The whole of Hong Kong mourned when Cantopop legend Roman Tam passed away in 2002. His spirit, however, lives on thanks in particular to the generous donation of over 3,000 items of memorabilia from Tam's career as a performing artist that his sister presented to Hong Kong Heritage Museum in 2006 and that now forms the museum’s first complete collection of a local pop singer.

Roman Tam began his career as a singer in the mid-1960s when he formed a band to play popular Western hits in bars. He progressed to being a backstage singer for local films, where he attracted attention for his vocal skills in his interpretations of Mandarin songs, before he reached the peak of his art, storming the charts with a succession of Cantonese pop hits. He later went on to produce musicals, opening up new horizons for his undoubted talent. With a performing career stretching over more than 30 years in Hong Kong, he has left us a legacy of golden hits such as Bright Future (the theme from a Japanese drama series aired on TVB), themes from The Romantic Swordsman and Below the Lion Rock, among many others. He won countless awards and is rightly regarded as one of the legends of the Hong Kong music scene.

To commemorate Roman’s achievements as a versatile artist, Hong Kong Heritage Museum presented “Applauding Hong Kong Pop Legend: Roman Tam” exhibition from December 2011 to July 2012.

Materials for this collection largely come from the above said exhibition, comprising photographs and audios, to revisit the close connection between Tam’s career and the development of popular music in Hong Kong.