Stefanie Sun
- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Sng / Sun.
Stefanie Sun (simplified Chinese: 孙燕姿; traditional Chinese: 孫燕姿; pinyin: Sūn Yàn Zī) is a multi-award-winning C-Pop singer and songwriter. She was born on 1978. Stefanie has sold over 10 million copies in Asia. After her release of her tenth album, she is said to be the most popular Mandarin female singer in Asia and the most successful singer from Singapore.
Stefanie Sun | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Sng Ee Tze 23 July 1978 |
| Nationality | Singaporean |
| Alma mater | Nanyang Technological University |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Spouse | Nadim van der Ros (m. 2011) |
| Children | 2 |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | Pop |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano |
| Labels | Warner, Capitol, Wonderful, Universal |
Early life change
Stefanie Sun has an elder sister Sng Yee Kia and a younger sister Sng EeMei.
Stefanie wen to school at Saint 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 got a degree in Marketing. Her abilities were discovered by her music teacher at his music school.
Languages change
Among Mandarin-speakers, Stefanie is known by her Mandarin name, Sun Yan Zi. She speaks the Teochew dialect, and in Teochew her name is pronounced as "Sng Ee Tze," which is her official name. Most of her songs are sung in Mandarin, with several in English. Stefanie's ability to speak many dialects is shown in the songs she sings.
In the song Cloudy Day (called 天黑黑 in Chinese), she sings in both Mandarin and Min Nan (Taiwanese). Cloudy Day is an adaptation of a traditional Taiwanese folk song.
Her album START! contains 6 songs in English: Venus, That I Will Be Good, Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough, Silent All These Years, and Hey Jude; and a song she wrote called Someone.
Career change
Stefanie does most of her recording and performing in Taiwan, where most of her fans are. She also visits China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, where many of her fans are.
Her first music album was released in June 2000, the self-titled YanZi, published by Warner Music. The album sold over 330,000 copies in Taiwan. Her next album, which was released in December of the same year was titled My Desired Happiness or 我要的幸福 in Chinese. My Desired Happiness sold over 380,000 copies in Taiwan. Both albums achieved great success – each album sold over 1,000,000 copies in mainland China.
Her third album was released in early 2001, titled Kite, which sold successfully with 300,000 copies in Taiwan and more than 950,000 in China.
In January 2002 she released START, which was titled 自選集 in China. START was a collection of songs and cover versions. START! sold over 250,000 copies in Taiwan alone in less than a month and overall 1,000,000 copies sold in mainland China.
In 2002 and 2003, Stefanie sang the official theme songs for Singapore's National Day Parade: We Will Get There (一起走到 in Chinese) and One United People (全心全意 in Chinese). One United People was included on the album Leave.
In early 2003, she released the album To Be Continued… which like her previous releases, was a success. It sold more than 250,000 copies in Taiwan and more than 1,000,000 in China. Only a few months later, she released her seventh album with six new songs mixed with fifteen of her old songs. By the end of 2003, Stefanie had sold over 7,000,000 copies in Asia with just seven albums.
In late 2003, she decided to take a one-year break from making music, because she wanted to find again her direction in her career. She returned in late 2004 with a new album titled Stefanie, which was meant to reflect her debut album (self-titled as well, but in Chinese). This was to symbolise her return with a fresh attitude. This album sold more than 2,300,000 copies in Asia; making it her most successful album. She also started her own company called Make Music.
A Perfect Day was released on 2005, almost one year later. Reviews of this new album were mixed, but Stefanie said that all she wanted was to make quality music, instead of releases that sell well but have a lower level of artistic quality. This album was not her highest-selling, but it had still managed to sell over 1,000,000 copies in Asia.
In 2006, Stefanie had 4 full-house concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum. The performances were praised by the media as well as fans. Stefanie also returned to Singapore in a much-anticipated homecoming concert. However, at The Golden Melody Awards 2006 in Taiwan, while performing songs that were meant to be for male singers, she went off-key, due to having not enough sleep, jet lag, and not having enough time to practice. The media said she had shattered her image of a pop diva with great singing skills. Though she had been heavily criticized by the media, many think that she did not perform as bad, instead the media had over-emphasized on her singing that night.
Stefanie’s first album under the Capitol brand is entitled Against the Light or 逆光 in Chinese. It was 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 Stefanie on 8 of her 9 albums.
On 26 February 2007, Stefanie returned from Cairo where she and her team were extorted by suspected local gangsters. Stefanie was in Egypt to shoot a PV for her new album. Two men disguised as government officials followed her and the crew and asked for money and even showing a handgun. The crew tried calling the police but the police didn’t believe them. The crew had to hand over a total of over 200,000 yuan in order to continue shooting.
Stefanie’s tenth 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 China. Stefanie was also the number one spot in the Taiwanese Music Charts for 4 weeks.
In 2007, Stefanie sang the offcial theme song for ASEAN's 40th anniversary celebrations: Rise. [1] Archived 2007-10-13 at the Wayback Machine