This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2007) |
Joey Yung Cho-yee (Chinese:容祖兒; Cantonese: Yung Cho Yee; Mandarin pinyin: Róng, Zǔ'ér (born June 16, 1980) is a rising and very popular female Cantopop singer and actress from Hong Kong. She is an artist of the Emperor Entertainment Group. She won the prestigious "Most Popular Female Singer Award" on Jade Solid Gold in 2003 with the help of her hit, "My Pride" and won the same prize in 2004, 2005, and 2006 thus emerging as one of the premier Cantonese singers in the world.
Joey Yung |
---|
Biography
Early career
In 1995 at the young age of 15, Joey was participating in many singing contests, including the Big Echo Karaoke Singing Contest, in which she was given the opportunity to be an artist of Go East Entertainment Co. Ltd.. However, her talent did not win the recognition of the company. Go East ended the contract with Joey soon after the song 'The First Time I Want to be Drunk', which is the theme song of a movie, was recorded. The song is Joey's only song produced by Go East.
Afterwards, she continued with school while also working as a clerk and helping her mother in managing the business of a fashion boutique. She was later introduced to Golden Pony Records Co. Ltd. by an ex-colleague of Go East. Not long after she joined the company, it withdrew its business in Hong Kong. Joey's singing career was once again terminated. A couple of years after, she followed Roman Tam, the godfather of Canto-pop, to learn singing.
Joey as a Newcomer (1999-2000)
In 1998/1999, Joey joined Emperor Entertainment Group. Her talent was appreciated and she was sent abroad for training to enhance her singing skills in 1999.
As this was also the same company her mentor Roman was in, she also toured with Roman which helped her gain experience as a performer.
On 30 September 1999, her first EP was released, officially debuting as a singer. The album charted on the IFPI Album Charts (based on sales) for 23 weeks, breaking the record for the most conseuctive weeks on the IFPI album chart in Hong Kong, and had sold 130,000 copies in Hong Kong alone. In later prize-giving ceremonies held by different media organisations, she won lots of awards together with Cecilia Cheung, who was regarded as a formidable adversary of Joey Yung.
In January 2000, Joey's apartment was set ablaze. In the same year, she made her appearance in her first movie 'Winner Takes All' and her first TV drama series 'The Green Hope'. This year, she released two CDs, including her second EP, Don't Miss, and her first studio album, Who Will Love Me. She, at the same time, became the spokesperson of many brands, like the Four Seas, the Red Cross, Netvigator, etc. Her career had flourished with her increasing exposure in public. She held her first concert at the prestigious Hong Kong Coliseum, titled 'Joey Yung's See You Everywhere Live Concert', in the same year.
Ups and Downs of a Rising Pop Princess (2001-2002)
In 2001, she released her first compilation album 'Love Joey', which later on became the Best Selling Album of the Year. This is considered very impressive for a singer that has been around for less than 2 years. She then released two Cantonese albums, All New Summer Holiday and Solemn on Stage. In November, she held her second live concert and first concert series, 'H20+ Solemn on Stage Joey Yung Live in Concert 2001' at the Hong Kong Coliseum and began her singing career in Taiwan after she released her first Mandarin album 'Honestly'. By the end of the year though, her career crisis arose because of the strain in her vocal cords and the criticism from the public of being plump.
In 2002, she was approved by her company to take a rest while learning dancing and make-up abroad. After two months of rest, she came back to Hong Kong and released her Canto-pop album 'Something About You'. She then became the spokesperson of Nissin and Nikon. At the end of the year, she released her second collection album 'Love Joey II'. She was said to have had plastic surgery and sex relationships with different businessmen in exchange for some of these job opportunities, but this rumor did not diminish her newfound stardom.[citation needed]
Breakthrough as the newest Pop Queen (2003)
In 2003, her song 'My Pride', which is also the theme song of the TV commercial of Banyan Garden developed by Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, became very popular and well-known among the public. This song was awarded 'The Most Popular Song in the Nation' by RTHK. In the same year, she became the spokesperson of a slimming parlour. In the fad of slimming in Hong Kong, Joey also had her body slimmed and presented herself as a sexy image. She held her third concert 'Joey Yung Live Show Up!' in Hong Kong Coliseum, which pushed her career to even higher heights, and she was soon named as 'Canto-pop Queen of Hong Kong'. At the end of the year, she was awarded the 'Most Popular Female Singer' in all prize-giving ceremonies held by the media. She was the second youngest singer in history to have won this prize (youngest being Anita Mui). She also won another prestigious female singer award, the "Best Female Singer Gold" award at the CRHK Music Awards, and was the youngest singer to ever win this award. Following this, she began her world-wide tour including Canada, Australia, USA, Mainland China, Macau, Malaysia with her "Show Up concert" throughout 2004 to 2005.
