The original singer of "Eighteen Bends of the Mountain Road" is Li Qiong.
Li Qiong, born in Wuhan, Hubei Province, is now a famous young singer of the Cultural and Industrial Troupe of the Armed Police Headquarters. She was awarded the Grand Prize of the Eighth National Young Singers Competition of CCTV; her solo work "Eighteen Bends of the Mountain Road" was awarded the Audience's Favorite Singer Prize and the Best Singing Prize at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 1999.
The works "Eighteen Bends of the Mountain Road", "Three Gorges, My Hometown", "800 Miles of Dongting, My Home", "Old King", "Sisters of Qingtan, Sisters of Leaktan", etc. were all awarded the "Five Firsts Project Prize" issued by the Propaganda Department of the CPC.
Li Qiong was a volunteer who drove to Mianyang, Mianzhu, Deyang, Shifang, Guangyuan, Qingchuan, Jiangyou, Dujiangyan and Yingxiu during the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, leaving behind light (500 flashlights and 500 emergency lights) and companionship (200 small electric fans and 1,000 small cloth dolls).
Background of the composition of "Eighteen Bends of the Mountain Road"
The song was initially called "Children of the Sun", but Yan Su later renamed it "Eighteen Bends of the Mountain Road". The lyrics of the song are derived from the poem "Songs and Roads of the Tujia" written by lyricist Tong Wensi in his hometown of Changyang.
In the summer of 1990, Tong Wensi went to the west of Ezhou for a picnic, where he enjoyed Tujia folklore performances such as the Pendulum Hand Dance, the Bashan Dance, and the Weeping Marriage Song.
At that time, when the car was crawling on the mountain road, he was attracted by the scenery of the Qingjiang River and the distant mountains surrounded by clouds, so he composed the poem "Songs and Roads of the Tujia". The lyrics of the song were polished over three years on the basis of that poem.