Jolin Tsai

Jolin Tsai

Jolin Tsai at the 5th MTV Asia Awards held in Bangkok, Thailand
Chinese name 蔡依林
Pinyin Cài Yīlín (Mandarin)
Pe̍h-ōe-jī Chhoà I-lîm (Hokkien)
Birth name 蔡宜凌
Ethnicity 3/4 Han, 1/4 Papora
Born September 15, 1980
Xinzhuang, Taipei County, Taiwan
Occupation Singer, Dancer, Actress, Songwriter, Entrepreneur
Genre(s) Mandopop, Dance-pop, R&B
Voice type(s) Mezzo-soprano
Label(s) Warner
Years active 1999 - present
Alma mater Fu Jen Catholic University
Jolin Tsai
Chinese 蔡依林

Jolin Tsai (蔡依林, born September 15, 1980) is a Taiwanese singer, dancer, actress and entrepreneur. Often referred to as the "Queen of Pop" in Taiwan [1] and "Asia's Dancing Queen",[2] Tsai has achieved great popularity and fame in Greater China and Asia.

Born and raised in Taiwan, Jolin Tsai took part in a MTV contest and won the top prize with her rendition of Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All".[3] Her first album, released in 1999 and entitled 1019 was a huge success, and Tsai quickly became an idol for teenagers. Her fifth album, Magic, topped the Taiwan album charts for three months, is regarded as one of her biggest successes so far, right after album Dancing Diva, which sold over 2 million copies in Asia.[4] After several successful albums and dozens of hits, she released her latest album, Play, in 2014.[5]

Jolin Tsai is one of the top earners among Taiwanese singers today, and she has sold more than 23 million albums and won numerous awards in Asia.[6] As a Dance-pop vocalist, Tsai is cited as an influence of Dance-pop music in the Greater China region. Tsai also now manages her own music production and management company Eternal.[7]

Early life

Though Tsai was introverted and shy in childhood, she studied English intensively during her youth and eventually majored in English literature at Fu Jen Catholic University. Tsai first started her singing career by taking part in an 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". In March 1999, She was signed by Universal Music.[8]

Music career

Universal Music (1999 - 2001)

In July 1999, her debut single, "Living with the World", was released. It was sold in convenience stores and was a tremendous success,[9] which led to the release of her first album, 1019, in September 1999. At that time, she was promoted as "The Girl Next Door" and was an instant hit with teenagers, earning her the title "Teenage Boy Killer".[10] 1019 ended up selling more than 400,000 copies in Taiwan alone.[11]

With the success of her first album, she released her second album in May 2000, Don't Stop. Many of the hits from that album were well known throughout Asia, and the album also became a tremendous success with selling more than 450,000 copies in Taiwan, which is still Tsai's best-selling album so far.[12] She also released her first photo album with pictures mainly taken in Hawaii.

Nearing the age of 21, Tsai changed her image in her third album, Show Your Love. The album was considered more mature and soothing, but it did not sell as well as her previous two albums.[13] Later, Tsai sang the Mandarin version of "Where the Dream Takes You", the theme song for the 2001 Disney's science fiction film Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

Her fourth album, Lucky Number, also failed to match the sales of her first two albums. Tsai's music career came to a halt when conflicts surfaced between her and her management company.[14] At the end of 2001, Tsai's contract with Universal Music ended, and her first greatest hits collection, Together, was released. Tsai did not release any albums the following year, but she did release her second photo album with photos mainly taken in Thailand.

Sony Music (2002 - 2005)

Tsai signed with Sony Music in 2002 and got the biggest break of her whole career. Her first single with Sony Music, "Spirit of the Knight", became a big hit that led to the highly anticipated release of her fifth album, Magic. The album topped the Taiwan album charts for three months. More than 360,000 copies were sold in Taiwan alone, and over one million copies were sold in Asia.[15] The album contained many of her most well-known singles, including the hit dance song "Magic" that brought Tsai back to the top of the charts, a song some suggested was named after the Monkey King's 72 transformations.[16] Other songs from the album, such as "Say Love You" and "Prague Square", were penned by fellow Taiwan pop star Jay Chou. Her more dance-oriented album marked her first release in two years following her hiatus in 2002. Later, Tsai sang the Mandarin version of "Warriors in Peace", the theme song for the film Warriors of Heaven and Earth.

