Profile of Joey Yung on Famous Like Me

Joey Yung Cho-yee (Chinese:容祖兒; pinyin: Róng, Zǔ'ér) (born June 16, 1980) is a female singer and actress from Hong Kong. She is an artist of the Emperor Entertainment Group. She won Hong Kong Music Awards Best Female Singer in 2003 with her hit, "My Pride" and won the same prize in 2004, emerging as one of the premier Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese singers in the world.

Biography

In 1995, Joey participated in many singing contests, including 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 worked as a clerk and helped her mother in managing the business of a fashion boutique. At the same time, she followed Roman Tam, the godfather of Canto-pop, to learn singing. 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.

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.

On 30th September 1999, her first EP was released. The album occupied first place in the CD sales roll for 23 weeks, and had a box office of 100,000 copies. In later prize-giving ceremonies held by different media organisations, she won lots of prizes together with Cecilia Cheung, who was regarded as a formidable adversary of Joey Yung.

In January 2000, Joey's apartment was in a blaze. In the same year, she made her appearance in her first movie 'Winner Takes All' and her first TV drama series 'Green Hope'. 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 'Joey Yung's See You Everywhere Live Concert' in the same year.

In 2001, her career crisis arose because of the strain in her vocal cord and the criticism from the public of being plump. However, she still managed to hold her second live concert 'Joey Yung Live in Concert 2001' at the end of the year and began her singing career in Taiwan after she released her first Mandarin album 'Honestly'.

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 'Like Joey II', which marked her success as a singer again in Hong Kong.

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, which was welcomed by the public. She held her third concert 'Joey Yung Live Show Up!' in Hong Kong Coliseum, which pushed her career to even higher heights, and she started call herself 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 youngest singer in history to have won this prize.

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 Most Favourite Female Singer" presented by the Commercial Radio, and many other honorable awards. 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.

Joey has confirmed the schedule to hold a series of concerts in Hong Kong across 2005/06. In 2004, sales of all her CDs reached at least 5 million copies, 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 $100 million.

As one of the most popular Chinese singers in the world, she has held many concerts in many countries such as Canada, Australia, USA, China, Taiwan, Macau and of course Hong Kong.

Discography

Cantopop Albums

• EP 1 (1999)
• EP 2 (2000)
• Who Will Come to Love Me 誰來愛我 (2000)
• Like Joey 喜歡祖兒 (2001)
• All Summer Holiday 全身暑假 (2001)
• Solemn on Stage 隆重登場 (2001)
• Joey Yung Live in Concert 2001 ~H2O容祖兒隆重登場演唱會Live (2001)
• Something About You (2002)
• Music Is Live 903 id Club Concert 容祖兒903 id Club 拉闊音樂會 (2002)
• Like Joey II 喜歡祖兒2 (2002)
• My Pride 我的驕傲 (2003)
• Show Up (2003)
• Joey Yung Live Show Up Show Up！演唱會 (2003)
• Nin9 2 5ive (2004)
• Joey Yung 'Feel the Pop' Concert Live 流行女皇音樂會 (2004)
• Give Love A Break (2004)
• X'mas Chihuahua (2004) (CD SINGLE)
• Joey Yung X Hacken Lee The Music Is LIVE 903 Id Club Concert 壓軸拉闊音樂會 李克勤 x 容祖兒 (2004)
• Love : Joey : Love 3 喜歡祖兒3* (2005) (3 versions)
• Bi-Heart (2005)

Mandarin Albums

• Honestly (2001)
• A Private Love Song (2002)
• Solo Photo (2003)

VCD / DVD

• Joey Yung Xia Shui Li Concert (2001)
• Joey Yung Live in Concert 2001 (2001)
• Music Is Live 903 id Club Concert (2002)
• Like Joey II (2002)
• Joey Yung Live Show Up (2003)
• Joey All-Record (2004)
• Joey Yung 'Feel the Pop' Concert Live (2004)
• Joey Yung X Hacken Lee The Music Is LIVE 903 Id Club Concert (2004) (CD/VCD/DVD released in 2005)
• Love:Joey:Love MTVs VCD(2005)
• Love:Joey:Love MTVs DVD'

Current News

• The Reflection of Joey's Live Concert is going to be held in October. Additional dates for it are November 1 and November 2.
• Since her series of Lux Super Rich commercials are extremely popular, Joey has become a spokesperson of Lux Spa Asia.
• Her new Canto-pop album, Bi-Heart, released on August 18, 2005. This album topped the IFPI Chart for three consecutive weeks.
• It is confirmed that her next Mandarin album has been delayed to the end of 2005 or early 2006.
• Her new release Hou-si-dou-wei (好事多為) (Reflection Mix) used the technology of Circle Surround Sound 5.1 which brings a more stereo effect to the audience. She is the first Hong Kong singer introducing this kind of technology in song production.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Joey Yung