DiscoKing Ricky 2026 Tour - Guangzhou

Ricky (Wang Heyong): “China’s Prince” and the Face of Chinese Funk

Ricky, born Wang Heyong (王贺勇) on December 19, 1988, in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, is a Chinese singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman and primary creative force behind Click #15, a band widely credited with bringing funk music to mainstream audiences in China.

From Glam Rock to Funk: A Musical Evolution

Ricky’s career began in a very different genre. He moved to Beijing from Hebei in late 2009 to join the underground glam-rock band Rustic. His early stage name, Ricky Sixx, was a direct nod to Mötley Crüe’s bassist Nikki Sixx—a reminder of his hard-rock origins.

Over time, however, he grew tired of the hedonistic hard rock of his youth and found himself increasingly drawn to disco, blues, and funk. He began experimenting with new sounds and collaborators, eventually founding a band called Bad Boogie in 2015. That project evolved into Click #15 a year later.

Click #15 and the Breakthrough

Click #15 released their debut EP, Funky Sensation, in 2017. Their widespread recognition came in 2019, when they competed on the hit iQIYI rock music reality show The Big Band and finished in the top 5 (HOT5). The exposure brought them a wave of advertising deals and solidified their reputation as a leading force in China’s new funk scene.

Today, Click #15 operates primarily as a duo, with Ricky handling the vast majority of the songwriting and Yang Ce on keyboards. Ricky has described his creative ambition as wanting to be “a real musician,” not merely copying others, and he has spent years honing his guitar playing and compositional approach to develop his own musical identity.

The “China’s Prince” Label

English-language media, most notably RADII, have frequently compared Ricky to Prince, both for his stage presence—dancing and snaking around the microphone stand while playing bass—and for his embrace of funk. Ricky acknowledges the comparison with respect but also with a clear sense of his own artistic boundary:

“I’m never going to be like Prince, he’s such an amazing musician, but I have my own scale.”

He has also offered a precise explanation for why funk has historically struggled to gain traction in China: the genre hinges on an elusive “swing feel” that is difficult to master and deeply personal to each musician.

DiscoKing (舞池之王)

More recently, Ricky has developed DiscoKing, a project that pushes beyond the conventional concert format. It is described as a comprehensive live-music production that blends elements of a concert and musical theater. Structured in chapters around Ricky’s original songs, the performance integrates live music with actors, dancers, lighting, visual projections, and AI-generated imagery to create a dynamic, evolving stage narrative. In this production, Ricky performs as four distinct personas—Crow, Elegant Ricky, Teenage Rock, and Disco King—each representing a different facet of his artistic identity.