| Susan Wong | |
|---|---|
| Ancestry | Hong Kong |
| Origin | Hong Kong |
| Born | Hong Kong |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Genre(s) | pop, |
| Instrument(s) | Piano |
| Years active | 2003 - present |
Susan Wong is a Hong Kong English language singer.
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She was born in Hong Kong,[1] and immigrated to Sydney, Australia with her family at the age of seven. Musically inclined from a young age, she learned to play the piano at age five and later she also learned the violin. At Kambala Girls School in Sydney, she sang alto in the choir and appeared in the school dramas (Gilbert & Sullivan & the like) and entered a number of piano competitions. She received an associate diploma (ATCL) in piano from Trinity College London.
Her first break in the music world was at the age of sixteen when her parents entered her for a singing contest in Sydney. It was organized by TVB with the winner to be offered a recording contract with one of the big music companies in Hong Kong. She won the competition and went to Hong Kong, where she met with the TVB producers who wanted her to sign with one of the music labels. After much deliberation she decided that a music career wasn’t right for her at that time and instead returned to Australia to study at University.
After graduating from university, she returned to Hong Kong in 1997 to help run her family’s accounting business; at this time, she gained her CPA certification. One of her students, who she was teaching piano, was working for a Hong Kong independent label, and Susan asked the boss if they wanted a singer. Susan started recording her favourite English songs and made the album ‘Close To You’. When the album came out in 2002, it was widely acclaimed and quickly became a favourite of music stores to play. The album was soon climbing up the sales charts in countries like [Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. The four album releases since ‘Close To You’ have also enjoyed wide critical and commercial success establishing Susan as probably the No. 1 selling English language female singer of her genre throughout South East Asia.
In early 2007, Susan Wong signed a new recording agreement with Hong Kong based Evolution Limited and released her first album under Evolution in August 2007.
The first release under this agreement, Someone Like You,[2] was recorded in Nashville, USA and was quick to win critical and commercial success throughout S.E. Asia. The success of the SACD version in particular bore testament to the fine production, vocal performance and mastering by Grammy award winning engineer Doug Sax. The album was domestically released in Japan in September 2008.
In summer 2008, Susan began working on fresh ideas for her follow-up album. In September 2008 Susan travelled to Geneva, Switzerland to work on demos with producer Adrien Z. As Susan explained “He brought my music ideas to life. He was able to transform the songs I want to sing into the styling which I dare tried.” The album recording was completed in February/March 2009. In her blog, Susan said of the album; “I guess I took a "more hands on" approach with this album, more than any of the previous ones, as I felt the need to voice out my persona, be more individualistic and independent for my work.” Susan’s bossa nova inspired version of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean received a lot of attention and radio play and the album sold widely across the region.
Inspired by the positive feedback to 511, Susan was anxious to start working on her next album and within months of the release of 511 she was forming ideas for new recordings, choosing again to work with producer Adrien Zerbini and arranger Ignacio Lamas. With songs for the albums mostly coming from the late 1960’s/early 1970’s, Susan and her band worked on a relaxed, natural acoustic pop feel, led by Ignacio’s guitar playing.
Track List
01 September
04 Home
05 Umbrella
07 Everytime You Go Away
08 Billie Jean
09 Empty Room
10 Windmills Of My Mind
11 It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over
13 The Winner Takes It All
The 13 track album features interpretations of Umbrella and Billie Jean as well as a bossa nova influenced version of Earth Wind & Fire's September.