A-mei

A-mei (張惠妹) is the first Asian popstar I heard of. When I first moved to Canada, I was only 8 and don't think I was much into music anyhow. Growing up in Canada, I also wanted to be assimulated into the Western culture so I didn't pay any attention to Chinese music -- it was something that old Chinese people listen to. It was after college when I first became interested in Chinese pop, after downloading a couple of A-mei songs from the Internet. Now more than half of the songs on my iTunes is either Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

A-mei is still my favorite Asian popstar. Her voice is incredible and unlike some of the newer singers, she conveys a lot of emotion in her songs. I bought her latest album when I was in Taiwan last year but I still think her old stuff is the best. I kind of regret missing out on her concerts, many in the US. Hopefully she will still perform more concerts before she retires.

Update: Arg! I missed it. A-mei was at the Aladin in Las Vegas on Feb. 13th for the Fusion 2007 Concert. :(

A-mei sings a medley (14 minutes!) of movie songs at the 42nd Golden Horse Film Festival (2005) in Taiwan. Not sure what's up with the male MC though.