Maybe Tomorrow (A-Mei album)

Several months before the release of Maybe Tomorrow, A-Mei found herself in the forefront of political pressure cooker situations. She was forced to abruptly cancel a concert in Hangzhou in June after students from Zhejiang University accused her of being a "supporter of Taiwanese independence."^[8] Back home, she was under fire from individuals who championed Taiwanese pride, including the then-Vice President of the Republic of China, Annette Lu.^[9] She held a concert in Beijing on July 31, 2004, to a 10,000 strong audience; A-Mei confessed that she had never felt such great pressure at a concert before when fans begged her not to be disturbed by the raucous protesters.^[10] A-Mei herself served as the producer of the album, and also invited Singaporean arranger Martin Tang to complete the arrangement of the entire album.^[11]

The album is rock-oriented, attempting to bring A-Mei's best rock styles and sisterly love songs to the forefront, utilizing easy-to-sing songs to communicate directly with the audience at the initial stage.^[11] Other deeper songs are rewritten to have more depth.^[11] A-Mei wrote the two songs "Love Is the Only Way" and "Crucial Moment" on the album.^[12]

"Love Is the Only Way" is a pop rock song written by Shih Li.^[12] The album also specially includes the demo version of "Love is the Only Way" originally created by A-Mei.^[12] The retro funk song "Fire" was tailored for A-Mei by her good friend at the time Wang Leehom.^[12] "What Happened" is an upbeat chamber pop song written by A-Mei herself along with Xu Guangyi, Shih Li and Jonathan Koh; Jonathan Koh also composed it.^[12] "Are You Well?" is a power ballad written by Hu Ruhong and composed by Dreamz FM.^[12] "Crucial Moment" is an indie rock song written by Shih Li.^[12] The album's title track is a synthesizer-heavy pop ballad written by Shih Li and composed by Martin Tang.^[12]

"Love High Heels" is a country-influenced song written by Shi Li and composed by Xu Guangyi.^[12] "Love Song Of Nalu Bay" is a hard rock track written and composed by Charles Tso.^[12] "Can't Make It Through" is a piano-driven ballad written by Kate Liao and composed by Wu Guanyan and Yi Jet Qi.^[12] "Who Is Fighting?" was written by Shih Li and composed by Martin Tang; it is musically a pop rock and synthpop-inspired number.^[12] Xu Guangyi and Wang Meilian wrote and composed the song "High Spirits," which takes influences from Indian pop music.^[12] "Charming" is a sunshine pop song written by Tian Tian and composed by Martin Tang.^[12]

The album was A-Mei's first release after the "boycott storm," and she took the opportunity to express her feelings at the time, which is why the album was titled Maybe Tomorrow.^[13] The cover art portrays her sitting down with a guitar in her arms.^[13]

On August 31, 2004, is was reported that the album would be released on September 17 of the same year.^[14] The song "Love Is Only Way" was also broadcast on some radio stations in the Chinese mainland on the same day.^[14] A-Mei was originally supposed to hold a performance in Luzhou on September 29, 2004, but it was cancelled due to a poor box office performance.^[15] On October 5, 2004, A-Mei participated in Variety Big Brother and played the saxophone on the spot.^[16] The album's lead single "Fire" was accused by netizens and radio DJ's of plagiarizing No Doubt's "Hella Good" and N*E*R*D's "She Wants to Move"; Wang Leehom responded to these allegations by stating: "Chinese music needs to try new things, just as there are many schools of thought in the arts, so does music. I tried to put a lot of different musical elements into this song, and the No Doubt element is one of them."^[17]

Commercially, Maybe Tomorrow was not as successful as A-Mei's previous records in Taiwan.^[18] It became her first to not rank in the country's top 20 year-end album sales charts,^[6] and earned the singer the lowest first sales of her career at the time, with 80,000 units sold.^[5] The album's sales performance was attributed to its unorthodox musical style, lack of promotion and stiff competition by other artists at the time, as described by Sinophone publications.^[19] Adding fuel to the fire, it was also reported around the same time that her relationship with her executive agent Gao Yixiu had changed.^[18] The many highly publicized setbacks during the entirety of 2004 convinced A-Mei to take a one-year hiatus from showbusiness to study abroad in Boston, Massachusetts.^[20] She left for the United States to study on January 18, 2005.^[21]

The music video for "Love Is the Only Way" was directed by Jin Zhuo.^[22] A-Mei proposed to add homosexual love in the music video due to her being very moved by a gay wedding she attended before.^[23] The scenes of gay wedding and kissing in the MV made the popularity of this song soar, attracting a strong reaction in the gay community.^[23] There was a strong reaction in the gay community, and after the video aired, the record company began to receive a steady stream of phone calls from fans, both encouraging and supportive, as well as gay people who wanted to talk to her.^[23] On the Yahoo dating site, many netizens immediately changed their nicknames to "Love Is the Only Way," with some netizens posted that this was the first time a singer had expressed their pure and simple love so eloquently.^[24] In October 2004, it was featured in American LGBT magazine The Advocate.^[25] The video ended becoming barred from broadcasting in the mainland.^[26]

The video for "Fire" was directed by Xu Renfeng.^[27] A-Mei changed into three sets of clothes throughout the video, including a suit, a denim jacket with fur, and a low-cut white gauze dress; the filming took more than twelve hours, with complicated changes of clothes and strenuous dancing.^[28] Jinhe Lin directed the video for the album's title track, which depicts A-Mei singing in a grey room and walking down a seaside in the end.^[29] The video for "Are You Well?" was directed by Jin Zhuo.^[30] On January 6, 2005, the song "Fire" was listed at number 60 on the Hit FM Top 100 Singles of the Year chart of 2004.^[31]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
MTVChinese.com	[32]
Freshmusic	6/10[33]

Upon its release, Maybe Tomorrow received mixed reviews from most music critics. Yuzi of MTVChinese.com rated the album two and a half stars out of five; he praised the ambition of the album, but criticized it for having a lack of depth and stated that A-Mei's vocal cords were wearing out.^[32] NetEase appreciated the album's maturity, stating that while it has flaws, it is worth looking forward to.^[34] Freshmusic gave the album a six out of 10 stars, calling it a precursor to her Amit persona, as well as singling out the songs "Love is The Only Way," "Fire," "Are You Well?" and the title track as its highlights.^[33]

Maybe Tomorrow earned A-Mei a nomination for Best Mandarin Female Singer at the 16th Golden Melody Awards.^[35] Jin Zhuo was nominated for Best Music Video Director for directing the "Love Is the Only Way" music video.^[35]