Jolin Tsai
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| Jolin Tsai 蔡依林 |
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 Jolin Tsai on the cover of "Dancing Forever"
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | 蔡宜凌 | |
| Born | September 15, 1980 (age 26) | |
| Origin | Sinjhuang City, Taipei, Taiwan | |
| Genre(s) | Mandopop | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, dancer | |
| Label(s) | 1998-2001: Universal Music 2002-2006: Sony BMG |
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| Website | Jolin | |
Jolin Tsai (Chinese: 蔡依林; pinyin: Cài Yīlín; Wade-Giles: Ts'ai I-lin) is a Taiwanese Mandopop singer. She holds a bachelor degree in English Literature from Fu Jen Catholic University.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Childhood years
Jolin was an introverted and shy child. Knowing that Jolin was of scholarly material, her mother brought her to attend Japanese-style Mathematics lessons, and she completed the course more quickly than expected. In addition, she never failed to get into the top 3 positions of her class during her primary school years, other than once when she placed at the tenth position. As a result, she was caned by her mother for being too complacent in her test preparation. True enough, her scholarly material brought her to the top-ranked schools in Taiwan, such as Jingmei Girls High School, and Fu-Jen catholic University. The latter is well known for its English and English Literature courses, which Jolin majored in.
She self-studied English during her primary school years. Her interests in English are reflected when she chose to do English Literature in Fun-Jen Catholic University, a Taiwanese University popular for its English culture and foundation. She has also developed interest towards singing, as she experimented with different vocal singing techniques after listening to various popular female singers such as Teresa Teng and Faye Wong.
[edit] 1998-2001: Universal Music
Jolin first started out by taking part in a MTV singing competition at the age of 18. She won the top prize at the competition with her rendition of Whitney Houston's #1 hit "Greatest Love of All". She was then signed by Universal Music.
On July 1999, her first single "Living With the World" was released. It was sold in convenience stores and was a tremendous success, which led to the release of her first album, Jolin 1019, on September 1999. At that time, she was packaged as "The Girl Next Door," and was an instant hit with teenagers, earning her the title "Teenage Boy Killer". Jolin 1019 ended up selling more than 400,000 copies in Asia. With the success of her first album, she released her anticipated second album in May 2000, Don't Stop. Many of the hits from that album were well known throughout Asia. This album was also a tremendous success. She also released her first photobook with pictures mainly taken in Hawaii.
Her image changed for her third album, Show Your Love. Nearing the age of 21, she released an album that was much more mature and soothing. However, the album did not sell as well as her last two albums. Her fourth album, Lucky Number, was unable to bring her back to the same level of popularity either. The following year, due to conflicts with her record company, she did not release any albums. She did, however, release her second photobook, with photos taken in Thailand.
[edit] 2002-2006: Sony BMG
Finally, Jolin managed to sign with Sony Music that year and got the biggest break of her whole career. The first single released was the track "Spirit Of The Knight", which became a big hit and led to the highly anticipated release of her album Magic. The album turned out to be a smashing success, topping the Taiwan album charts for three full months and selling more than 300,000 copies in Taiwan alone. The album boasted many of her most well-known singles, including the song that brought Jolin back to the top of the charts "See My 72 Changes" and the extremely popular "Say Love You". The latter song and several others, including the hit "Prague Square" were penned by fellow Taiwan mega star Jay Chou. The new image she presented for this album was more playful and sexy than before and her music became more dance-oriented. This transformation gave her what she needed to make a comeback to the music scene after being gone for almost a year.
Jolin's sixth album, Castle, was just as popular as its predecessor and became a top album in many Asian countries. Just as with Magic, many songs on this album were written by Jay, her rumored boyfriend at that time. Prior to the album's release, she showcased her single "Pirates" at a mini-concert and subsequently filmed one of the most expensive music videos in Chinese history for the song. This album also featured many other hit songs including the main upbeat dance track "36 Tricks of Love", the cute and playful "It's Love", the love ballads "The Smell of Lemon Grass" and "Disappearing Castle", and the moving rock ballad "Rewind." The album also included the song "Love Love Love", a Chinese cover of the Nu Virgos hit "Stop Stop Stop".
