Shirley Kwan

Shirley Kwan or Kwan Suk Yee (, born 15 August 1966) is an influential former Cantopop singer from Hong Kong.

She studied fashion before venturing into the entertainment industry in 1986, at the age of 20.

Kwan had her first taste of the limelight in 1986 when she became one of twelve finalists in TVB's New Talent Singing Awards, along with Andy Hui and Leon Lai, but lost to both.

Two years later, with the encouragement of a friend, she recorded a demo tape for the prestigious "Marine Blue" singing competition in Japan and won.

She caught the eyes of record executives at Apollon and signed a contract, releasing two Japanese pop albums in two years.

Kwan sang in both Japanese and English for these releases, and notably made her first and only rap vocals in the song "Borderless".

Kwan's Marine Blue success in Japan quickly led to her discovery by PolyGram.

Kwan first shot to fame in 1989 with the hit, "Happy Are Those in Love" (難得有情人) and was widely popular throughout the early to mid-1990s.

She is noted for her distinct, whispery vocal style and known equally for singing mainstream ballads and more alternative songs.

On 1 March 1989, Kwan released her debut Cantonese album "Winter Love" (冬戀), with its R&B-influenced first single, "The Rebel" (叛逆漢子).

Her second album, "Happy Are those in Love", would produce her first major hit with its title track, which immediately propelled Kwan into Hong Kong stardom.

The song "Happy are Those in Love" was the theme song to a popular day-time drama series on TVB.

It reached no. 1 on the TVB charts and was frequently requested in karaoke bars at the time.

The album, which sold platinum, enjoyed huge chart success and spawned a further hit single, the up-tempo "Lovers Underneath the Stars" (星空下的戀人), with Kwan sweeping newcomer awards at all of the major year-end music award shows.

The following two years saw the release of four albums, in which Kwan started to develop a more individualistic style.

After scoring another major pop hit in 1990 with 愛恨纏綿, Kwan began incorporating elements from a wider variety of musical genres.

Her 1991 album Love is Forever (戀一世的愛) saw her exploring New Age music, with cover versions of songs by Gregorian and Michael Cretu.

As a marketing strategy, PolyGram presented its title track, which was a cover version of "Once in a Life Time," back to back with the Gregorian original on the promotional disc that was sent out to radio DJs at the time.

Kwan also covered Amina's 1991 winning Eurovision entry, "Le dernier qui a parlé", rewritten by veteran lyricist Andrew Lam (林敏驄) as "Buddhist Chant" (梵音), which became a surprising top 10 radio single.

On 18 November 1993, Kwan released the platinum-selling album, "The Story of Shirley" (真假情話), which spawned the minor hit "Fake Love" (假的戀愛).

The album signalled a change in vocal style, with a whispery delivery that featured more prominently than before, and which would become her trademark style.

Singles included the acid-jazz influenced "Death of a Legend" (逝去的傳奇) which sampled a riff from the Digable Planets' 1993 single "Rebirth of Slick," and the immensely popular ballad "Cuddling Underneath the Stars" (繾綣星光下), another of Kwan's major career hits, which won numerous song awards at the ceremonies that year.

The album also featured two of Andrew Lam's techno and house inflected compositions "Anxiety" (緊張) and "Out of This World" (驚世感覺), as well as another popular ballad "Farewell Love Song" (告別戀曲).

Kwan further established her place as a cantopop diva with the album, "My Way", released on 8 July 1994.

My Way, the cover of which featured Kwan in a new crew-cut look that has since become iconic, was one of the most celebrated in 1994, enjoying a high-degree of both commercial and critical success.

With increasing confidence in her musical style, Kwan asked producer Joseph Ip (葉廣權) and eight different sound engineers to rearrange ten of her favourite cantopop songs which she handpicked for a covers album.

The result was "'EX' All Time Favourites," released in February 1995, which featured covers of classics by Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung and Alan Tam, reworked and reinterpreted with Kwan's alternative musical influences and trademark, ethereal singing style.

The lead single, a cover version of Teresa Teng's "Forget Him" rearranged by Donald Ashley, was featured in Wong Kar-wai's 1995 arthouse film Fallen Angels.

In the summer of 1995, Kwan released her third compilation album, "Journey of Life" (世途上　新曲＋精選), containing two new singles, "He Needs You, She Needs You" (他需要你, 她需要你), a dreampop track which incorporated the traditional Chinese instrument erhu, and the minor hit, "Are There Real Friends in Life" (人生可有知己), a pop ballad which has since become a fan favourite.

Riding on the success of a string of platinum-selling albums, Kwan held her first large-scale solo concert series, "The One and Only Shirley Kwan in Concert" (難得有一個關淑怡演唱會), in June 1995 at the Hong Kong Coliseum.

The first of these included "Blessed Mary" (萬福馬利亞), a duet with Wong satirising Hong Kong's materialism released in late 1995.

This was followed by the Tats Lau collaboration "Cuddle 28800BPS" (繾綣28800BPS), a song dealing with cyber love, and a cover version of the gender-ambiguous Tat Ming classic "Forget He is She" (忘記他是她) at their request, both in 1996.

After seven years at PolyGram, Kwan's contract came to an end in June 1996.

A final PolyGram studio album was initially scheduled for release in the summer, containing three American collaborations ("Infectious" [傳染] and "Elusive Love" [愛難尋] written by Andy Goldmark; and "Mumbling" [自言自語] by Suzanne Fountain) and seven other tracks.

However, due to Kwan's departure, PolyGram released the material separately in 1997's compilation "Connection" (心靈相通) and 1998's EP "eZone".

Kwan spent the second half of the 90s mostly away from the public eye, but managed to strike up some significant collaborations with friends and fellow contemporaries Tats Lau and Anthony Wong Yiu Ming of the former Tat Ming Pair.

The album sold three times platinum, and was selected in 2000 as one of the Top 20 Defining Chinese Albums of All Time for the book (聽見2000分之100) by a jury of musicians which included Anthony Wong, Sandee Chan, Carl Wong and Lin Wei-Che.

This would be the last album containing all original Cantonese material until Shirley's Era in 2009.

She announced her retirement from music industry in April 2020.

Kwan was born in Hong Kong and moved to Los Angeles at the age of twelve.