Biography

Anders Nelsson has been a part of Hong Kong's entertainment scene for over 50 years, starting in school bands in his alma mater, King George Vth School, and going on to practically all aspects of the industry.
His first professional singing performances were with The Kontinentals, and he continues singing, composing and recording to this day and is currently working on a new collection of songs for release in 2011/2012.
He has acted in countless episodes of Chinese TV dramas on all Hong Kong's TV channels, including CTV, RTHK, RTV, ATV and HK-TVB and has recently been discovered by TV stations in China.
His first and most famous acting job was in the Bruce Lee film Way Of The Dragon, in which he played a thug in a back alley, and recently he was invited to play the role of Lee's headmaster in the biopic Bruce Lee, My Brother.
Behind the scenes he has worked as a journalist writing about entertainment, music publisher, and as A&R Manager at EMI (HK) Limited in the 1970s and Managing Director of BMG Pacific Limited from 1989 to 1992.
Nelsson has been working as a radio DJ since winning several DJ contests while still a teenager, and currently works for public broadcaster RTHK. He also DJs 'live' and acts as Master of Ceremonies for events of all kinds.
He currently runs his own Anders Nelsson Group of Companies, working with music publishing, event production and sourcing of products for the entertainment industry.
In 2010 he celebrated 60 years in Hong Kong and in 2011, his 65th birthday.

Further reading

1n 1963 Nelsson's school band The Kontinentals, signed their first recording contract and shortly afterwards released I Think Of Her and I Still Love You, both chart-topping hits in Hong Kong.

Since that time, Anders has played and recorded with several bands, including MING, which had many hits in the 1970s, including Reasons Why and U ’n’ I.

In 1976 he switched to composing and producing and has written many jingles and film soundtracks, including the main theme for the award-winning Cantonese movie Mr. Vampire.

From 1976 to 1979 he worked for EMI (HK) Ltd as Artist & Repertoire Manager and in 1979 started his own group of Companies, The Melody Bank which became a successful production and publishing house, and The Entertainment Company, which managed several successful Hong Kong artists, including Rowena Cortes and Louie Castro.

10 years later he sold The Melody Bank to BMG Pacific Limited and joined this newly-emerging ‘major’ in the music industry as Managing Director.

In this role he set up BMG’s music publishing operations in the Asian Region as well as running the record company in Hong Kong.

After completing his three-year contract Nelsson was headhunted by the well-known Hong Kong Swaine family (patriarch of this family, Sir John Swaine QC was at the time chairman of both the Royal HK Jockey Club and the Legislative Council.) A new company called The Media Bank was set up under the Chairmanship of elder son John Swaine Junior, with Nelsson as MD. Through Nelsson’s music industry contacts the company acquired representation of several indie labels and publishing catalogues.
Nelsson left the company shortly after the Handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997 to pursue China-related opportunities as a consultant.

Over the decades Nelsson has also presented concerts by and booked major international artists such as Kenny G, Elton John, Bob Dylan, INXS, Bananarama and Michael Bolton. He still books artists for corporate events and charity events.

His acting career started with a small role in Bruce Lee’s Way of The Dragon in the early 1970s and he has appeared in countless Hong Kong-made TV dramas since then, for all the Hong Kong channels, CTV, RTHK, HK-TVB and RTV/ATV.

Among his roles have been Divine Retribution (ATV), Wiselee (TVB) and feature film Journey To The West with Nicholas Tse, released in late 2005. During late 2005 and early 2006 he taped several drama serials for HK-TVB including Stanley Story, which went on air on May 15, 2006 and Land of Wealth, which was screened in October, 2006. He has also appeared as a guest in Jade Solid Gold and is currently seen as an expert promoting HK-TVB’s HD-TV channels. He finds that having his face appear on TV on a regular basis opens many doors, especially in China, and keeps this aspect of his career as a business tool as well as hobby.

He is currently a well-respected entertainment industry and PR consultant doing work for prestigious Asian companies, including some of the major record companies, Hong Kong’s popular restaurant and bar district Knutsford Terrace, and his native country of Sweden, through his group of companies, which include a music production company, a music publishing company and a PR company.

He still enjoys singing and in mid-2005 started a new concept band…..the concept being that it can range in size from just Nelsson and a pianist up to as many musicians as a client can afford or accommodate on a stage! In view of this flexibility, he named the band INFINITY and the group has performed at many high-profile events including the 2005 Macau Grand Prix, the final New Year’s Eve party at the legendary, now-closed, Hyatt Regency Hotel, the Canadian Community Ball (2004, 2005, 2006), the Jailhouse Rock party at the historical Victoria Prison to raise funds for the Community Chest and many private parties and events.

In September 2006 a Guangzhou, China-based record company released an album of Chinese favorites sung in English by Nelsson.

He is also recording a CD of some of his favorite songs for release in 2010 which will be the 60th anniversary of Nelsson’s arrival in Hong Kong as a child in 1950 with his parents.

Nelsson is considered somewhat of an expert in music-related copyright matters and in a more serious side to his career has been engaged by the Hong Kong government as an expert witness from time to time.
He has in the past served several terms as a director on the boards of both the Music Publishers Association (M.P.A.) and The Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong (C.A.S.H.)

Filmography

1992 Xin jiang shi xian sheng

1989 Wo ai Tang Ren Jie

1989 Yi mei dao ren

1988 Ai qing mi yu

1987 Xia cu da zhang fu

1987 Ming dai tao hua

1987 Biao ge dao

1987 Ling huan xian sheng

1987 The Haunted Copshop

1986 Mao shan xiao tang

1986 Foo gwai lit che

1985 Jungle Heat

1985 City Ninja

1982 My Darling, My Goddess

1978 The Tattoo Connection

Websites

• http://www.facebook.com/andersnelsson
• http://www.youtube.com/theAndersNelsson
• https://twitter.com/#!/andersnelsson
• http://www.myspace.com/andersnelsson