Sa Ding Ding

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Sa Ding Ding (or Sa Dingding; Chinese: 薩頂頂; born December 23, 1983) is a Chinese folk singer and songwriter. She is of mixed Han and Mongolian ancestry, and sings in languages including Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan. She also plays the zheng.

Born in Inner Mongolia, Sa Ding Ding was influenced by the music of the ethnic minorities while living with her grandmother. She also became interested in Buddhism and taught herself Tibetan and Sanskrit. Later on, she moved to Beijing to study philosophy and music at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music.

By the time she turned 18, she released her first album entitled Dong Ba La, awarding her with the title of China’s Best Dance Music Singer.

In 2006, "Holy Incense" was used as the theme song for the movie Prince of the Himalayas, directed by Sherwood Hu.

In mid-2007, she released Alive, now available physically and as a download in many countries. The Hong Kong release of the album features a DVD containing music videos, a remix of "Alive", making of footage and a Chinese version of "Mama Tian Na", not featured on the album.

In 2008 she won the BBC Radio 3 World Music Award for the Asia-Pacific region.

As stated on her English website, she will be releasing a 4-track EP called 琴伤 (Qin Shang) on June 30, 2008. "Qin Shang" appeared as the last track on last year’s album Alive. The EP will contain the Full Phatt remix of “Alive”. Radio play for the single will start May 26.

She is not well known in mainland China