Chongqing - Jonathan Steingard, the Canadian singer-songwriter best known as the former frontman of pop-punk band Hawk Nelson and the voice behind the viral hit Sold Out, has found an unexpected second home in China — and his latest single is a tribute to one of its most cinematic cities.
A couple of years ago, Steingard started noticing Chongqing across his social media feeds: riverside teahouses, neon skylines, and vertiginous architecture often described as "cyberpunk." The footage hooked him. "It looked absolutely incredible," he recalled. So when the Trip Music Award 2 competition invited artists to compose original songs for Chinese cities, he bypassed every other option and chose Chongqing.
The result, City of Light, was written in a single day and produced the next — a tight turnaround that belies its emotional weight. Steingard was adamant that the track not sound like a tourism jingle. "I wanted it to feel like a real song," he explained, "made by someone who is passionate about a place." The lyrics trade generic slogans for a sense of personal wonder: "Let's get lost in the city of light / Trade our days for the summer nights."
Steingard's connection to China runs deeper than social media. His grandparents spent much of their lives in Shanghai, giving him a familial connection to the country long before his music found an audience there. Around 2019, Sold Out exploded across Chinese social platforms, eventually racking up billions of streams and leading to concert invitations. More recently, he lent his voice to Wildfire, a track featured in miHoYo's hit game Honkai: Star Rail.
Now filming a documentary in Mozambique, Steingard has been following the online response to City of Light from halfway around the world. The enthusiasm has already translated into concrete plans: on December 10, he will bring his "Wo Shi" tour to Chongqing's YinPai Power livehouse, marking his first performance in the city that inspired the song. "Thank you for loving Chongqing as much as I do," he told fans, "or maybe even more."