A Chinese court on Thursday jailed a musician for life for a scam in which he conned investors out of $9 million by claiming he was commissioned to hold shows attached to the Olympics, state media reported.

Su Yue, 56, who had hits with two folk songs in the 1980s, was sentenced in Beijing, Xinhua news agency said.

In the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Su claimed he was commissioned to hold shows attached to the Games, conning investors out of nearly $9 million for events which never took place, the report said.

Su said he would appeal, saying he was trying to repay debts after his company went bankrupt rather than enrich himself and had since repaid about half of the money to the defrauded investors.

Su made his name with the folk songs "Loess Plateau" and "Blood-stained Glory", originally written to commemorate troops who were killed in the brief 1979 war against Vietnam but later was used in memory of those who died in the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests.