Sammi Cheng

Sammi Cheng Sau-man (born 19 August 1972) is a Hong Kong singer and actress.

She is considered one of the most prominent female singers in Hong Kong, with album sales of over million copies throughout Asia.

Sammi Cheng entered the entertainment industry at the age of 16 through the New Talent Singing Awards in 1988.

Although she came in third in the competition, the sponsoring record company Capital Artists saw her potential and offered her a recording contract.

Cheng at the time was still in school, and had to balance her studies with her rising singing career.

Sammi released 3 full-length studio albums prior to leaving school: "Sammi", "Holiday" and "Never Too Late".

Most notably in the 1990s, she was dubbed by the media as the "Cantopop Queen".

One of her first major award was the 1990 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards, where she was recognized as a best new prospect.

She capitalized on the attention received from her duet with artist Andy Hui, "Do you really have me in your heart?"

From 1993 to 2010, Cheng won a total of 12 Top Female Vocalist awards, 14 The Best Sales Local Female Vocalist Awards and has 7 albums that are The Best Sales Cantonese Release of the Year.

She had also previously won the Most Popular Hong Kong Female Artist Award in annual Top Ten Jade Solid Gold Awards Presentation for three times, and in a year winning also the Gold Song Gold Award, the highest-ranked award which is the last to be presented at the ceremony.

(其實你心裡有沒有我), winning the 1993 Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards with that song.

Cheng then went through a transformation, dying her hair orange, changing her style.

Her 4th studio album "Sammi's Happy Maze" (鄭秀文的快樂迷宮) was also released, which include the hit single "Chotto Matte" (Chotto 等等), meaning 'wait a moment' in Japanese.

Her new image fitted well with the new single, which was a remake of a Japanese song by Maki Ohguro.

The success helped Sammi and boosted her singing career.

In 1994 she continued to capitalize on her wild, new image.

Her first album of that year was "Big Revenge" (大報復).

The album included the hit "Ding Dong" (叮噹), which became one of Sammi's signature songs.

But with her new fame also came a lot of backlash from the media.

Critics argued that Sammi purposely westernized her Cantonese.

Instead of saying "Ding Dong", Sammi pronounced it as "Deen Dong".

Despite the criticism, the song was one of the most popular dance songs of that year.

In 1994 the racy and controversial cut of "Ten Commandments" (十誡) was banned from the radio for a few days after its initial airplay of the track including tiny bits of what can be recognized as pornography soundtrack.

Having success in entertainment industry for over three decades, Cheng is also best known for her roles in Hong Kong rom-com films in the early 2000s that were box office hits.

For her performance in the 2022 film 'Lost Love', she won 4 best actress honors including from the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Cheng holds the record of having the most best sales albums and The Best Sales Local Female Vocalist awards in the Hong Kong Cantopop industry since her debut.

She had also won many top honors in various Chinese music awards held in Asia, including MTV Asia Awards for Favorite Artists Hong Kong 3 times, in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

She has produced over 80 studio albums, 10 live concert albums, over 130 singles (songs) with also over 30 cover songs and had received numerous awards from acting to singing.

She also starred in close to 40 films and 7 television dramas(in early years) and had held approximately 200 concerts up to date with over 12 concert tours.

She is one of the female artists with most concert shows in Hong Kong Coliseum, at 102.

Sammi Cheng was previously named Twinnie Cheng.

Contrary to popular belief, "Twiny" is not her birth name.

The name came about when Sammi was still in school and her English Language teacher wanted everyone in class to have an English name.

When Sammi turned to her sister for help, her sister came up with the name "Twiny".

The name was later changed to "Sammi" as "Sammi" sounds a little like "Sau Man".

Cheng received her education at SKH St. Peter's Primary School and Tang Shiu Kin Victoria Government Secondary School.

She has three sisters and one brother.

Two of her sisters are twins.

She also received Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award for Female Singer in 2011 Metro Radio Hits Awards.