Volume 8 / Chapter 258
TL: LightNovelCafe
Editor: Isleidir
They are cheering for Jun Hyuk who was able to achieve all of these amazing feats, and not the number of trophies he took. For singers in particular, it is a blessing to meet this kind of producer.
Their cheering also includes their envy over Alvin Lee.
The female singer who won Best Pop Solo Performance raised her hand and gestured to Jun Hyuk.
“This trophy is thanks to Maestro Jun. My alb.u.m is an arrangement of his ‘A, I, U, E, O’. I give the honor to him.”
There was clapping again for Jun Hyuk, and CBS cameras shot a close up of Jun Hyuk’s embarra.s.sed face. Jun Hyuk has not yet listened to this alb.u.m, which is an arrangement of his songs.
The ceremony kept heading toward the end. Once Best New Artist was given out, Alvin Lee’s special performance began.
This performance felt like it was telling everyone who the winner of the remaining 3 awards would be. The musicians attending the show seemed to have given up on trying to win the awards, and were enjoying the show.
It is evident from alb.u.m sales even without the critical acclaim. Musicians up for the 3 major awards also know that their alb.u.ms cannot be compared to ‘The Life of Alvin’.
Song of the Year went to ‘Wife’ and Record of the Year and Alb.u.m of the Year went to ‘The Life of Alvin’.
As what President Stern had said it in jest was unfolding, his eyes started turning red as he sat behind the audience.
Alvin Lee and the members gave their acceptance speeches for Alb.u.m of the Year with both hands full of trophies as they enjoyed the flashing cameras.
Jun Hyuk dominated today’s Grammys as he took a total of 10 awards. Michael Jackson with ‘Thriller’ and Santana with ‘Supernatural’ had the most awards in history with 8 each, but Jun Hyuk had broken that record today.
The ending performance for the Grammys was up to Metallica, the ‘G.o.d of Metal’. They are distant from a Grammy award because they did not release an alb.u.m this year, but they showed the stance of a great by embellishing the last stage with an incredible performance.
Everyone stood up and cheered when they entered. When they discovered another great entering, their cheering near that of astonishment.
It was Jun Hyuk.
This surprise show that started with a word from Metallica’s guitarist, Kirk Hammett. When they had met in rehearsals, Kirk Hammett jokingly asked Jun Hyuk when he would be repaying him for using his mansion in Hawaii. The program producer had seen this and proposed a joint performance. And that joint performance had come to be the ending show of the Grammys.
The special performance was created in 2 floors, and there was a grand piano on the top floor. Jun Hyuk sat in front of the piano and played the keys.
The song that flowed from his fingertips was Metallica’s ‘One’.
***
Kyung Min Ho was not the only person who was stroking the 10 trophies in disbelief. This was the same for Tara and President Stern as well.
“Jun, take all of these trophies. That’s only right.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. It’s your alb.u.m, Alvin.”
Though the alb.u.m has his own name on it, Alvin spoke of it as Jun Hyuk’s work and showed that he has no thoughts of taking the trophies.
Neither gave in and kept talking noisily when President Stern interjected.
“Leave it to me. I know where these trophies will look best.”
With a look from President Stern, the staff started to carefully pack up the trophies.
“Isaac. Where is the place that you’re so confident?”
Alvin looked at President Stern in suspicion, wondering what the old man had up his sleeve this time.
“We’re actually in the middle of creating a music hall right now. It’s something Jun wants.”
“What? A music hall?”
“Yeah. Jun said he wants a complete studio, so I’m working on it.”
“Isaac, I just talked about a studio. I wasn’t thinking about a music hall.”
Jun Hyuk was confused by something he was hearing about for the first time as well. A music hall? In his mind, he thought of Avery Hall, the home of the New York Philharmonic. On the one hand, he even started to feel excited when he imagined a theater.
A studio and theater of his own. It is perfect with just one more thing.
“The bas.e.m.e.nt will have the perfect studio Jun spoke of, and the ground with have a large concert hall that can seat at least 6,000 people and theaters of various sizes. There needs to be an outdoor music hall too… It’ll have all facilities.”
A pa.s.sionate heat came out of his eyes as he explained it.
“Anyway, It’s a huge project that we’re putting $5 billion into. $3 billion from Jun, and I’m investing $2 billion. There are a lot of outside people who want to invest too, but I turned all of them down. They might start bothering us with something like a Board of Directors.”
Alvin’s jaw dropped at the mention of $5 billion, and Kyung Min Ho was converting it to the Korean won on his fingers.
“What… 5 trillion won?”
Kyung Min Ho always tried to speak in English, but he could not help but burst out in Korean right now.
“I already talked to New York’s mayor, too. New York City is going to take care of the infrastructure construction. We’re working on purchasing the site and designing right now.”
“Isaac. I feel like this is the first time Jun is hearing about this too from his expression… Are you doing all of this without discussing it with him?”
Alvin barely came back to his senses and spoke as he looked at Jun Hyuk.
“Arbitrarily taking care of it when $3 billion of Jun’s money is going into it… You really are a wicked manager. He he.”
President Stern waved his hand at Alvin’s joke.
“You say that because you don’t know. $3 billion? That’s nothing to Jun. He must have made over $20 billion this year. It’s actually a bigger deal that I invested $2 billion. My band account is completely empty.”
Jun Hyuk did not show any reaction to the number, as though proving what President Stern was saying.
Before President Stern could even finish, Kyung in Ho was counting on his fingers again. When he was done converting from dollars to won, his mouth would not close.
Money in the trillions! Isn’t that the kind of number in government budgets or conglomerate families like Samsung? An individual making trillions of won?
‘He’s on a different scale.’
Kyung Min Ho’s earnings increased dramatically while partic.i.p.ating in Alvin’s alb.u.m and the concert tour. He had been making in the thousands or ten thousands range in Korea, but the money he now had in the bank was in the hundred thousands. But a number in the billions is not something that he can wrap his head around.
President Stern did not mind the other people being surprised, and kept talking about his plan with a heated expression.
“The music hall’s name is Jun Center. It’ll become a landmark comparative to Lincoln Center. We’re also working on a program that’ll allow young and promising artists with nowhere to perform except on the streets, to perform at the center for free. We’re going to find the hidden gems.”
Jun Hyuk had only been listening until now, when he finally spoke up.
“Then when will that project be done? I want that studio quickly… Will this take years?”
“Don’t worry. We’re going to finish building the studio first. You’ll be able to use it by the summer latest.”
He still looked full of concern.
“And change the name.”
“The name? Why? Do you want to write it in Korean?”
“No. You invested in it too, so it needs to be Jun & Stern. Why is my name the only one on it. JS Center. That sounds good.”
President Stern burst out in laughter.
“You really always exceed my expectations. I would have cried out of sadness if you hadn’t said that first. I get upset with the smallest things as I get older.”
President Stern took the trophies that the employees had packed up, and left for the hotel laughing.
Alvin’s group went to Detroit to continue with their tour, and Jun Hyuk went back to Switzerland with Amelia. He did not forget to ask for a favor before leaving.
“Tara. Get all of the alb.u.ms that were released by arranging my music. I want to listen to them.”
“What? All of them? That’ll be easily over several hundreds.”
“It’s okay. I can tell what they’ll be like just by listening to the first part anyway. If I listen to the entirety of an alb.u.m, wouldn’t that be an incredible alb.u.m?”
It is something he thought of as he saw the pop singer who won a Grammy with an alb.u.m arranged with his music. He provided original melodies, but never thought about the results.
He wants to see the diversity. It is fun to see how his music changed while pa.s.sing through various people’s hands.