Tsai's sixth album, Castle, released in 2004, was just as popular as Magic. The album featured 10 new tracks, such as the ballads "he Smell of Lemon Grass", the dance song "36 Tricks of Love" and "Pirates", and "Love Love Love". Just as with Magic, many songs on this album were written by Jay Chou, such as the playful song "It's Love" and the rock ballad "Rewind", which became two of Tsai's biggest hits. Between Castle and her next studio album, Tsai released a remix album of her most popular dance songs called J9 New + Party Collection. Tsai also featured two new songs in the CD, including the hit song "Signature Gesture". In August 2004, Tsai began her first solo concert tour "J1 World Tour". Despite having few stops of the tour, the tour spanned through Asia and for the first time that Jolin performed in North America.

On 25 April 2005, Tsai seventh album, J-game, was released. It became the longest running album on the Taiwanese album charts in 2005, with over 1 million copies sold throughout Asia in just a little over a month.[17] The album featured many more hip-hop influenced tracks than before, though it retained the dance pop and love ballads present on her previous albums. Tsai supposedly broke up with Jay Chou around the time the album was recorded, but she was able to find other writers and producers, including Leehom Wang, another pop star who composed "Exclusive Myth". The first single of the album, "J-game", was followed by other singles, including "Greek Girl by the Wishing Fountain", "Sky", "Repeated Note", and "Overlooking Purposely". Later after she released the album, Tsai rapped in the duet "Destined Guy" with fellow artist Show Luo, which was featured on his album Hypnosis Show. She later performed that song with Show Luo in his first solo concert at Taipei Arena. In September, Tsai was invited to sing the Mandarin version of "Under the Sea", the theme song for the 1989 Disney's animated film The Little Mermaid, for celebrating the grand opening of Hong Kong Disneyland.

Late in 2005, Tsai released her first concert tour live DVDJ1 Live Concert, presenting performances of hits from her albums Magic and Castle from a late-2004 concert in Taipei. Show Luo made a guest appearance in the performance of "Prove It". The DVD did not include Jay Chou's guest appearance in her concert, in which he danced together with Tsai. It was later placed on the DVD for her greatest hits collection, J-top. In May 2006, Sony released a greatest hits compilation album called J-top, which included two CDs and a DVD with two previously unreleased music videos and a 70-minute documentary on Tsai's time at Sony.

Capitol Music (2006 - 2008)

In early 2006, it was announced that Tsai would be leaving Sony Music to join Capitol Music.[18] To prepare for her new album, Tsai worked to perfect her dancing and change her style again. She won The Style Award at the 2006 MTV Asia Awards, where she performed her new single "Dancing Diva" with elements of yoga and various props, including a ball and a ribbon.[19]

After the presence in the 2006 MTV Asia Awards, her first album with Capitol Music, Dancing Diva was released 12 May 2006. This album became Tsai's biggest album yet, selling over 2 million copies in Asia.[20] The album featured her released single "Dancing Diva" along with the dance tracks "Pulchritude" and "Mr. Q", the ballads "Pretence" and "Heart Breaking Day", and the bonus track "Attraction of Sexy Lips". Tsai had some writing duties on the album, writing the lyrics for the song "The Prologue". According to G-music, Dancing Diva became the biggest selling album of the year in Taiwan.[21]

Tsai released her third remix album, Dancing Forever, in October 2006, which contained two CDs and a DVD. The first disc contained all new material, including the title track and theme for her "Dancing Forever World Tour", covers of songs "I Heard that Love Had Returned", "Reminiscence" and "Go to the Graveyard" by Chinese singers Sandy Lam, Faye Wong and Chi-tien Yeh, and the duet "Marry Me Today" that she recorded with her idol and mentor David Tao. In this album, she also experimented with two other Chinese languages — Hokkien and Cantonese. Up to this point, she had only released music in Mandarin and English. The second disc included remixes of three dance hits from Dancing Diva, while the DVD featured the Lux-sponsored mini-concert she performed in the summer in Kaohsiung.

During the fall of 2006, Tsai began her "Dancing Forever World Tour", performing concerts to sellout crowds in Asia and then to audiences in North America and Australia. The huge opening concert in Hong Kong, which took place on her birthday, featured many special guests, including one of Hong Kong's top male artists, Eason Chan, Taiwan's rising pop princess Rainie Yang and Taiwan's pop singer Show Luo. On 8 June 2007, Tsai released her second live DVD, The Acquired Talent, which featured performances from her latest world tour and documented her work in preparing for the tour. The DVD shows footage of her performing dance sequences with concert guests Show Luo, Stanley Huang, and Elva Hsiao. The DVD opened at the top of the Taiwanese audio/video charts and stayed there for 13 weeks.[22]

On 16 June, Tsai won the Most Popular Female Artist and the Best Female Mandarin Artist for the very first time at the 18th Golden Melody Awards.[23][24] Her duet with David Tao, "Marry Me Today", won the Best Song of the Year. Tsai's win for the Best Female Mandarin Artist drew criticism from netizens and industry critics. However, many said that she won due to her all-round talent, hard work, and universal pop appeal.[25] Regardless of the controversy surrounding this award, she won Most Popular Female Artist following a fan vote conducted for a few months prior to the awards show, beating out many other artists including A-mei, Fish Leong, and Stefanie Sun.

