Wei Wei

Wei Wei (born 28 September 1963) is a Chinese mandopop singer, actress, philanthropist and professor.

Nicknamed "The Empress Of Pop", she has been widely recognized for her artistry and vocal performances.

Her breakthrough came alongside the Chinese economic reform in 1986 when she won both the National Young Singers contest in China, and the 24th Sopot International Song Festival in Poland.

In 1986, Wei won the National Young Singers contest on Chinese television with the song Wanna Take One More Chance to Look at You.

In 1986 at the age of she was awarded a "2nd Level National Performer Professional Qualification Certificate" by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China.

A year after, the ministry awarded her with a "1st Level National Performer Professional Qualification Certificate", the highest professional qualification of her field in China, equal to a Professional Doctorate, and which enabled her to teach at professor level in music academies in China.

In 1987, she won the 24th Sopot International Music Festival in Poland as China's first representative to an international pop competition.

In 1988, Wei sang the theme song for China Central Television's New Year's Gala, Gathering of the Year of the Dragon. In 1989, her rendition of the Chinese song Dedication of Love - a performance credited with truly starting her career – became a national hit in China, and she became a symbol for charity and fund-raising activities as her performance had raised enough funds to help a rural migrant worker from Anhui to recover from spinal surgery.

In the same year, her song Today is Your Birthday won the Gold Medal at the Jian Brand Cup and Beijing Radio Song Competition, and has since been used as a theme song to celebrate China's National Day.

She has been regarded as one of the greatest Chinese entertainers of her generation, and her contributions to music and visual media have made her a prominent and influential Chinese pop culture figure during the 1990's and early 2000s.

Wei started performing in various state-sponsored singing and dancing competitions as a child, singing state-sanctioned revolutionary music.

In 1990, her new single Asian Mighty Winds was selected as the theme of the 1990 Asian Games, and she performed it alongside Chinese singer Liu Huan.

The song quickly became another national hit, and Wei was dubbed the "Queen of Sports" by the Provincial Government of Guangxi, Liuzhou.

That same year, she starred in the film The Story of A Songstress alongside Chinese actor Zhang Guoli and Jiang Lili; and performed at the Miss Asia Pageant show in Hong Kong in 1992, also becoming the lead singer in the first concert tour in American major cities arranged by the China Central Song and Dance Group.

Four years later, she performed a duet with Spanish singer Julio Iglesias at the 1993 East Asian Games in Shanghai.

Largely associated with sports culture and the Olympics, Wei has been an Olympic Cultural Ambassador for China since 1993, a role she assumed when the Chinese Olympic Committee submitted its initial application to host the Olympic Games.

In 1993, Wei was the lead singer at the 1993 East Asian Games opening and closing ceremonies together with Spanish singer Julio Iglesias.

She then performed her single Asian Mighty Winds again at the 1994 Asian Games opening show in Hiroshima, Japan, and the lyrics of her songs became the subject of academic discourse and analysis in Japan.

Later that year, Wei was one of only two singers chosen to join a 200-member Olympic delegation visiting Monaco to campaign for the Beijing Summer Olympic Games bid.

A year after, in 1994, she was named Star of the Night after her performance of her hit single Dedication of Love at the CCTV New Year's Gala in Carnegie Hall, New York.

In the same year, the song Wind Coming From the East became a hit at a show in Shanghai Oriental TV, and subsequently became the TV station's theme song.

Her first English album was released, titled The Twilight.

After her performance at Carnegie Hall, she started her concert tour "Wei Wei and the World", which included visits and performances in the major cities in Mainland China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Kunming.

Wei was the sole cultural representative for Asia at the 1996 Summer Olympics, and has performed at several major events, including the opening ceremony of Expo 2010, the closing ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 11th National Games of China.

Wei's songs have been used as the official theme songs for many major sporting events in China.

Billy Payne, president and CEO of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games confirmed Wei as Asia's sole cultural representative to the Olympics after meeting in 1996.

Wei performed in front a 60,000 crowd alongside James Brown, Willie Nelson, Travis Tritt, Trisha Yearwood as a Cultural Olympiad performer at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta in 1996.

For being Asia's sole cultural representative to the games, Wei was interviewed in a CNN fifteen-minute special.

The year after in 1997, Wei entered into a one-year endorsement agreement with American hair care company Nioxin, becoming its product ambassador in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

In 2007, The All-China Women's Federation recognized Wei's contributions to Chinese sports culture by designating her the "Queen of Sports".

Having sold an estimated 100-200 million records worldwide, Wei is one of Asia's best-selling recording artists.

Considered a "national treasure" in China, Wei is the first Mainland Chinese pop singer to have competed abroad representing the People's Republic of China, the first Zhuang ethnic minority artist to represent China internationally, the first woman to be selected as China's Olympic Cultural Ambassador, and one of China's earliest artists to use the internet for the digital release of music.

The haute-couture dress designed for Wei by Lars Wallin for the '08 Olympics is on permanent display at the Nordic Museum in Sweden.

Wei was born to a Zhuang family in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia to Zhang Yu, a People's Liberation Army veteran and railway official, and Wei Xiuqun.

While in kindergarten, she began practicing the performing arts.

When she was 7 years old, her family moved to Liuzhou in Guangxi, and at the age of 14, she moved to Beijing and started to work for the China National Song & Dance Ensemble.

As a young unit member her education included dancing, singing, playing instruments, choreography, stage design, and lighting.

The unit traveled throughout China, often doing several live performances in one day.

She finished her education at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China.

Her single "I Want to Fly" was chosen by the Chinese Olympic Committee as the official theme song for the 2008 Olympic Sailing events.