Between Castle and her next studio album, Jolin released a CD of remixes called J9 New + Party Collection. This remix album featured two new songs including the hit song "Signature Pose" and remixes of Jolin's most popular dance songs. A medley of her dance hits was also included on the album.
On April 25, 2005, her seventh album J-Game was released, also topping charts throughout Asia and making her extremely popular in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. The album featured many more hip-hop influenced tracks than before, though it retained the dance pop and love ballads that made her famous. Though she supposedly broke up with Jay around the time the album was recorded, Jolin was able to find many other writers and producers for this album, including another huge Taiwanese pop star, Lee-Hom Wang. One of the songs he penned for Jolin, "Exclusive Myth", was included on the album. The first single of the album "Barbaric Game" was a huge hit across Asia and it was followed by several other strong singles including "The Greek Girl at the Wishing Well", "Sky", "Repeat Signs", "I Really Miss You" and "Eyes Half Shut". The music video of the latter song presented a much sexier image of Jolin than ever seen before. During this time, Jolin also rapped on a smash duet with her good friend Show Luo called "The Real Chosen One".
It was announced in early 2006 that Jolin would be leaving Sony BMG, the record company that helped elevate her to superstar status, and joining EMI Capitol[citation needed]. Since her debut and through her years at Sony, Jolin progressed very quickly in becoming an excellent dancer and performer. To prepare for her new album, Jolin worked very hard to perfect her dancing and change up her style yet again. This was evident at the 2006 MTV Asia Awards where she performed her hot new single "Dancing Diva" with elements of yoga and using various props including a ball and a ribbon. She also won the Style Award during the ceremony, demonstrating the influence she has in Asia.
In May, Jolin's final album with Sony was released, a greatest hits compilation called J-Top, which included 2 CDs and a DVD with new and previously unreleased music videos and a 70 minute documentary on Jolin's time at Sony. The compilation featured many of the best songs from the albums she released under Sony. There were two new songs included on the album, one of which featured a music video where Jolin looks back on all her old music videos.
[edit] 2006-present: Capitol Records
After the release of J-Top, her first album with Capitol, Dancing Diva was released on May 12, 2006. This album became Jolin's biggest album yet, selling over 2 million copies in Asia. The album featured some of her most popular and sexiest dance songs ever, including the aforementioned title track "Dancing Diva", "Pulchritude", "Mr.Q" (the music video for this song shows a very sexy Jolin getting intimate with Hong Kong pop star Edison Chen), and the bonus track "Attraction of Sexy Lips" (a song she did as part of an endorsement deal with MaxFactor which is almost close to Anita Mui's song "Hot Red Lips"). The album also featured two of the biggest hits in Asia during the year: the fun and upbeat "A Wonder in Madrid" and the touching love ballad "Pretence". She also helped write a song on the album titled "The Prologue", which many speculate was written about Jay. The album was re-released in July as the "Perfect Celebration Edition" with a DVD featuring music videos of all eleven of the songs on the album. She has done the same thing for Magic, Castle, and J-Game as well.
During the fall of 2006, Jolin performed many concerts to sellout crowds in Asia, including a huge concert in Hong Kong with many special guests, including one of Hong Kong's top male artists Eason Chan, Taiwan's rising pop princess Rainie Yang, and Show. Jolin made guest appearances at her friend Stefanie Sun's concerts, while she and popular Singaporean male artist JJ Lin took turns appearing at each other's concerts. Jolin also shocked audiences when she kissed fellow Taiwanese diva Elva Hsiao on the lips during a concert. Throughout the year, Jolin also won many awards for her work on Dancing Diva, sharing music popularity awards with the likes of Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau and Taiwan's biggest group S.H.E.
