Queen(s) of Chinese Pop
 

I've always wanted to ask, who is the queen (or queens) of Chinese pop these days? I know Sammi Cheng was extremely popular a couple of years back. And there has been a lot of talk about Joey Yung lately. But what about Jolin Tsai? Is she big only in Taiwan?

So, I just wanted to know what you guys know :) Are there female singers who are only well-known in Mandopop but not in Cantopop and vice-versa? Are there female singers who reign supreme in certain places only (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mainland)? Or are there those who are big in the whole Chinese-speaking world? I'd appreciate some help :D Thanks!

Well, there's Vicki Zhao who imo is like the Ayu of Mainland China[that is where she releases right?] and she's getting tons of awards for her music and stuff..

Vicki Zhao / Zhao Wei's album, DOUBLE
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/641...idoublepl9.jpg

And then there's Fiona Sit and her whole music career. Her latest album Electric Angel came out recently, but I can't say much more. ~K+ probably can help you like crazy with Chinese music :D

-needs more knowledge- :<

What?!?! Fiona Sit is a queen of C-pop? ............ That's awfully surprising because she's not all that popular compare to other people like Kelly Chen?

Well, like I said, I don't know much..

But I thought her single or w/e 'Tong Bao Lao' or something did well.. D:?

Vicki Zhao really is the Queen in mainland China ;)

As for Taiwan, Jolin Tsai is doing really well there, her official title's "Princess of Pop". She's also very popular here in Singapore. And she just released a new album with Cantonese tracks on it, so I expect that she's trying to enter the C-pop market as well.

Sammi Cheng is really good, but I haven't seen her around for very long...

I still think S.H.E are the most well-known females in the Chinese market. They're big everywhere :D Just that they're a group, so people don't call them "Queens of Pop", like they do to solo artists.

I think it's cause S.H.E is sort of like 'definitive' Chinese pop.

They're what I think of when I think pop in Taiwan/China.. Their songs are so surprisingly good. D: I really like the new tracks on FOREVER.

I think Sammi might have lost her throne because she is like perhaps half retired. She hasn't released anything new nor is she filming any movies lately. Her most recent appearance was as a guest singer to some other artist's [forgot who's] concert.
I really have no clue who the Queen of hkpop is though, maybe Kelly chen but I hate her =) She's just not the thing for me.

Hey guys, many thanks for the replies so far :D I didn't know Vicki Zhao was THAT huge. But maybe that's because I don't know much about the Mainland music scene. I've only known her as that girl in So Close. Hehe.

I see Jolin Tsai everywhere on Taiwan television :) So I was wondering if she was as popular elsewhere. But, well, I'm kind of surprised she still hasn't made a Cantonese album, especially since she seems to be red hot right now.

And thanks for letting me know about S.H.E. I've always thought they were only big in Taiwan. Guess I'm kind of out-of-touch these days :dead2

Yeah, I remember Sammi Cheng being REALLY huge a few years back, both in music and movies. Maybe she's pulling a Faye Wong? :)

i dont really know who is the most popular female singer in china mainland though i am a chinese.
anyway, i believe most hongkong/taiwan/singapore sinngers are much popular here than other pop singers in mainland.
Jolin, Elva, Yanzi, SHE, Twins, Gigi, Sammy, etc........

Faye Wong is so pretty *pets her head*

Well, in HK, SHE is nothing, Jolin is not so popular too, as for Finoa Sit, she's just a new face here. I suggest Janice Wei if u like~! Every song of her is big hit here in HK

Well, back then, Sammi, Kelly and Faye are really queens

Joey Yung is definitely not considered as Queen of Cpop. She's only popular in HK, and is pratically unknown in the Mandarin market. In fact, her Mandarin album flopped.

As for Jolin, I don't think she's up there yet. 'Princess' is more suitable for her.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Anita Mui yet. She wasn't just huge in HK, but in the Mandarin market as well. When she died like 2 years ago, there was a picture of her in one of our English newspapers (Toronto Star) and she was labelled as the "Madonna of the Chinese speaking world" or somewhere to that extent.

Kelly, Sammi and Faye are also Queens of Cpop as well. Their one of the few females that can hold a vast amount of concerts in the Mandarin market and in the Cantonese market.

How about Stefanie Sun? I think she (and her music) are well-received throughout the Chinese speaking world.

Why would she make a Cantonese album though? She only made the Cantonese version of that song to tie in with her 2 HK concerts. There really wouldn't be a point in releasing a Cantonese album since the market is so small and plus Cantonese isn't her first language...

Well I read that Sammi was suffering from depression.... But, she appeared as a guest to HOCC's concert in HK last night, and newspapers said that she was pretty high while performing.

^ :agrees..no one besides Anita Mui(R.I.P) is really a true Queen of Cpop
I also think the other one could be Denise Ho..although I hope Miriam Yeung is one but she isn't that strong compares to Janice in terms of songs getting on to the hit-top charts..

..it frightens me if the rumors about Sammi having cancers is true though...she haven't release anything in a LONG time but she did release a best album which has almost all her songs...

I thought Jolin is like...famous over China?
Ouch.


How about....Teresa Teng?

Teresa Teng was a diva. Unfortunately she passed away quite some time ago.

Ya, Anita Mui and Teresa are classic queens~! I love them so much, their vocals are great. You can't find any artists who can be compared with them in C pop anymore!

Anita Mui is truly versatile in terms of image, vocal, live preformance(dancing) and acting!

Well, I just go by what most Hong Kong singers do (since this is the market I'm most familiar with), which is to release both Cantonese and Mandarin albums, regardless of language fluency :) I assumed most C-pop singers did so to prove they could "corner all the Chinese markets". But, like I said, I lack in-depth knowledge of Chinese pop...