Hong Kong's Reigning Pop Queen (2004-2006)
In 2004, Joey continued her sexy image in her CD album 'Nin9 2 5ive' and her first photo album 'The Real Joey, Glamour in London'. Her photo album was greatly accepted by the public and ran out of stock shortly after its release. Her second album in 2004, 'Give Love A Break', was greatly appreciated by the public. At the end of the year, she won the 'Most Popular Female Singer' prize of TVB and "My Favourite Female Singer" presented by the Commercial Radio, and many other honorable awards.
Around Christmas, a Cantonese remake of 'Chihuahua' ( a song previously released in English by DJ Bobo) was sung by Joey as part of a Coca-Cola advertising campaign which included a portrayal of her buying a can of it.
In the year 2004, she had won more than 20 awards and received the highest honor award again: The Media Award, which is given to the singer who accumulated the most awards from the 4 music award ceremonies in Hong Kong.
In 2005, Joey released her compilation album, Love Joey 3, and a Canto-pop album, Bi-Heart. Advertising her concert, Reflection of Joey's Live, which spanned a period of eight days in October and November, Joey exhibited a very sexy image in the poster. The theme song of the concert, 好事多為, was arranged and keyboarded by a Korean composer, which is a rare practice in Hong Kong. Funded by Sony Ericsson, EEG found the top production crew to produce the MTV of the theme song. Unlike the concerts she held before, she had invited many guests in this concert. Besides, she had added more dancing elements in the concert, which are greatly favoured by the public. After the concert, Joey suffered from sore throat owing to the strain in her vocal cord. Several days after, she worked without chatting with other people with a view to let her vocal cord relax. Under the heavy workload, she hardly managed to spend several days receiving acupuncture treatment in Nanjing to have her voice restored. Recommended by a producer Joey then started to take singing lessons with popular entertainment voice coach Christine Samson. On Christmas Day, in the prize giving ceremony held by the Metro Radio Hong Kong, she won eight awards, being the artist to have gained the most prizes.
Sales of all her CDs reached at least 5 million copies in 2004, which is impressive, as Canto-pop CD sales are usually about 100,000 copies. She has also won IFPI Best Selling Singer Awards since she started her career. It is also estimated that the total income from field of advertisements in 2004 was about HK $10 million. In 2005, she has purchased two connecting flats named The Legend at Jardine's Lookout, Hong Kong for HKD $40 million. It is not surprising that she has invested since she has earned more than HKD $60 million last year.
In Jan 2006, she has received, again, many awards such as the most popular female singer award for the consecutive third time. She has also won other awards such as Golden song etc. During the Hong Kong IFPI record sales awards 2005, Joey once again for the 2nd year in a row, was the best selling female artist. Two of her albums (Love Joey II and Joey Yung X Hacken Lee The Music Is LIVE 903 Id Club Concert) were of the top 10 selling albums. Following the success of the 8-night "Reflection's of Joey's Live Concert," her concert CD/VCD/DVD combined to have a sales of triple platinum (120,000 copies), quite a rare accomplishment in today's Cantopop Industry.
On Feb. 27, 2006, Joey released another album, Ten Most Wanted, her all-new cantonese album. More time has been put in the production of this CD than any other CD Joey's produced. Joey says that this album was to try new music styles, and work with different musicians. One of the musicians behind this CD is well praised by Joey, Mavis Faan, who wrote the music of two of the ten songs out of this CD, Get Fit with Jane Fonda and Torn Tongue (lyrics of both songs written by Yiu Fai Chow). Both songs are fast songs that are completely different from the previous Joey songs.
Close Up (2007+)
At the end of December, Yung released her Cantonese album Close Up. Songs include "Burst of Joy & Beautiful Flowers" (her first collaboration with Hanjin), her biggest hit last year "Splendid Unexpected Meeting", and her third and latest plug, "One Love One Lesson". The album has gotten really good response from the general public, and the first version is out of stock at online CD stores like Yesasia, and many people has reported that it was sold out in stores all over Hong Kong as well. She released the second version on the 26th of January, and it included a bonus DVD with the music videos for "Splendid Unexpected Meeting" and "Burst of Joy & Beautiful Flowers".
She was the biggest winner of the female singers at the four 2006 year end music awards, also won the best CD seller through out all the female singer,and the most popular female singer in Asian, with 16 awards in total. At the end of January, Neway helped organize a musical for Joey, called "Safari". Joey was touched by all the singers and audience that came to help her make the musical possible (by performing in it), the singers include: Anthony Wong, at17, Hins Cheung, Yumiko Cheng, Vincent Wong, and Sun Boy'z.S he hoped to do "Safari" again if possible in the future. Moreover,Joey will be doing a concert in Highland,Malaysia in April.
Amsbassador Joey has been chosen to be the amsbassador of the" Hunger 30 Programme",which is organized by the World Vision.She will visit the undeveloped country (North Africa) in March 2007.
