Chinese Chinese Music Artists "Cpop"

There are several famous chinese artists, but they are spread in two langauges. The cantonese market have their own artists, and the mandarin too. Usually, the mandarin ones are from Taiwan, but the mainland has it's dose of artists too.

The difference between chinese and other asian music genres, like Jpop, is that there are alot of variety. There are so many artists out there, and I will give you a hint on some of the most popular ones.

Mandarin speaking artists - Shen will give you the Cantonese ones.




Faye Wong- aka. Xia lin
Born in Beijing, She's often considered as Chinas Björk, maybe even Asias Björk. People would recoginize her name if you have played the Final Fantasy VIII game. She sang the intro song " eyes on me " which gave her an international recognaztion. She has sung in mandarin, cantonese, english, french and japanese. She's widely popular not in China, but also in Japan and South Korea. She has entered into the Guiness Book of World Records as the best-selling Cantopop female. With an estimated 9.7 million of her 20 albums sold by March 2000. She has also starred in several movies, and the most noticble one is "2046".



F.I.R.
What can you say about this trio? The trio from Taiwan is often known as the "chinese Do As Infinity". The band started out with two guys, known as Ian (Producer, and Ex. Producer for S.H.E) and R eal (guitarrist). They did achieve a somewhat minior success with their old songs, but when they added lead singer Faye to the band, they made an instant impact. They realised the bands first album during the summer of 2004, and the first single "Fly away" hitted the first spot in Taiwan, China and Hongkong during it's first day! Neverless, they realised additional 4-5 singles and all of the songs stayed on the top 10 list for weeks and months. Yes, ALL FIVE OF THEM AT THE SAMETIME. The Album, "Fairyland in reality" sold like hot butter. They realised their second album, "UNLIMITED" on the 8th April 2005, currently topping the tables of record sales in China.



S.H.E
The girlband known as SHE have been dominating the girlband market for quite a long time. The trio, Selina, Hebe and Ella form the band SHE. Musical styles are your typical pop songs, but although a hinch of R'n'B. How big are them? Well, let's say that they have done commericals for Pepsi, Mcdonalds, and 7Eleven, where you could order a "SHE smoothie".



Tsai Jolin - aka. Tsai Yi lin.
Sexy taiwanese r'n'b singer, Tsai Jolin is one of the fresh young stars within the market of Cpop. She has realised several albums, all selling good. Her album, "Castle" finished second last year, when it came to "top selling albums of 2004" in China, only F.I.R beating her on it. Her preformance have earned alot of stardom, and several top asian producers want to produce songs for her.

Well, that's the end of Part one. Hope you have enjoyed this little introduction.

- Teddz

 

Here are the Cantonese singers:

Faye Wong - 王菲/王靖雯



Again I have included Faye Wong because her singing is recognised as one of the best in Hong Kong, marking her debut song with 'Easily Hurt Woman' - still seen as one of the best songs.


Kelly Chan - 陳慧琳



Kelly is currently one of Hong Kong's leading singers. She also has featured in a few chinese films including Infernal Affairs I and Infernal Affairs III playing the role of psychiatrist Dr. Lee. She has been nominated alongsied internationally acclaimed Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi for Queen of Actress award.

Joey Yung - 容祖兒



She really can hit those high notes. Also one of Hong Kong's current best singers, I would say having one of the best voices in the Hong Kong music industry for the past 7-8 years or so and I'm sure many others agree.

Andy Lau - 劉德華



Veteran singer Andy Lau still hasn't lost his touch. He's been as famous as he was when he was 17 (his debut year), he is now 44! Strong in both singing and acting. He has been in films of recent: Infernal Affairs I, Infernal Affairs III and House of Flying Daggers.


Note, pretty much all Hong Kong singers including the 4 mentioned are as fluent in mandarin as they are in cantonese. I.e. they sing mandarin songs as well.

Meanwhile, if you would like to know more abouth these artists and even listen to some songs, I'm sure we can give you some help. More to come soon!

- Shen