Tsai's second album with Capitol Music, titled Agent J, was released on 21 September 2007. The album featured 11 new tracks - the title track "Agent J", the ballads "Alone" and "Fear-free", the dance tracks "Bravo Lover" and "Tacit Violence", and the bonus track "Let's Move It," which was used as a promotional track in commercials for Toyota. The deluxe version of the album contained a three-part 70-minute music movie filmed in Paris, London, and Bangkok. The movie, which cost NT$50 million to film, stars Tsai as the leather-clad Agent J and features popular Korean actor Kim Jaewon and Hong Kong stars Stephen Fung and Carl Ng.[26][27] During the filming of the movie, Tsai had to learn two new forms of dance in ten days: aerial silk dancing and pole dancing. She almost paralyzed her right arm and fainted in the process.[28] According to G-music Taiwan, the album accounted for 45% of album sales and over 65% of Mandarin album sales in Taiwan in its first week of release. Since its release, the album stayed at the No. 1 position for two weeks.[29] For the second year in a row, Tsai had the best-selling album in Taiwan.[30]

Tsai then collaborated with Australian female singer Kylie Minogue in a song called "In My Arms", which would be included in the Asian version of Kylie's album X. Tsai was invited to the world premiere of Kylie's movie White Diamond, where Tsai presented Minogue with her newest album and a jade bracelet that Tsai personally picked out for her.[31] In September 2008, Tsai was invited to collaborate in a song, "Beijing Welcomes You", with one hundred famous artists and entertainers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and South Korea.[32] The song is a feature song for the 100-day countdown of the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, China.

In October 2008, Tsai released her first English cover album, Love Exercise. The songs are cover version of English hits and ranges in many different genres, including the track "I Won't Last a Day Without You" (originally by The Carpenters), "Lady Marmalade" (originally by Labelle), "When You Say Nothing at All" (originally by Keith Whitley), and "Physical" (originally by Olivia Newton-John).

Warner Music (2009 - present)

On 27 March 2009, Tsai released her tenth studio album, Butterfly, which was also her first release with Warner Music. Butterfly was Tsai's first experience with electronic music. The album featured 10 new songs, including the title song "Butterfly", the dance songs "Hot Winter" and "The Shadow Dancer", and the ballads "Compromise" and "Parachute". The release of its first music video, "Real Man" featuring Nick Chou, was played on the biggest screen of a shopping center in Taiwan and was greatly received by the public. The album's third single, "Butterfly", displayed ballet moves that Tsai spent three months learning and making the hardest dance that she had ever learned.[33] According to G-music, Butterfly was also the best-selling album of 2009, with an accumulated sales of 130,000 copies sold in Taiwan alone. Tsai then announced the Butterfly School Concert Tour later that year to celebrate the success of the album.[34] However, during the tour, she injured her thigh and scapula and re-injured her back due to over-training for ballet, so the company stopped her from dancing for two months. During the break, Jolin perform a one-night-only concert called The Slower, the Prettier, an intimate concert in which all songs were soft rock or ballads. In May 2010, Tsai sang the theme song of Taiwan Pavilion, "Heartbeat of Taiwan", at Expo 2010 held in Shanghai, China.

Following the success of Butterfly, Tsai released her 11th studio album, Myself, on 13 August 2010. This album featured her released single "Honey Trap" along with the dance song "Black-haired Beautiful Girl", and the ballad "Nothing Left to Say". Myself is a display of Tsai's love for pop music with 80% of the album made with fast-paced electronic dance songs. The first single, "Honey Trap", combined dance moves of Tsai's first experiment with Vogue attracted many people and thus launched a dance competition later that year. Myself peaked at No. 1 for three consecutive weeks and went back on top again on its fifth week on the G-music Charts. Although Myself was not as successful as Butterfly, the album managed to sell 65,000 copies and landed fourth on the best-selling albums list in Taiwan that year. Jolin was still able to achieve best-selling female solo artist of that year.[35] Tsai later on announced her "Myself World Tour", her third concert tour, with a total of 35 shows.

