Kimberley Chen

Kimberley Chen
Kimberley Chen at Southern Taiwan University of Technology, 2013
Background information
Chinese name	陳芳語 (traditional)
Chinese name	陈芳语 (simplified)
Pinyin	Chén Fāngyǔ (Mandarin)
Birth name	Kimberley Chen
Born	(1994-05-23) 23 May 1994 Melbourne, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Singer
Label(s)	Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan) (2012-2014) Black Swan Entertainment (2014-present)
Years active	2012 - present
Ancestry	Chinese

Kimberley Chen (born 23 May 1994)^[1] is an Australian singer, actress and model based in Taiwan. She attended Tintern Grammar in Melbourne, Australia. She was the youngest and only child model on the Channel 9's The Price Is Right and later appeared as Young Nala in Disney's Lion King at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne as well as the Shanghai Grand Theater in Shanghai. She is now a professional singer in Taiwan, singing both English and Chinese songs. Her debut album has been a commercial success and her debut song "愛你" (Love You) has more than 60,000,000 views on YouTube.^[2]

Biography

Kimberley's parents are immigrants of Australia from Malaysia, and was first coached by her father in singing. She was then coached by Vladimir Vais, who is a world-famous conductor and also musical director for the Russian Bolshoi Ballet for over 10 years.

At a young age, Kimberley did photographic work and appeared in a McDonald's commercial, which was aired throughout Asia.

Chen began singing for charities at the age of four with the help of her father. She was performing regularly at charity concerts and clubs. She donated to Australian Community Aid Abroad. When the East Timor Crisis came, she felt strongly for the Timorese and her donation went to Caritas Australia for direct aid to East Timor. In the 2003 Royal Children Hospital Good Friday Appeal on the Seven Network, at the age of 8, she sang and danced "Let's Get Loud" with backing dancers.

Discovered by Grundy Television executive director Michael Whyte, Chen was offered the ongoing role as the featured child model on The Price Is Right for its 2003 revival. She performed in over 400 episodes on the Nine Network for 2 ½ years.

In July 2005, Chen started playing the role of Young Nala in Disney's The Lion King at the Regent Theatre, Melbourne. In June 2006, Chen was offered the same role to perform in Shanghai's Grand Theatre for the season, through October 2006.

While she was in Shanghai, Chen attracted quite a lot of interest from the local media. After The Lion King, Chen stayed on to perform on a Shanghai television show.

In March 2007, Chen was selected to sing the national anthem at the Australian Football League NAB Cup Grand Final in front of an audience of 40,000, which aired nationally on Seven.

From April to November 2008, Chen was on the roster of artists at JYP Entertainment in New York. From November 2008 to June 2009, she was training independently in singing, dancing and acting in New York under the guidance of Yolanda Wyns, and recording with Grammy-award winners Gordon Chambers and Barry Eastmond.

In March 2010, she was invited to compete in the Taiwanese televised singing competition One Million Star. As she got good results on the programme, she was asked to be the guest singer for Kelly Clarkson's All I Ever Wanted World Tour in Taipei. She was signed with Sony BMG Taiwan, but in 2014, Blackie Chan and his wife, Christine Fan had signed her for one year as a talent under their new talent agency, Black Swan Entertainment. Her current label has not been revealed yet. Kimberley is a vegetarian and supports animals rights, she hopes to create a foundation in the future to create awareness of the care of animals.

Music career

2012: Debut with Kimberley

After nearly 3 years of preparation Chen's debut album was released on 27 April 2012, with 6 Chinese songs and 5 English songs. Two of her songs have been played on the Taiwanese series Fondant Garden starring Park Jung Min. Her debut single "愛你 (Love You)" has been a success on YouTube, with over 70,000,000 views and generally positive comments.

Chen's second single "Never Change" was the first for which she wrote the music and lyrics. Chen has released two music videos for her two singles and both have been a success on YouTube with 愛你 (Love You), also starring JPM and "廖允傑" (LilJay) having over 15,000,000 views. In Taiwan she has come first in KKBOX charts with her first single and debut album ezPeer, 台灣大哥大, 中華電信 and 遠傳電信 topping ringtone download charts.

2013: Kimbonomics

Sony Music announced on 16 December 2013, that Chen will be releasing her second studio album.^[3] The new album contains 10 tracks and will be released on 25 December 2013^[4] The album placed 4th on the weekly music charts of KKBOX in Taiwan on 25 January 2014.^[5]

Discography

1. Kimberley
2. Kimbonomics

Filmography

Music Video Appearances

• 2012 – "Internet" – from Kimberley Chen (album) with JPM

Endorsements

• 2012-2014 – Dailo Girls' Wardrobe (Taiwan)

Awards

References