| at17 | |||||||||||
| Birth Place: | British Hong Kong | ||||||||||
| Years Active: | 2002–2010, 2017 | ||||||||||
| Website: | People mountain people sea | ||||||||||
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at17, consisting of Eman Lam and Ellen Joyce Loo, were a Hong Kong–based folktronica and Cantopop all-female band managed by People Mountain People Sea.
Loo and Lam first met each other at a singing competition held by Tom Lee Music Hong Kong – "Original Music 2000" (原音2000), in which Loo won the 3rd Prize and Lam won the 2nd. They were among the youngest participants. After the competition, they started performing at university campuses and other tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. In 2001, they were discovered by Anthony Wong Yiu-ming, the chairman of the music production company People Mountain People Sea and a renowned singer-songwriter during the 90's. Lam and Loo were then signed by the company on 1 January 2002, and the group was named at17.
The duo was invited to Amsterdam and performed as part of the Hong Kong Festival in 2005. From April 2006 to March 2007, they were appointed MCs for TVB's popular weekly music show Jade Solid Gold and frequently performed live in the show.
Their first mega concert Sing Sing Sing 2006 took place at AsiaWorld–Expo on 30 September 2006. Subsequently, they held a series of mini live shows called Just the two of us at Shouson Theatre, Hong Kong Arts Centre from 1 March 2007 to 1 May 2007, where they performed the songs of other artists.
Both Loo and Lam were involved considerably in the songwriting and production for their albums. Loo played the guitar and piano, and Lam plays the guitar and various percussion instruments. Their style may be best described as folktronica.
The group disbanded in 2010, as Loo pursued a solo career.[1]
Loo died after falling from her apartment building in Happy Valley, Hong Kong on 5 August 2018,[2] at the age of 32.
The group name at17 was derived from the song "At Seventeen", a bittersweet commentary on adolescent cruelty and teenage angst, sung by one of Lam's favourite singers Janis Ian.[3] Inspired by the song, a lot of at17's songs express teenage girls' sentiments, but in a slightly optimistic way. The style of their songs has shown some influences from Janis Ian as well.