Keung To

Keung To (姜濤) is a Hong Kong singer, actor, and a member of the Hong Kong boy band group Mirror. He rose to fame after winning ViuTV's reality talent competition Good Night Show - King Maker in 2018. Keung made his solo debut in June 2019 with the single "No. 1 Seed".

Keung won the My Favourite Male Singer and My Favourite Song award at the Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation in 2020 and 2021, he is the youngest ever to do so.

Early life
Born at Queen Mary Hospital on 30 April 1999. He is an only child. He attended Oi Kwan Road Baptist Church Lui Kwok Pat Fong Kindergarten, Hennessy Road Government Primary School (Causeway Bay), Tang Shiu Kin Victoria Government Secondary School, and graduated with a diploma from Yeo Chei Man Senior Secondary School.

In 2017, Keung participated in the Mainland Chinese talent show Super Boy. He was victorious in the regional trials, becoming one of the four representatives of the region of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. He finished in the top 30.

2018–present: Mirror
In 2018, Keung participated in the television reality talent show, Good Night Show - King Maker created by ViuTV as contestant #99. On 14 October, he won the competition, finishing with a combined score of 21.4%, determined by a professional judging panel and public votes.

On 3 November 2018, Keung made his debut as a member of boy music group, Mirror, at a press conference with their debut single "In a Second" (一秒間).

2019–2021: Early solo activities
In June 2019, Keung made his solo debut with the release of "Seed No.1", quickly climbing the mainstream pop music charts, topping at third place.

In July, he held a solo concert, for which tickets quickly sold out. His following two singles, "Atlantis", released in September, and "A Little More A Day" , in December, both charted on Hong Kong pop music charts.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted his plans to South Korea to film a music video for a new song that had already been produced. In response to the pandemic, Keung released the single "The Love Without Words" (also known as "Saying I Love You With My Mouth Covered"; ). The music video, directed by Fen Yuen, emphasised the pandemic's effects on the lifestyle of Hongkongers. "The Love Without Words" won Most Popular Song at the 2020 Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation. Keung also won Most Popular Male Singer at the same award show.

On 2 September 2020, Keung released his fifth single "Disease of Loneliness". In contrast with the styles of his previous songs, the lyrics for this single evokes a deep sadness, revolving around Keung's personal experiences with loneliness. Keung created and directed the concept of the song's music video, shot in one continuous take. On 15 November, Keung released his sixth single "Love Visa Application". The song and music video were recorded and produced in Taiwan. Keung participated in writing the lyrics of the song and the story of the music video.

On 19 March 2021, Keung released "Master Class", a Reggaeton and Blues song, receiving widespread positive feedback. On 29 May 2021, "Master Class" became Keung's first single to top four Hong Kong mainstream music charts. His eighth single, "Dear My Friend," was released on 5 August 2021. The ballad details his grief for his late friend Kin Lam who died unexpectedly in March 2021. The single topped the weekly local streaming charts on KKBOX, Moov and Joox for four weeks. The song also won Most Popular Song at the 2021 Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation, making him the only winner to have won both Most Popular Song and Most Popular Male Singer in consecutive years. On 27 August, Error member Fatboy and Keung released the single "Agent Fat Keung 2.0", as a continuation from their first performance together (特務肥姜), in Good Night Show - King Maker.

2021–2023: Self-inspection period
In September 2021, Keung announced the completion of the conceptual design of his 9th solo project, which also incorporated a mini documentary series, released via the Mirror Youtube Channel. Part 1 of the documentary was released on 9th November 2021, titled "Answers" with the second part titled "Questions" released in on 19th November. Keung expressed that the aim of the docuseries is to show people his most authentic self. In the series, he openly talked about dealing with the immense pressure and how it has affected his emotional health. "Spiegel Im Spiegel" 《鏡中鏡》, Keung's ninth solo song made its debut on stage at the MOOV Music on the Road concert, held on December 7, 2021. Keung incorporated krumping in the choreography of this particular performance to express the angst induced by the sense of isolation and self doubt that came with fame. The final part of his docuseries was released on 26th January 2022 where he left himself a reminder of how he dealt with the emotional lows.

He collaborated with singer-songwriter AGA on the single "I Know", released on December 16, his first duet with a female vocalist.

