Zhang Liyin

Zhang Liyin (born February 28, 1989) is a Chinese singer and songwriter of Yi ethnicity.

She has released singles in both China and South Korea, singing in both languages.

Zhang was discovered by Korean entertainment company DR Music in 2002 while attending a Baby V.O.X. concert in China, and signed an eight-year contract with the company to last until May 2011.

The next year, she moved to South Korea and started training at the age of fourteen.

In August 2003, Zhang's mother requested DR Music to terminate Zhang's contract so Zhang could focus on her studies, but in the same month, Zhang signed a contract with S.M. Entertainment.

Zhang become the first Chinese female to debut in South Korea with released her single "Timeless" in 2006, later reached number one on music chart.

She is also the first foreign artist to win Best Newcomer award at the Mnet Asian Music Awards.

Zhang was born in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Her parents took her to their classical concerts and exposed her to a variety of music.

At the age of three, she began to learn the violin.

Zhang was so interested in classical, American, and European pop music that she claims she never sang children's songs when she was a child.

She also developed the ability to sing a song after hearing it only once.

When she was nine years old, she showed her musical ability when she sang Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On".

As she grew older, Zhang became more absorbed into pop music than classical music.

She secretly listened to pop music because her parents were against it.

When she was twelve, she was accepted into a middle school affiliated to Sichuan Conservatory of Music after scoring the highest with her violin talents, but she opted to become a singer instead.

Eventually, her parents began to support her dream to become a singer and she gained confidence when she was selected as the top 10 adult singers in a national singing competition under a sponsorship in Shanghai, China.

In August 2006, SM announced that Zhang would be officially debut with appeared on MBC's Music Core next month and performance her debut single "Timeless" featured Xia Junsu.

Prior the official release of her single, "Timeless" was available for free download started on August 31 in five Asian countries.

Her debut single, "Timeless", was released on September 8.

It's a R&B song which a Korean version of the original single by Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini.

The music video were two-part instalment starring Lee Yeon-hee and Super Junior members Han Geng and Siwon, was ranked No. 1 on Melon's Video Chart for four full weeks.

Within ten days of debuting, Zhang entered the "Take 7" chart on SBS's Inkigayo.

Zhang continued to promotion B-side track from her debut single, "Y (Why...)," in December 2006.

SM also released a "Timeless" documentary version of her "Y (Why...)" music video.

This music video reveals her hardships during training; it also showed many behind the scenes clips of her promotion of "Timeless", including never-before-seen footage of her with Xiah.

However, promotions for "Y (Why...)" ended quickly, and SM announced that she would be on hiatus from the music industry throughout the rest of the year to prepare for her major debut in China in the end of the year.

On June 18, 2007, DR Music filed a lawsuit against Zhang and S.M. Entertainment to get 200 million South Korean won for compensation for her exclusive contract with them.

Zhang made a surprising guest appearance at TVXQ's second Asia tour concert in Seoul, South Korea on February 23, 2007.

She performed "TRI-ANGLE" with TVXQ, singing a part in the song that was previously performed by BoA.

She made a second appearance with TVXQ on November 24, 2007, in Malaysia for the same concert, and was TVXQ's regular guest star for their "O" Asia tour until its finale in June 2008.

Zhang's first Mandarin album, I Will was originally announced to be released in late 2007, but the release date was pushed to early March 2008.

The album was finally released in different regions of China starting March 3, 2008, and on March 28, 2008, I Will made its Asia-wide release.

Before the release of the album, two music videos were released on February 27, 2008, to promote the album.

Similar to "Timeless", the two music videos "I Will" and "The Left Shore of Happiness", are one story but separated to two parts.

Han Geng, Siwon, and Lee Yeon-hee are also the cast for those two music videos.

After the album's release, Zhang received praise from various industry professionals.

Golden Melody Award-winning Taiwanese American singer-songwriter Leehom Wang complimented Zhang's singing and was surprised to hear such a strong voice coming from only a nineteen-year-old.

During a radio broadcast, Hong Kong-based singer-songwriter, Hins Cheung compared her "soulful" vocals to well-known R&B vocalists such as Whitney Houston, Leona Lewis and Christina Aguilera.

He was impressed at the "international-level music" of the release and said he felt there was a lot of "power in this nineteen-year-old."