The song Wishing Star by Taiwanese author Huang Dawei put a full stop on the second round of song collecting activity that Beijing held for the 2008 Olympic Games at 5 PM on April 25.
More than 300 songs were collected this year, including many works by overseas and professional musicians. The number and artistic level of songs collected this year were higher than in last year.
More than 50 of the songs were written by professional authors, including such renowned Chinese musicians as Hao Weiya，Zhou Di，Song Xiao Ming，Luo Bing and Gan Lin. Big studios, which were silent in the first round of the song collecting activity last year, have also entered songs to the campaign. Musical studios such as Xiandai Liliang (Modern Strength) and XinSuo specially composed songs for the activity.
Beginning on December 1, 2004, the song collecting activity received enthusiastic response from the general public, with the oldest participant being a 76-year-old.He Yan, author of one of the top-ten songs in last year's activity, comes up with his latest work this time. Former Olympic gold medallist Yang Ling writes the lyrics of a song I Stand on the Olympic Winner's Podium.
The songs will be appraised in mid May. The top ten songs will be selected in late May and unveiled officially at the Olympic Cultural Festival in July.
(BOCOG April 29, 2005)
