Angela An Youqi (; born October 14, 1982) is a Chinese singer who won the first season of ''
Super Girl'', a national singing contest, in 2004. Subsequently, she signed a recording contract and released an album which recorded sales of over one million.
'Idol'-style 'Super Girl Voice' a hit in China
''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'', May 29, 2005
Biography
An was born inside a middle-class family in Harbin. When she was still a child, her family relocated to Beijing. At the age of 22, she started training to develop a career as a dancer, but some years later, she started thinking about turning into a singer. She started singing in pubs waiting for being discovered by a talent agent. When the first edition of the Super Girls contest was announced by Hunan TV
Hunan Television or Hunan TV () is a provincial satellite TV station officially launched on 29 September 1970 and is currently China's second-most-watched channel, second only to CCTV-1, owned by China Central Television, although Hunan STV occasio ...
, she took part in the casting. Finally, she was classified officially as a contestant for the program.
After entering the competition, she started singing in all the events related to the programme, catching instantaneously the attention both from the media and the viewers. At the end, she won the competition and started preparing her first album.
The debut album of An was released with EE Media
EE-Media is a C-pop (Mandopop) record label, founded in Shanghai, China in 2004 by Long Danni under the parent company Hunan Broadcasting System.
History
The company was created after the success of '' Super Girl'' and '' Super Boy'', national s ...
, a record label where almost all the super girl contestants have been releasing their recordings. The sales of the album were highly successful, selling over a million of copies only in mainland China.
After the release, she started a tour around many cities of China.
The success and the popularity of the singer were on the rise, and many producers and lyricist from Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
and Hong Kong (from where many of the biggest stars of Chinese pop music come) were interested in her.
In 2006, she released her second album, which was released under the Taiwanese branch of the Japanese company Avex Trax. She turned into the first mainland Chinese singer to sign with a Japanese label. The second album counted with a huge production effort, with many Taiwanese producers. She made a Chinese version of the song "To be", originally sung by Ayumi Hamasaki
is a Japanese singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, model, spokesperson, and entrepreneur. By 2002, Hamasaki had earned the nickname "Empress of J-pop" due to her popularity in Japan and throughout Asia. Due to her success and relevanc ...
.
After the second album, An went on a five-year hiatus. After that, she released ''Incanto'', an EP of three songs, this time with another label, the Beijing-based Yue Hua Yu Le. For this release, she changed radically in style and image and adopted an electronic synthpop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...
sound. One year later, she released ''Miss An'', her third full album, on Warner Music
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
.
Discography
Albums
External links
Official blog
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Last.FM Information Page
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Official Avex Site
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:An, Youqi
1982 births
Living people
Musicians from Harbin
Super Girl contestants