a positive life attitude, and today, radiates hope and positivity in everything he shares. Take singing in Cantonese as an example: the desire isn’t only attributed to his love for the songs and pop artists that accompanied him out of his darkest time in his later childhood in the 90s. Beyond’s rock vision, Alan Tam’s soothing classic, and Leslie Cheung’s romantic ballads… each of these Hong Kong icons penetrated his heart. For Jackie, embracing Cantonese reached far deeper, rooted in cultural memory and history. He remembered reading Chinese classical poetry written in Yue Cantonese and appreciating the nuance of tones, cadence, and meaning that was so beautiful when phrased how it was — “a different texture and taste,” Jackie observed. Therefore, as a native Mandarin speaker from Yunnan, learning Cantonese through music was a profoundly connective process, like a bridge between cultures. This, in turn, captured the spirit of music as a universal language, with the power to express sentiments and convey love to anyone, anywhere in the world.

從運動場到舞台中央

小學畢業後，李金凱成為殘疾田徑運動員。運動員的訓練並不容易，尤其是面對不公平的分組比賽制度：雙手不全的他，卻要與缺掌或單手健兒同場競技。

他還挑戰了另一個恐懼——游泳。雖然無法用雙手划水，但在朋友的守護下，他跳進野生水庫，逐步學會漂浮與前進。「能解決的就解決，不能解決的就順其自然。」

運動員的經歷，教會他將緊張轉化為力量。站上舞台時，他把躍動的心跳轉化為演出的能量。「經歷過生死，上台唱歌反而是一種榮幸。」

用聲音推動文化向前

九十年代的香港樂壇百花齊放：Beyond 的搖滾理想、譚詠麟的溫柔情懷、張國榮的浪漫與叛逆。這些廣東歌不僅陪伴李金凱度過人生低谷，也讓他深深感受到語文與文化之美。「很多詩詞，其實用粵語來讀才能完全押韻，有那個味道。」他特別以蘇東坡的《定風波》為例：「莫聽穿林打葉聲，何妨吟嘯且徐行；竹杖芒鞋輕勝馬，誰怕？一蓑煙雨任平生。」這首詞其實是按粵語聲韻寫成。同樣地，唱廣東歌不只是演繹旋律，更是透過音樂、語言和文字，抒發心中的信念與情感。

他在舞台上唱的每一首歌，都有故事。有些歌讓他想起年少的夢，有些歌則讓他回憶與朋友、家人共處的時光。「當物質匱乏時，人們的精神生活往往很豐富；當物質豐盛時，精神世界卻容易空虛。」他感嘆。正因如此，音樂的價值才更不可替代。

2025 年八月，他推出新歌《不會愛的人》，由張家誠擔任作曲、編曲及監製，歌詞則由他敬佩的 Beyond 經典作品填詞人劉卓輝創作。李金凱亦參與了該歌曲的作曲工作。

「就算多愛多愛，也都有遺憾。」這句歌詞，既是情愛的感嘆，也是他的人生寫照。雖然無法用雙手擁抱別人，但他用歌聲、故事與笑容，代替雙手緊緊擁抱聽眾。「也許我沒辦法主動抱你，但我會用我的聲音，讓你感到被抱著。」

The competition ‘Midlife, Sing and Shine’ spanned an entire season: 33 weeks of aired episodes with a live audience and millions more at home watching, each representing a grueling training process for every contestant, many whom like Jackie have travelled far to grasp at the chance for an opportunity of a music career. Dream chasers from Malaysia, China, Singapore, the UK, Canada, the USA, and beyond joined other local contestants on a transformative challenge that would change their lives. Beating out thousands of auditions and hundreds of competitors, the top eight finalists emerged as icons in their own right, gaining a dedicated global fan base among diaspora families who tuned in each week. Jackie finished in fourth place at the final competition, and his dream is now just beginning.

In August 2025, several months after the competition had ended, Jackie released his first original Cantonese song — a new single in collaboration with renowned Hong Kong composer and producer, Alan Cheung Ka-shing. In a full circle moment for the fans of Beyond, the lyrics of this new song were written by Gene Lau Cheuk-Fai, the mastermind behind many of Beyond’s greatest hits in the 90s. Aptly titled 《不會愛的人》 which in English, translates to “The Man Who Doesn’t Know How to Love,” the song carries significant meaning. The story of the song very fittingly captures the bittersweet reality for Jackie; no matter how much love he has for someone, he will never be able to use his arms to hug and hold them. Instead, he shares his music and “big love” to embrace both those he cares about and those who need that love. His smile, his energy, his stories and anecdotes, his voice… These are what he hopes might adequately replace the physical embrace he longed to give to others.

As his Chinese name suggests, may Jackie’s career be golden (金), and a triumph (凱) both personally and for others, as a beacon of hope and radiant light for the music industry that first inspired him.

勇敢嘗試不忘初心

二次人生，永不嫌晚。當被問到「如果想重新出發，該怎麼做？」李金凱總是回答：「先試試吧！」開始總是最難的，但不嘗試，就永遠不會有改變。

他喜歡 Michael Jackson 的《We Are The World》，因為它傳遞大愛；也喜歡張國榮的《追》，提醒自己追夢的同時，不要忘了最初的自己。

如今，他站上香港的舞台，甚至能在這座城市生活與工作，對他而言，是夢境成真。「我曾無數次幻想來香港旅行，沒想到會以音樂人的身份留下來，做自己熱愛的事，這比夢還美。」

每次回到家鄉，他依然愛吃兒時小吃、走熟悉的小路，口音也從未改變·····這些細節，是他確認自己沒有迷失的證明。

「好光陰，縱沒太多，一分鐘那又如何？」李金凱明白，不是每個人都會被他的故事觸動，但在幾萬人中，哪怕有一兩人因此改變，那他的努力就值得了。

不要等到失去機會才後悔，先試試吧！也許，燈光的開關就在你手邊。

結語：即使沉睡了，也在笑

採訪結束後，李金凱的聲音仍迴盪，像擦亮黑暗的燭光。

他的故事告訴我們：擁抱不一定由雙手來傳遞，它可以來自一首歌、一句真誠的話語，或是否一個永不放棄的眼神。

作為一名創作者，李金凱用聲音推動文化的傳承；作為一名生命鬥士，他用故事提醒我們：真正的勝利，是在面對逆境時，依然勇敢前行。

或許，我們該問問自己：那個最純粹的自己還在不在？如果還在，擁抱自己，不要害怕重新出發，讓自己「即使沉睡了，也在笑」。

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