When I was in college in Wuhan (1989 to 1993), some of the most popular songs are in Cantonese, and sung by Hong Kong based singers. This was because at the time, the mainland just opened up, and culture wise it was way behind both Hong Kong and Taiwan, thus the Mandarin pop were mostly from Taiwan, and the Cantonese pop were mostly from Hong Kong. They in turn “borrowed” some popular song or music from Japan, which is even more advanced.
Fast forward 30 years, it seems to me the Cantonese pop declined a bit because the old generation singers in HK, who are mostly in their 60s, have mostly retired. One thing I noticed recently, there are some new singers and song writers that are based both in mainland or in HK, and they are continuing this important tradition of writing Cantonese songs.
I listed some of them below. Will update as I came across them more. Note the link in Douyin.com is not easily accessible outside of China. I will try to find some other sources in that case.
He (or she) is the author of 【粵語】想見你想見你想見你｜火土填詞 x AYAN何璟昕｜想見你劇集主題曲
He is the author of 《時間不等你》. This seems to be one of Ayen Ho a.k.a. 何璟昕‘s grownup song, if I may, I also think 放手以后 Letting Go is a bit similar. I talked about 放手以后 right below this. More on Mr Chen: quote Carlos (who is 陈钰海’s teacher) ‘s instagram
…… 第二站到了荔枝乡茂名，数年前在网上开始教学生填词，三年间陈钰海名字已经在国内填词界名无人不识，有80多首原创作品上市(果然青出于蓝)，…… (roughly translated into English: my student Chen Yu hai has made tremendous progress being a Cantonese lyrics writer in last 3 years)
Also, 粵語填詞，《不讓我的眼淚陪我過夜》，學生陳鈺海讓齊秦金曲粵語重現
One thing a bit unfortunate is Mr. Chen doesn’t have a YT Channel. Note for me personally it’s much easier to get to YT as I am in the USA, and it’s harder to get to Douyin etc. Also, I noticed quite a few people mostly posted on Douyin. I can understand to some extent, thinking it’s likely their main audience is based in mainland China.
Also noticed the composer for the song 時間不等你》is 石羽函 (baidu; apple music), and Mr. Shi is quite talented musician, singer and song writer.
Carlos 卡洛斯 (FB, Instagram, YouTube)
(YT) 放手以后 by 卡洛斯偕同填词学生陈钰海，及网红何璟昕于内地发表的第一首原创作品，在内地各大平台同时发佈，香港暂时未有得听 (Carlos’ Instagram). Note Carlos is also the composer for the song. Also note the song is available on YT now.
He (or she) wrote the 【哪吒2】片尾曲《在故事的最終》粵語版｜港風填詞翻唱｜唱哭每個成長的孩子 Acoustic cover｜Ayen何璟昕
Here is another beautiful song written by him (I assume 心之洛 is a gentleman: I could be wrong) 【粤语版】若把你（cover Kirsty刘瑾睿）温柔粤语版【AyenX心之洛】Acoustic cover 吉他弹唱 and sung by one and only Ayen 何璟昕.
He (or she) wrote Cantonese lyrics for 粤语版【世界赠予我的】王菲｜Ayen何璟昕
Ayen Ho 何璟昕 (links to Wikipedia)
You may notice that I already wrote a blog post about her. One thing keep in mind is she is multi-talented, and she can do song writing (both compose and lyrics), as well as sing and producing videos. She wrote quite a few songs, most of them are from young girls’ perspective (when she was a bit younger than her current age). Her song is uplifting and sometimes curing, probably both due to her folksy music 民谣 and her unique voice, as well as Cantonese dialect. I am going to give some examples:
Uplifting: 原創粵語歌曲 何璟昕 Ayen【如果今天天气正好 Nice day, Blossom age, without you】 Official HD MV
Curing: 何璟昕 Ayen《月光 Moonlight 》官方高畫質 Official HD MV
But I can also see her maturing in her new songs such as Sky full of stars – 原创歌曲《满天星星》独立音乐人 Ayen何璟昕2024新作
Reference:
Cantopop at Wikipedia
PS:
Not directly related to this, the other day I talked to my 15-year-old about the English song I listened when I was in college in Wuhan, and how much I paid for Whitney Houston tape then about CNY 15 Yuan. And I told her it’s similar to the cost of nice meal nowadays. Then I was a jobless college kid, 15 Yuan was something. I recall my dad used to give me about 100 Yuan a month in the school year 1992 to 1993, for a month worth of food etc.
I also recall, my girl fiend at the college, also my 1st girl friend (hope my wife doesn’t read here :-), was able to sing along some Cantonese songs. She was able to sing some English songs as well, such as Lionel Richie – Hello (Official Music Video): she sung this song to me when we took the ship down the Yang’zi River, for our summer break in 1991. She got off the ship much earlier than me, my destination is Shanghai (took the ship 48 hours from Wuhan to Shanghai). We were also new boy friend/girl friend at that time (I don’t know how to say it properly in English, but you get the point). There was huge flood along Yang’zi river, I recall her hometown in An’hui province was flooded. And I waited with her at the college dorm (HUST) before we can leave school and take the ship down the river together.