Jolin Tsai

Jolin Tsai (born September 15, 1980) is a Taiwanese singer, songwriter, and actress.

Known as the "Queen of C-Pop", she is one of the most influential pop cultural figures in the Chinese-speaking world.

Recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in musical style and visual image, she is a key figure of popularizing dance-pop as mainstream music in Greater China.

She maintains control over every aspects of her career, her works, which incorporate social themes and ideological connotations, have achieved both commercial success and critical acclaim.

Tsai was born in Hsinchuang, Taiwan.

Tsai was born on September 15, 1980, in Hsinchuang City, Taipei County (now Xinzhuang District, New Taipei City), Taiwan.

She has an elder sister.

Her maternal grandmother was a Taiwanese indigenous Papora people.

She attended Hsinchuang Elementary School, Hsinchuang Junior High School, and Chingmei Girls' High School.

When she was in high school, she formed a band called Twister with her classmates.

Later, she participated in singing competitions to meet the needs of extracurricular activities for university applications, and won Chingmei Girls' High School Singing Competition and the second place in the popular music category of BCC National High School Singing Competition.

In 1998, Tsai won a singing competition held by MTV Mandarin.

Her debut album 1019 (1999) made her an instant hit, while her girl-next-door image made her a teen idol with a huge teenage fan base.

In May 1998, she participated in a singing competition held by MTV Mandarin, she stood out by singing English songs and won the competition.

In March 1999, Tsai signed with Universal Music Taiwan, and became the record label's key newcomer.

After that, Universal arranged a series of courses for her for half a year, including dance classes twice a week to help her improve her stage performance, makeup classes twice a week to help her do her own makeup when she was pressed for schedules or in between brief interviews, and speech training classes to help her cope with the media.

In addition, Universal arranged for her to fly to Ireland and the United States to watch live performances of foreign singers.

In June 1999, she was admitted to the English literature major of Fu Jen Catholic University by virtue of her first place in the recommendation examination.

On July 16, 1999, Tsai released her debut single, "Living with the World".

On September 10, 1999, she released her first studio album, 1019.

The album, co-produced by David Wu, Peter Lee, and Paul Lee, combined pop with hip-hop, R&B, world music, and others, showing her musical talent and versatility.

It was generally well received by music critics, who said that the girlish feelings exuded from the album just filled the vacancy of girl-next-door singer in Taiwan at that time, and both her idol vibe and strength combined with the excellent record production made her an instant hit.

The album sold more than 400,000 copies in Taiwan.

Tsai has sold over 25 million records, making her the highest-selling Taiwanese female recording artist since 2000.

On April 26, 2000, Tsai released her second studio album, Don't Stop.

The album was co-produced by David Wu, Paul Lee, Peter Lee, and Chen Wei, and combined pop with hip-hop, rock, reggae, R&B, and others.

Her singing skills on the album were more powerful than before, with a more flexible interpretation of fast songs and a more emotional interpretation of slow songs.

It was well received by music critics, who said that the fast songs were full of enthusiasm and the slow songs were charming, and that it started her musical direction that focused on fast songs.

The album sold more than 500,000 copies in Taiwan, becoming the year's second highest-selling album by a female artist and the year's sixth highest-selling album overall in the country, as well as her highest-selling album in the country to date.

Her album Magic (2003) reflected her first musical transformation, marking the beginning of her dance-oriented musical direction.

Beginning with her album Magic (2003), each of her studio albums has been the highest-selling album by a female artist in Taiwan in the year of release, with four of which also being the highest-selling album overall in the country in the years of release.

She has won a total of seven Golden Melody Awards, the most of any dance-pop artist in history.

Her album Dancing Diva (2006) featured dynamic dance music and dazzling dance moves, establishing her status as a representative dance-pop artist in the Chinese music scene.

In 2009, Tsai founded her company Eternal, and began to dominate her career.

She began demonstrating girl power and concern for minorities with her album Myself (2010), which marked a significant turning point in her musical form.

Since 2010, she has been ranked top 20 on the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list for six out of ten times, with being ranked top one in terms of Chinese female singer three times.

Her album Muse (2012) spans both mainstream and independent music.

Her album Play (2014) made the world aware of the high standard of Chinese dance music.

Her net worth exceeded NT$2 billion in 2014, and she has been ranked as the highest-paid Taiwanese female singer 16 times across two decades (2003–2022).Annual highest-paid Taiwanese singers:

Her album Ugly Beauty (2018) explored secular beauty standard and inner psychological polarity, leading the Chinese music industry in terms of production level.