Jolin released her 12th studio album, Muse, worldwide on 14 September 2012.[36] Muse combines art, pop, and music to portray how a girl should act and stand out in modern society. This album featured 11 new tracks, including the dance track "The Great Artist", the playful track "Spying on You Behind the Fence", and the ballads "Wandering Poet" and "I". The album was also greatly recognized by people supporting gay pride with hit songs like "Dr. Jolin" and "Fantasy", both defining love as equal.[37] Muse was a commercial success, selling 100,000 copies in Taiwan alone and becoming the best-selling female album of the year.[38] The album peaked at No. 1 for five consecutive weeks upon its release and regained first place again during its 7th and 13th week on the Taiwan's G-music Charts.[39] The album's first single, "The Great Artist", was greatly praised for the modernized MTV, rap, fast-paced rhythm and shoulder-like dance moves. Jolin was also nominated for Best Asia Act in the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards, the first and only Taiwan artist nominated for the award.[40] Jolin Tsai performed at Wembley Arena in London, England, on 21 October 2012. This is the first time in Jolin's career to have a concert in Europe. She also performed in Paris on January 30, 2013 as part of the annual Taiwan Music Night.

Upon the release of nominees for the 24th Golden Melody Awards, Muse was nominated for four awards, including Best Music Video, Best Mandarin Album, Best Mandarin Female Singer, and Best Song of the Year.[41] During the 24th Golden Melody Awards, Tsai's track "The Great Artist" won Best Song of the Year, the first ever Mandarin Dance-pop song to win in the category.[42] On 9 June 2014, ahead of 2014 FIFA World Cup that kicked off June 12 in Brazil, Tsai released her new English single, "Now Is the Time", to support this year's World Cup. This song was included in the compilation album Pepsi Beats of the Beautiful Game, and it is also Tsai's very first time to sell her record worldwide.

On 15 November 2014, Tsai released her highly anticipated 13th studio album, Play, which marked her comeback since the release of her previous album, Muse, two years ago. The album dominated the music charts upon its release.[43] For the album, she collaborated with American designing team The Blonds, who have previously worked with acclaimed American artists such as Beyoncé and Katy Perry. The album title, according to Tsai, was to relay how script, acting, and performance has helped her to gain experiences and wisdom throughout the past two years. She hopes that with her new witty music and image, fans will find her album to be playful and joyful, as well as bring optimism to the future. Opening with jungle anthem "Gentlewomen", the album contains an amazing assortment of stunners. Hit singles "Play", a pop tour de force, and club thumper "Phony Queen" are accompanied by alternative rock hair raiser "The Third Person and I", sweeping piano and strings ballad "Lip Reading", cinematic delight "Miss Trouble", and perfect synth-driven closer, "We're All Different, Yet the Same". Tsai also made a collaboration in the album with Japanese female singer Namie Amuro for Tsai's own composition called "I'm Not Yours", which contains both English and Mandarin lyrics. The lead single, titled "Play", was released on radio airwaves on 27 October 2014, with the music video released on 2 November 2014. The music video gained three millions views in just three days and over ten million views now on YouTube, which claimed the most rapid view of a Chinese language music video of all time.[44] The album help thrusting Tsai into the international spotlight, and the music video of "Play" was also reported on the website of Time magazine, which claimed it the year's best pop music video;[45] The Canadian online music magazine CMB also claimed the album the international album of the year;[46] Later, the weekly business magazine Bloomberg Businessweek (Chinese Edition) dubbed Tsai the Great Chinese Dance-pop Artist.

On 15 February 2015, Tsai announced her "Play World Tour", her fourth concert tour.

