Gong Linna’s New Year Playlist

“In the Year of the Dragon, may everyone be invigorated in the face of adversity, in tune with nature and may all your wishes come true!” Gong Linna tells Apple Music. For her 2024 Chinese New Year playlist, the soprano, equally at at home collaborating with chamber ensembles and appearing on reality shows, fuses an appealing blend of tradition and modernity. Her picks span the lightfolk melody of “Vast Territory” from Peking soloist Li Yugang to Faye Wong’s version of “Wishing We Last Forever”, while there’s no shortage of hard-hitting tracks, like “Unperturbed”, a boisterous, confident remake (with rapper Good morning), her own viral hit “Perturbed”, and a reimagining of “Mother of the Land”. “It’s the purest form of maternal love and also an expression of feminine power, a realisation of self-worth that radiates spiritual energy,” Linna says of the traditional Yi folk song. “I also want to continue my ‘Voice Initiative’ programme [next year], gather folk songs and stage a concert that presents a musical tour of China, from mythic times to the present day.” For the holidays, the singer (from Guizhou, Southwestern China) celebrates with hometown customs. “Every year the whole family makes sweet rice balls together using traditional hand-ground, glutinous rice flour, filled with my parents’ rose and nut filling—or chocolate, which the kids like,” she says. “The fragrance foretells sweet joy and reunion in the coming year.”