Keung released his 10th solo work "What the Work Says" as a present to the fans on his 23rd birthday (30th April 2022), a piece that took a Lennon-esque stance against war and violence recorded at the early stages of the Russian Ukraine conflict. The music video marked the second directorial work by Keung and is a more ambitious piece that drew influences from Broadway productions, and was nominated for best music video in the Asian Television Awards in the same year.

Mirror's public activities came to a halt in July 2022 after a serious incident at the group's concert that left two dancers with severe injuries. All the members, including Keung, had to take a leave of absence, and they only returned to public eye to promote the TV series "We Got Game" in October 2022. However, on November 11, Keung suffered an accident during the 903 All Star Basket Game that left him hospitalized with injuries to his knee and Achille's heel, requiring surgery and a prolonged recovery.

Despite a long hiatus and only releasing two songs in the year, Keung still received accolades at multiple music awards, including Commercial Radio's Ultimate Song Chart Awards, winning 4th place of "Top 10 Ultimate Songs" with "Spiegel Im Spiegel," and the My Favourite Song Award with "What the Work Says." The performance marked Keung's return to stage after recovering from surgery. His emotional and physical condition during the performance led to a slurry of criticism and attacks on social media.

In response, Keung released his 11th single "Dummy", a song about self-deprecation, in which he reminds himself to stay level headed and never become a mindless dummy. During interview at this period, Keung admitted that he had to dig deep to deal with the negativity resulting from the media attacks but appreciated all the criticism which gave him a chance to inspect his own flaws and improve. He debuted the song live at HKT West Kowloon Music Festival on 2nd April 2023, which later Keung described as "one of the most important performances of his career".

2023–present: First solo concert and increasing market reach
Keung held "Waves: In my sight 2023" at the AsiaWorld Arena with four sold out shows in August 2023. He released his twelfth single "Ocean" 《濤》 as the title song for this concert series, and collaborated with master choreographer Mui Cheuk-Yin on a much acclaimed opening medley that infused contemporary and Chinese dance styles into the performance. The song won "My Favourite Song Award" at the Ultimate Song Chart Awards in 2023 with record breaking number of votes received, and this marked the 4th year winning streak for Keung and a first ever in the award's history. "Ocean" also came 6th in the Professional Recommendation segment of the Top 10 Ultimate Song Awards Presentation in 2023.

Keung performed two unreleased songs at his solo concert. "You are out of this world," a tribute to his fans for their unwavering support and "Every Single Time", an R&B influenced love song written by Louis Cheung.

On 23rd November 2023, released his 13th solo single "The Irregulars", written and arranged by Terence Lam with lyrics by Wyman Wong. The song was seen as a continuation to the story in "Love Visa Application" with the music video shot predominantly in Taiwan, starring actress Tammy Lin who was also featured in the previous video.

Keung teamed up again with lyricist Siu Hak on his 14th single "Dark Moon", a song about the duality of humanity and how greed and other sins can drive one to give in to the unrestrained desires, and the only path to resist that temptation is to be reminded of one's purest intent. This also marked the first time Keung worked with producer T-Ma, who also wrote and arranged the music.

The promotional single "Bread and Better" marked the first English/Mandarin collaboration between Keung, Gareth Tong and Singaporean singer-songwriter Gentle Bones. The music video was released on 24th February 2024 on HSBC Singapore's Youtube channel.

"You are out of this world" was released on 30th April 2024 on Keung's 25th birthday as a present to his fans.

Acting career
Keung made his acting debut on the ViuTV television series Retire to Queen. Keung made a cameo appearance in the youth drama series We are the Littles, which aired in December 2020. He starred in the drama series Ink at Tai Ping, which aired in January 2021. In August 2020, Keung began filming for Taiwanese drama Sometimes When We Touch. Filming concluded on 15 November. The series began airing in August 2021. He made his film debut in the Kearen Pang film Mama's Affair, in which he co-stars with Teresa Mo and Jer Lau.

Keung starred as Jack in the film My Heavenly City (2023), a Chinese student living in New York.

In 2024, Keung made a special appearance in the heist film The Moon Thieves as Uncle, the unhinged and arrogant son of a deceased underground watch dealer. Keung starred in the action comedy We 12 alongside members of Mirror.

Awards and nominations
Film Award