Jolin released another album, Dancing Forever in October 2006. It features 2 CDs and a DVD. The first disc is comprised of all-new material, including the title track and theme for her tour: "Dancing Forever". Covers of songs by Chinese divas Sandy Lam and Faye Wong and a duet called "Marry Me Today" she recorded with good friend David Tao, are also included. Furthermore, she experiments with two other dialects - Taiwanese and Cantonese (the Canto version of "Pretence" is on the album). Up to this point, she has only released music in Mandarin. The second disc features remixes of three dance hits from Dancing Diva, while the DVD features the LUX sponsored mini-concert she performed in the summer in Kaohsiung. It features Stanley Huang and Taiwanese guy group Energy.
A month later, Sony released another 2 CD compilation album called Jolin Favorite Live Concert Music Selection. This album consists of remixes of popular songs Jolin recorded under Sony, as well as rare live tracks.
Jolin ended off the year 2006 on a high note, performing hits like "Mr.Q", "A Wonder in Madrid", "Pretence" and "Dancing Diva" at several New Year countdown parties in Taiwan. Furthermore, according to g-music, Dancing Diva became the biggest selling album of the year in Taiwan, while Dancing Forever landed at number 15 on the year-end album sales charts. Dancing Diva accounted for 4.26% of all Mandarin album sales in Taiwan for the year, ahead of Jay Chou's Still Fantasy, which placed second and accounted for 3.50%. Jolin's singles also topped many year-end charts, particularly her extremely popular duet with David Tao, which is considered by many lists to be the #1 song of the year in Taiwan. Singles like "Dancing Diva," "Pretence," and "A Wonder in Madrid" were also the winners of many song awards at the end of 2006 and the start of 2007.
[edit] Dancing Forever World Tour
Currently, Jolin is continuing her Dancing Forever World Tour. The tour includes:
| Date | Location | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 15-16 September 2006 | Hong Kong Coliseum, Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
| 23 September 2006 | HongKou Football Stadium, Shanghai | China |
| 27 September 2006 | HuangLong Stadium, Hangzhou | China |
| 13 October 2006 | Sydney Entertainment Centre, Sydney | Australia |
| 17–19 November 2006 | Taipei Arena,Taipei | Taiwan |
| 23 November 2006 | Mohegan Sun Arena, Connecticut | United States |
| 09 December 2006 | Petaling Jaya Stadium, Kelana Jaya | Malaysia |
| 07 April 2007 | Singapore Indoor Stadium, Singapore | Singapore |
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio albums
| Album | Album Cover | Album information |
|---|---|---|
| 1st |  |
Jolin 1019
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| 2nd |  |
Don't Stop
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| 3rd |  |
Show Your Love
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| 4th |  |
Lucky Number
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| 5th |  |
MAGIC (看我72變)
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| 6th |  |
CASTLE (城堡)
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| 7th |  |
J-Game
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| 8th |  |
Dancing Diva (舞孃)
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[edit] Remix albums
| Album | Album Cover | Album information |
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| Remix | 騎士精神 (單曲)(非賣品)
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| Remix |  |
J9 PARTY (J9 新歌＋PARTY精選)
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| Remix |  |
Dancing Forever (唯舞独尊)
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[edit] Compilation albums
| Album | Album Cover | Album information |
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| 1st | Together (精選集)
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| 2nd |  |
J-Top
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[edit] DVD
| Date of release | Title |
|---|---|
| 2005 | J1 Live Concert DVD
JOLIN 蔡依林 J1個人演唱會影音全記錄 |
[edit] Awards
| Years | Awards |
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| 1999 |
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| 2000 |
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| 2003 |
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| 2004 |
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| 2005 |
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| 2006 |
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| 2007 |
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[edit] External links
- Capitol Music (Chinese)
- Sony Music Taiwan Official Site (Chinese)
- Jolin's Blog (Chinese)
- Jolin World (English)
- Jolin Tsai Support Site (English)
