Stefanie Sun

Stefanie Sun
Chinese name	孫燕姿 (traditional)
Chinese name	孙燕姿 (simplified)
Pinyin	Sūn Yànzī (Mandarin)
Birth name	Sng Ee Tze
Ancestry	Chaozhou, Guangdong, China
Born	(1978-07-23) 23 July 1978 Singapore
Occupation	Singer-songwriter
Genre(s)	Mandopop
Instrument(s)	Voice, piano
Voice type(s)	Mezzo-soprano
Label(s)	Universal Music (2013–present) Wonderful Music (2011–2012) Capitol Music (2006–2008) Warner Music Taiwan (2000–2006)
Years active	2000–present
Associated acts	see Collaborations
Spouse(s)	Nadim Van Der Ros (m. 2011)
Awards Golden Melody Awards Best Mandarin Female Singer 2005 Stefanie Best Newcomer 2001 Yan Zi MTV Asia Awards Favorite Artist, Singapore 2002–2005, 2008

Sng Ee Tze (born 23 July 1978), better known as Stefanie Sun, Sun Yanzi, and known to fans as 13姐 ("13th sister"), is a singer-songwriter. She is known as the Singaporean Mandopop queen. She has sold over 30 million copies of her albums during the span of her career thus far.^[1] She is based in Taiwan, as she does the majority of her recordings there. Her popularity extends to China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and her native Singapore.

Biography

Sun has an older sister three years her senior Sng Yee-kia (孙燕佳), and a younger sister six years her junior named Sng Ee-mei (孙燕美).

Sun was educated at Nanyang Primary School, St. Margaret's Secondary School, Raffles Girls' School and went on to attend Saint Andrew's Junior College. She later attended Nanyang Technological University, where she obtained a degree in Marketing, and was said to stay at Hall 6 where she was known for her singing talent. Her voice talent was discovered by her music teacher Lee Wei Song.

In the Mandarin-speaking world, Sun is more popularly known by her Mandarin name, Sun Yan-zi or Sun Yanzi. Sun has sold over 10 million copies in Asia. With eleven albums to her name, she is arguably the most successful singer from Singapore.^[1] Sun is also known to be good friends with fellow Pop Princess of Taiwan, Jolin Tsai. They are often performing guests at each other's concerts.

On 8 May 2011, Sun married Nadim Van Der Ros, 34, a Dutch-Indonesian and founder of The Good Bean Consultancy.^[2] They had met through a mutual friend and dated for five years, but their relationship was revealed only when she was spotted supporting him at Aviva Singapore's Ironman Triathlon in 2009. They had earlier secretly registered their marriage on 31 March 2011.^[3][4][5] On 30 October 2012, Sun gave birth to her first child, a baby boy weighing approximately 3.4 kg.^[6][7][8]

Languages

Most of her songs are sung in Mandarin Chinese, with a few in English. Sun's ability to speak various dialects is reflected in the songs she sings. In the song "Cloudy Day" (天黑黑), she sang in both Mandarin and Hokkien. It is an adaptation of a traditional Hokkien folk song that included the first six words in the original Hokkien- Thiⁿ-o͘-o͘, beh lo̍h-hō͘ – in the chorus.^[9] Her second song in her career sang in both Mandarin and Hokkien was released in her 2014 album Kepler, entitled "Best Youth" (尚好的青春).

The album Start contained 6 songs in English: covers of "Venus", "That I Will Be Good", "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough", "Silent All These Years", and "Hey Jude"; and the original song "Someone".

Music career

2000–2012

Her first album was released in June 2000, the self-titled Yan Zi (孙燕姿), published by Warner Music. "Yan Zi" album sold over 560 000 copies alone in Taiwan, and 3.8 million copies in Asia. This was a major success for Sun and the record company as a newcomer. This was followed in December of the same year as My Desired Happiness (我要的幸福), which sold over 800 000 copies in Taiwan alone, and 4 million copies in Asia.

Her third album was released in early 2001, titled "Kite" (風筝). This album had sold successfully with 900 000 copies in Taiwan; also over 4.1 million copies in Asia.^[10]

January 2002 saw the release of Start (自選集), a collection of songs, many of which are cover versions. "Start" sold over 500 000 copies in Taiwan alone, and it also reached high commercial success in Asia with 3.5 million copies sold.