Discography

Studio albums

Cover albums

Compilation albums

Remix albums

Live albums

Concert tours

Filmography

Television

Films

Bibliography

Books

Translations

Photobooks

Enterprises

See also

References

  1. ↑ (English) Kitschmix.com. Taiwanese Queen of Pop, Jolin Tsai Tells Touching Lesbian Love Story in New Music Video. Retrieved December 17, 2014.
  2. ↑ (English) Ax3battery.com. Airplane Wednesday: The Dancing Queen of Asia – Jolin Tsai. Retrieved November 26, 2014.
  3. ↑ (English) iConcerts.com. Jolin Tsai : Concerts on Demand, Latest News & Bio. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
  4. ↑ (English) iConcerts.com. Jolin Tsai : Concerts on Demand, Latest News & Bio. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
  5. ↑ (English) iConcerts.com. Jolin Tsai : Concerts on Demand, Latest News & Bio. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
  6. ↑ (English) iConcerts.com. Jolin Tsai : Concerts on Demand, Latest News & Bio. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
  7. ↑ (Chinese) Hinews.cn. 传蔡依林升格当经纪人 签下情敌谢沛恩就近看管
  8. ↑ (English) Jolin Tsai Brings It On in Beijing
  9. ↑ (English) ChinatownConnection.com. Jolin Tsai Pop Star Page. Retrieved September 11, 2007.
  10. ↑ (English) Jolin Tsai Brings It On in Beijing
  11. ↑ (Chinese) 蔡依林十年音乐路①：环球时期“少男杀手”. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
  12. ↑ (Chinese) 蔡依林十年音乐路①：环球时期“少男杀手”. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
  13. ↑ (Chinese) 蔡依林十年音乐路①：环球时期“少男杀手”. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
  14. ↑ (Chinese) 蔡依林十年音乐路①：环球时期“少男杀手”. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
  15. ↑ (Chinese) Sina Ent. 蔡依林北京新專輯慶功 宣稱將走性感路線. August 10, 2003. Retrieved September 1, 2007.
  16. ↑ (Chinese) Southcn 周杰伦、蔡依林异地“同题问答”. September 2, 2003. Retrieved September 7, 2009.
  17. ↑ (Chinese) 野蠻遊戲全亞洲銷量破百萬　蔡依林登高望遠. June 1, 2005. Retrieved September 1, 2007.
  18. ↑ (English) Jolin Tsai sign for Capitol Music, reunion with mentor. February 18, 2006. Retrieved September 1, 2007.
  19. ↑ (English) MTV News. MTV Asia Awards 2006 Honors The Best From West And East With Revolutionary Duets And World Debut Performances. May 6, 2006. Retrieved September 1, 2007.
  20. ↑ "YesAsia.com: Dancing Diva (Perfect Celebration Edition)". Us.yesasia.com. Retrieved 2011-05-23.
  21. ↑ (Chinese) G-music. g-music 2006 Yearly Mandarin Chart. December 31, 2006. Retrieved September 1, 2007.
  22. ↑ (Chinese) G-music Taiwanese audio/video charts. Retrieved September 11, 2007.
  23. ↑ (English) China Daily Nicky Lee, Jolin Tsai win Mandarin pop music awards. June 17, 2007. Retrieved September 11, 2007.
  24. ↑ (English) Jolin Tsai Biggest Winner at Golden Melody Awards. June 18, 2007. Retrieved September 11, 2007.
  25. ↑ (English) Backlash at Golden Melody Awards. Is Best Female Singer Jolin Good as Gold. June 22, 2007. Retrieved September 11, 2007.
  26. ↑ (Chinese) October 3, 2007.
  27. ↑ (English) Retrieved October 3, 2007.
  28. ↑ (Chinese) Retrieved October 3, 2007.
  29. ↑ (Chinese)G-music Taiwanese audio/video charts. Retrieved October 3, 2007.
  30. ↑ (Chinese)玫瑰大眾2007年度銷售榜. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
  31. ↑ (English) Goldsea.com. Jolin Tsai Records Duet with Kylie Minogue. October 15, 2007.
  32. ↑ (Chinese)众星演绎《北京欢迎你》为何最受欢迎？
  33. ↑ Jolin Tsai Learns Ballet Dance
  34. ↑ Jolin Tsai Butterfly Album Best Selling Album Of The Year 2009 In Taiwan
  35. ↑ (Chinese) 年度唱片销量榜出炉 蔡依林名次滑落
  36. ↑ (English) Jolin Tsai to Release First Studio Album in Two Years
  37. ↑ Jolin Tsai Supports Same sex with album Muse
  38. ↑ Jolin Tsai Best selling female artist in taiwan [MUSE]
  39. ↑ Jolin Tsai G Music Charts
  40. ↑ Jolin Tsai Nominated Best Asian Act
  41. ↑ Jolin Tsai Nominated 4 awards at 24th Golden Melody Awards
  42. ↑ Jolin Tsai won Best Song of the Year at 24th Golden Melody Awards
  43. ↑ (Chinese) 一周台湾华语：蔡依林霸气登场 《呸》空降冠军
  44. ↑ (Chinese)蔡依林《美杜莎》MV12月1日首播 化身妖艳蛇姬
  45. ↑ Asia’s Dancing Queen May Have Given Us the Year's Best Pop Music Video
  46. ↑ International Album of the Year: Play, Jolin Tsai

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