Discography
Filmography
- Winner Takes All (2000)
- Feel 100% II (2001)
- Expect a Miracle (2001)
- My Schoolmate, the Barbarian (2001)
- Demi-Haunted (2002)
- The Attractive One (2004)
- Crazy N' The City (2005)
Series
- Green Hope (2000)
- Not Just A Pretty Face (2003)
- Sunshine Heartbeat(2004)
- Kung Fu Soccer (2004)
- On The First Beat (2006)
Concerts
Concerts in Hong Kong
Date | Chinese Name | English Name | # of shows | Venue |
---|---|---|---|---|
6/10/2000 | Yes ! 容祖兒不容錯失音樂會 | YES! Don't Miss Live | 1 | Hong Kong Polyteachnic University Jockey Club Auditorium |
8/29/2000 | ~H2O+903 容祖兒
夏水禮音樂會 |
Joey Yung Live 2000 | 1 | HKCEC Hall 3 |
11/19/2000 | ~H2O+美麗在望慈善演唱會 | Beauty Prospective Live 2000 | 1 | Hong Kong Coliseum |
10/25-27/01 | ~H2O容祖兒隆重登場演唱會Live | Joey Yung Live in Concert 2001 | 3 | Hong Kong Coliseum |
6/26/2002 | 容祖兒903 id Club
拉闊音樂會 |
Music Is Live 903 id Club Concert | 1 | HKEC Hall 3 |
10/16-21/2003 | Show Up!演唱會 | Joey Yung Live Show Up | 6 | Hong Kong Coliseum |
4/04/2004 | 新城流行女皇音樂會 | Joey Yung 'Feel the Pop' Concert Live | 1 | HKCEC Hall 3 |
11/18/2004 | 壓軸拉闊音樂會
李克勤x容祖兒 |
Joey Yung X Hacken Lee The Music Is LIVE 903 Id Club Concert | 1 | HKCEC Hall 3 |
5/21/2005 | 新城容我信愛
一唱傾情音樂會 |
Let Me Believe Love- Joey Yung X Jeff Chang | 1 | HKCEC Hall 3 |
10/26-31,11/1-2/2005 | 容祖兒演唱會2005 | Reflection of Joey's Live 2005 | 8 | Hong Kong Coliseum |
5/12-15/2006 | 容祖兒 姚珏 莫拉維亞交響樂團音樂會 | One Live One Love Concert 2006 (with Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra) | 4 | Hong Kong Coliseum |
16/1/2007 | Safari!向祖兒狂呼音樂劇 | Safari! | 1 | HKCEC |
Concerts/Tours outside of Hong Kong
Thank You For Loving Me 2002 (Taipei) - 1 show
Show Up World Tour 2004 - 6 stops
- Sydney (1 show)
- Melbourne (1 show)
- Vancouver (1 show)
- Toronto (1 show)
- Genting (2 shows)
- Guangzhou (1 show)
Reflection of Joey's Live North American Tour 2006 - 3 stops
- Atlantic City (2 shows)
- Las Vegas (1 show)
- Toronto (1 show)
- Genting Highlands,M'sia(2 shows)**To be held on 27th and 28th April 2007
Latest News
- Joey won her fourth consecutive "Most Popular Female Singer" award at the 2006 JSG Top Ten Hits Award, and is now tied with Sally Yeh for winning it the second most times, after the late Anita Mui with a record of 5 wins. She won three other awards that night, including Best Mandarin Song Bronze award, Best Commercial Song Bronze award, and Top Ten Songs Award with Splendid Unexpected Meeting.
- Joey won 2 awards at the CRHK Music Awards, including Best Female Singer-Silver Award, and the 3rd Best Song of the year. These awards are awarded according to airplay.
- Joey won 5 awards at the HK Metro Hit Awards, the first of the four major music award ceremonies. Awards include: Best Female Singer (one of three, no ranking), two Top 21 Song Awards for Splendid Unexpected Meeting and Snow Baring Ground, Stage Performance Award (along with Eason Chan and Denise Ho, and one of five Best Commercial Song awards for Splendid Unexpected Meeting).
- She performed at the 2007 CCTV New Year's Gala.
External links
- Joey Yung's Official Website (in Chinese)
- Joey Yung International Fanclub Forum- The International Fanclub forum of Joey Yung(in Chinese)
- Joey Alliance Singapore - Joey Yung's Singapore fanclub site and forum (in English)
- JoeyGalaxy - fan site and forum (in English)
- Joey-Fans - Joey's largest fan forum (in simplified Chinese & traditional Chinese)
- Interview with Joey Yung
- Joey's album lyrics(w/pinyin and english translation) and pics
- Joey Discography Picture Gallery - Joey Yung's Discography Picture Gallery (in English)