In 2002 and 2003 Sun sang the official theme songs for Singapore's National Day Parade: "We Will Get There" (一起走到) and "One United People" (全心全意). The former was included on the album Leave. Leave sold over 400 000 copies in Taiwan and 3.3 million copies in Asia.

In early 2003, she released her sixth album titled, "To Be Continued..." which was also met with commercial success. It managed to sell over 300 000 copies in Taiwan and over 2.8 million copies in Asia. Few months later, she released her seventh album, her first compilation album, with six new songs and fifteen of her old songs; the album sold over 900 000 copies in Taiwan alone, and 4.3 million copies in Asia. By the end of 2003, Sun had sold almost 26 million copies in Asia with just seven albums.

In late 2003, she decided to take a one-year hiatus from making music, believing that she needed to recover her sense of direction. She returned in late 2004 with a new album titled Stefanie, intended to be a mirror of her debut album (self-titled as well, but in Chinese). This was to symbolise her return with a fresh attitude. This album was well received by the critics in the Chinese music industry. This album sold over 4 million copies in Asia; making it one of the most successful album from her.

She also started her own artiste management company, Make Music, during this sabbatical.^[11]

A Perfect Day was released on 2005, almost one year later. Reviews of this new album have been mixed, but Sun had mentioned before that her priority is to make quality music, instead of over-commercialized products that sell well but have a lower level of artistic quality. Though this album did not reach the best commercial success, it had still managed to sell over 300 000 copies in Taiwan and 2.8 million copies in Asia.

In 2006, Sun was in the midst of a regional concert tour. She has staged four full-house concerts at the renowned Hong Kong Coliseum. The performances have received positive reviews from the media as well as overwhelming support from fans. Sun also returned to Singapore in a much-anticipated homecoming concert. Yet, not all is smooth-sailing for her. At the Golden Melody Award 2006 in Taiwan, whilst performing renditions of other male singers' songs, she went off-key and was heavily lambasted in the Chinese pop media, which reported that she has shattered her image of a pop diva with great singing skills. She attributed it to factors like not enough rest due to the incident at the airport and inadequate time for sufficient practice with a concert in Mainland China on the day right before the ceremony etc. She re-did the songs again at her concert at Taipei one month later to show her true skills and received very positive reviews for the rendition and the concert itself as well.

Sun's first album under the Capitol brand is entitled Against The Light (逆光) and has been released on 22 March 2007. Her decision to leave Warner after 9 albums was partly due to music executive Sam Chen, who now works at EMI. He had collaborated with Sun on 8 of her 9 albums.

On 26 February 2007, Sun returned from Cairo where she and her team were extorted by suspected local gangsters. Sun was in Egypt to shoot a music video for her new album. Two men disguised as government officials followed her and the crew and asked for money—at one point even showing a handgun. The crew tried calling the police, only for the two crooks to dismiss them with just a few words. The crew had to hand over a total of over 200,000 yuan to continue shooting. The extortion went on for four days. Finally, Sun and her team were able to leave the country with the help of the Singapore embassy. Upon returning home, the pop diva said nothing except that she was tired and needed some rest.^[12][13]

Sun's 10th album, Against The Light, has been a major success in Asia. In Taiwan, it sold over 60,000 copies in the first 3 days it was released. In addition, over 500,000 copies were sold within a week in Mainland China.

In 2007, Sun sang the official theme song for ASEAN's 40th anniversary celebrations: Rise.^[14]

In 2008 Sun took an offer to guest star in the film "12 Lotus" (12莲花) acting as Guan Yin, who sings Hokkien songs and reads a poem in Hokkien as well.^[15] Sun also performed in the Love Amplified Concert, a concert held in Singapore to commemorate World AIDS Day 2008. The concert was held at Fort Canning Park, Singapore on 29 November 2008.

In May 2009, Sun starts her new world tour "The Answer is..." with her first stop being Taiwan. In this world tour, she works with William Chang, her concert image consultant. She also sang her new song "愚人的國度". Sun has no artist management deal currently.

In November 2009, Sun sings the theme song "木蘭情" for the featured film version of Mulan.

In May 2010, Sun released the single "Every Touching Moment" for Shanghai Expo 2010 with Tanya Chua, JJ Lin and A-do.