And of course I know about Anita Mui and Teresa Teng! Hehe, who hasn't in this part of Asia? :P Maybe I should have clarified my post: I'm more interested in the more recent "queens". I personally would put Faye Wong alongside Anita and Teresa in terms of greatness. Singer, songwriter, and she works with Wong Kar Wai! That's hard to beat.

I love Sun Yan Zi though I don't think she compares to the popularity of, say, Sammi Cheng?

I hope you mean "high" as in "emotionally high" and not what I'm thinking. If it's the latter, poor Sammi...

^Well HK singers do this because of the money. A lot more money is made if you release a Mandarin album (i.e. Twins, their 1st Mandarin album was reported to have sold 800k and their 2nd Mandarin album was reported to have passed the million mark compared to their HK albums, which only sell like 30k?)

The more recent 'queens' imo would probably be Kelly etc. Maybe even A-mei. I guess both Stef and Jolin can be more considered as princesses, although I think Stef's career so far is more of a "queen" than Jolin's.

Sammi was "emotionally high", she was very into the concert and sang a couple of songs with HOCC. From the pictures I've seen she looked pretty happy to be a guest performer at the concert.

Like Joey, Miriam has been unsuccessful in the Mandarin market... Heck, she's already having trouble with the HK market musically this year.

I don't think female artist are "that" known or popular across China. But in the other hand, many many many popular male singers.

CPOP as in chinese pop or cantonese pop?
If it's chinese pop I think focus will be on Taiwan cos in Hongkong most of the songs are Cantonese.

For Chinese pop there's Jolin,Stefanie,cyndi and elva. But none of the are queen yetz haha.
The real Queen have 'retired' =.=" or got phase out.
Sandy Lam, Faye Wong and Sammi are the Queens.

^The title of the thread says: "Queen(s) of Chinese Pop"

Twins are popular in China ever since they started doing more and more promotion for the Mandarin market. They've done a lot of concerts there too, in fact, they did one this past week to a sellout crowd of 15k.

Twins are popular, but I don't think they've established themselves successfully enough yet to be able to claim a "queen" status. They sell well, as do Cyndi Wang and Angela Chang, but they seem to lack that certain quality and aura to be known as "queens". Maybe they're still too one-dimensional and teeny-bopper, and haven't shown enough diversity to be able to shed off that "princess-y" image.

^Yeah, I don't think they can claim "queen" status either...

Jolin definitely
Cyndi Wang
S.H.E.
Stefanie Sun
Lead singer of F.I.R. (Faye) she's a "queen" in her own right even if she's the only girl in the group XD

Hey guys, thanks for the replies so far!

I had thought it would have been easy to pinpoint the queen of Chinese pop (that goes to show how much I know about the Chinese market :P ). But this has turned into a very interesting discussion! Reading the posts so far, I take it the only active "queen" nowadays is Kelly Chen ? Is she popular outside of Hong Kong?

Lacusclyne, Faye Wong was popular in Japan as well, back in the late nineties, when Eyes on Me was released.

ayufan929, it's good to hear that Sammi is still doing well :)

Yeah, Kelly is popular outside of HK. I think more in the mainland than in Taiwan, but I could be wrong. Her Mandarin album last year either approached 1 million in sales or broke the million. And, she also finished a bunch of concerts in China last year.

Teresa Teng I wouldn't really classify her as pop. Not in the sense today. Her voice really is gorgeous, and fit more chorale-sense rather than pop-sense.

I'm surprised that Vicki Zhao is still that popular. I mean, I followed her through her acting career (huan zhu ge ge, anyone?), but I never thought she was famous as a singer.

but for all i know, she's not so popular in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia

agreed, 'queen' isn't suitable for teresa, 'diva' would be a more suitable word. Everyone knows her!!!!

Well, vicki is popular as a singer only in China. Her cds do not sell well in taiwan, singapore and malaysia.

Well, there isn't anything wrong with classifying someone as "pop". For me, pop music just means popular music. Even The Beatles were "pop". Maybe you mean "bubblegum pop", which is what most people think of "pop" today. But I disagree with that. Pop includes an artist of any genre of music who becomes very popular, be that music rock, jazz, blues, etc. So I'll have to say Teresa Teng's music was the pop music of her time.

And there's a variety of voices in pop music (Enya, for example). I doubt Teresa Teng made real chorale music.

Sammi Cheng

Well, it may be just the household (something my family used), but I don't really think I meant chorale music. It's some word in Chinese that my family uses that I can't really translate right away...

When I think of pop I don't think of the overall pop music, because now we have so many genres that we just name the genre. When I say pop I mean bubblegum pop like Winds

Oh, then I apologize for the misunderstanding :) Maybe Terese Teng sounds more "folk" than "chorale"?

What about A-Mei, shes popular too! She's like a legendary Diva in Taiwan and around the asian countries!

a-mei - actually bought a couple of her albums years back^^
coco lee - diva! back with a new album after 4 yrs' 'retirement'!
stef sun - singapore's pride^^

what?! somebody's died (ok so i have no idea who this is...)::o

elva is definitely one of the great contenders
unfortunately her injured leg really hurt her in her career this year

^ she explained it pretty well
I would also add Elva Hsiao (Taiwan) and Joey Yung (HK) to the Queens list

I think, overall, TWINS and Jolin Tsai are the most popular Chinese-speaking female singers. Also, in mainland China Rebecca Jin (Jin Hai Xin) is quite popular these days. Some mainland queens are Sun Yue, Han Hong, Faye Wong, and Vicki Zhao.

I wouldn't really put Joey Yung into the list. She's really only popular in HK.