Meet The Sydney Producer Who's Just Had An International No. 1 Song

When Australian producer James Guido sat down to co-write a new track a few years back, he probably didn't expect that it would go on to hit No. 1 on 15 Chinese music charts and rack up over one million streams in under 20 minutes. 

The Sydney artist and co-writer David Turley's song, “Someone to Love”, penned for Chinese pop star Yan Haoxing, did just that and more. Following its release on May 4th, the track garnered one million saves in 13 minutes and went on to break the record for the most concurrent listeners in QQ Music by the 18th minute of it dropping (1.1 million).

The song topped the QQ Music New Songs Chart, the Hot Songs Chart, the Rising Chart, the Trending Chart, the Pop Index Chart, the Music Index Chart, the MV Chart, and the Mainland Chart simultaneously. On the Tencent Music UniChart, which aggregates data across QQ Music, Kugou, Kuwo, Quanmin Karaoke, and Weibo Music.

“'Someone to Love' is such a raw and honest record, and it came from such an honest place in my heart when I wrote it with David,” Guido told The Music Network.

"The response was so overwhelming. Knowing how many people have been touched by this record and the buzz it's created around Yan and his EP [Scary Movie II: Same Face]. I'm really excited to hear what's next for his project. He is so talented."

The story goes that Guido and Turley wrote the song together at an APRA SongHubs session in Adelaide. It eventually found its way to Haoxiang's camp and the rest is history.

“I grew up two hours from Sydney being told music wasn’t a real job,” Guido said.

“I dropped my degree, flew to America at 21, and spent a decade building something from nothing. These days I fly back and forth to the US regularly, bringing my artists with me into rooms and relationships I’ve spent years earning access to. Seeing a Billboard China number one come out the other side of all that is the kind of thing that makes every difficult moment make sense.”

Looking ahead, Guido wants to replicate the remarkable overseas success back home. Given that “Someone to Love” was executed without a label, publisher or manager, he believes the possibilities are endless. 

In the meantime, he'll continue working between Asia, LA and Australia and has been working with some big-name K-pop artists,

“The next chapter is about doing this at scale and bringing Australian artists into these rooms, flying them into new experiences, and building records that can travel,” he said.

“The China result has proven the music I’m making can compete anywhere in the world, beyond language barriers. As an Australian in music you know how to be resourceful, so while I work out where to put my plaque, I’m having the right conversations to build out a structure here.”