Culture/Entertainment · NEWS EXPLAINER
Liu Huan Dies at 63: Beijing Olympics Singer and Music Educator Remembered
The singer, composer and longtime university teacher died in Shanghai on September 25. Official tributes remember the voice behind the 2008 Beijing Olympics theme and a mentor who invested in original Chinese music.
Chinese singer, composer and music educator Liu Huan died in Shanghai on September 25 at age 63, according to notices and tributes published the following day. His career stretched from television themes and major concert stages to more than three decades teaching Western music history at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
For many international viewers, his most recognizable moment came at the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, when he performed “You and Me” with British soprano Sarah Brightman. In China, his legacy also includes mentoring younger songwriters and backing a fund for original Chinese-language music.
A career split between the stage and the classroom
The China Musicians Association’s September 26 tribute described Liu as a singer, songwriter, film-and-television composer and music educator. The University of International Business and Economics, where he taught for more than 30 years, remembered his Western music history course as a long-running part of its arts education.
That teaching career was not a side note to his public profile. Liu joined the university in 1991 and retired in September 2023, building a parallel career in which popular performance and formal music education reinforced each other.
Why the 2008 Beijing Olympics remains a global reference point
At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Liu sang the official theme “You and Me” with Sarah Brightman. The performance put a familiar Chinese voice before a global television audience and remains the career moment most often highlighted in international obituaries.
The work he built around original music
Liu also used television and philanthropy to support new writers. He initiated and mentored the original-song program Sing My Song, and in 2019 he helped establish the Liu Huan Original Music Fund with the Mango V Foundation to support Chinese-language creators.
The official notices said funeral arrangements would be kept simple, with no public farewell ceremony or memorial service. The Mango V Foundation said the annual original-music fund would continue, leaving a concrete program alongside the recordings, teaching and performances for which he was known.