On 8 March 2011, three days before the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, Sun launched her comeback with a new album, named It's Time (是时候). It had been four years since her last album.^[16] HMV and CD Rama in various locations in Singapore have reportedly sold out her first batch of CDs. However it had been reported that HMV charged an extra $5 for the CDs. Despite the hike in price in combination with the overshadowing by the March 11th disaster in Japan, the album still remained top on the chart for 3 consecutive weeks since the release of the album.

In December 2012, Sun announced her plans to return with concert tour in 2013. She commented that "clever singers do not rush through a production" and that she is not in hurry to release a new album, and also joked that she is returning to the stage to earn "milk powder money" for her beloved son. Although an exact date has not been released yet, Stef's manager mentioned that there will be no lesser than 12 stops for the tour this time round.^[17]

2013–present

In early September 2013, Sun signed on to Universal Music at a press conference in Capella Singapore on Singapore's Sentosa Island.^[18] She released her latest 12th album Kepler in February 2014, and started her world concert tour with the same name "Kepler", with the first stop in Taiwan on 14 February 2014. She returned home to hold her concert on 5 July 2014 in Singapore National Stadium at the Sports Hub,^[19] and she made history by being the first singer to stage a concert at the National Stadium after its renovation.^[20]

In October 2014, the Madame Tussauds Singapore museum unveiled a wax figure of Sun. The statue depicts Sun dressed in a dramatic black outfit, sporting a funky crop of dyed hair and holding up a microphone to a concert "audience" and listening for its response. In an interview with The Straits Times, Sun shared that four staff members took her measurements in a hotel ballroom in Shanghai earlier in 2014. "Everything was very precise and detailed, down to the shade of the gums... even the size of the eyeballs." she said.^[21]

Collaborations

Sun collaborated with Japanese singer Mai Kuraki on the last track of Sun's album To Be Continued..., "My Story, Your Song". They collaborated again on Mai Kuraki's If I Believe album, released in July 2003, with the song, "Tonight, I Feel Close To You".

Sun also sang with fellow Singaporean singer, Tanya Chua, the song "Original Point (原点)" in Tanya's album, Amphibian.

In the song "First Day", from the album A Perfect Day, she sings with the popular Taiwanese musicians MayDay and F.I.R., forming a one time band called First Day (same as the title of the song they sing), with FIR coming from F.I.R., ST coming from the first two letters in Sun's English name Stefanie and Day coming from MayDay. Sun had previously worked with MayDay on a song from their album Time Machine.

She collaborated with singers Wang Leehom, Jane Zhang, and Wang Feng to record the theme song of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games: "Light the Passion, Share the Dream" (点燃激情，传递梦想).

Discography

Studio

Live concert albums

Compilation album

Awards and accolades

Sun is regarded as one of the most accomplished local artists in her native homeland, Singapore, partly linked with her central role in two National Day theme songs We Will Get There (一起走到) in 2002 and One United People (全心全意) in 2003.

She has won awards and other accolades for her music in the course of her career in Singapore, Taiwan, mainland China and Hong Kong.

Music related

Non music related

• Her World Young Woman Achiever Award in 2001.^[24]
• NTU Nanyang Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 2005.^[25]
• Singapore Youth Award (Arts and Culture) in 2007 for her outstanding achievements in the music scene, and her contributions to the local and international community.^[26]
• Singapore Tourism Ambassador for Greater China in September 2010 by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).^[27]
• Business China Young Achiever Award in 2011 for her recognised bilingual and bicultural role model for the young.^[28][29]
• NTU Nanyang Distinguished Alumni Award in 2014.^[30]

Vocal teacher

Sun's vocal teacher, Nicole Lai died on 6 September 2008; both were very good friends. Sun gave her a nickname Niguolai (你過來), that sounds like Nicole Lai. One of Lai's wishes in life was to have a CD album of her own. After her death, Sun sponsored Lai's CD album with the Mandarin song 'Freedom' that was both written and sung by Lai. Singapore's leading English newspaper publication Straits Times on 26 September 2008 reported news of Stefanie's sponsorship of Nicole's CD album.^[31][32]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stefanie Sun.

• 百度孙燕姿吧 (Chinese)
• 孙燕姿 Pixnet blog
• Stefanie Fans Club China SunyanziCC.Net: 姿迷城市 (Chinese)