英文简介:
Jane Zhang, born October 11, 1984); also known as Zhang Liangying (Simplified Chinese: 张靓颖; Traditional Chinese: 张靓颖; pinyin: Zhāng Liàngyǐng; is a Chinese pop singer who placed third in the 2005 season of the Super Girl contest, a national all-female singing competition, held in the People's Republic of China. Throughout the competition, she sang in English, Spanish and Cantonese besides Mandarin Chinese.

Her vocal range ranges from at least the D below middle C, up to the F above soprano C (later demonstrated in her rendition of Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You").

Background information

Also known as: Jane Zhang
Born: October 11, 1984 (1984-10-11) Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Genre(s): Pop
Occupation(s): Singer
Years active: 2005–present
Label(s): Huayi Brothers Corp.
Website: www.janezhang.com
Biography

Early years

Zhang was born in Chengdu, Sichuan. During her childhood, she performed at her parents' work place on several occasions. Her parents were divorced when she was 13. Two years later, Zhang's father had passed away. This had forced her to work outside of school; she started to sing at a local public house, where her uncle played the accompaniments.

Zhang was exposed to a wide variety of music genres in the pub and developed a taste for Western singers such as Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera as well as American country music. However, she was unable to afford her own music players, so she frequently borrowed a walkman and headphones from her classmates and skipped lunches to save enough to buy cassettes.

2005: Super Girl competition

In 2005, she entered the local Chengdu preliminaries of Super Girl contest in 2005. She became the first runner-up of the preliminary rounds and entered the national competition with Li Yuchun and He Jie (Simplified Chinese: 何洁; Traditional Chinese: 何洁).

Throughout the competition, Zhang demonstrated the ability to sing songs in foreign languages. During the national competition, Zhang sang foreign songs such as "Reflection", "I Still Believe", "What's Up", "Beautiful", and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina".

Her fans called themselves "Liang Fen" (凉粉), the combination of the pronunciation of her name and the English word "fan". The same term has been used to define a particular type of bean jelly snack in central China. This usage came from Hong Kong years ago, but nowadays more people use it.

Although she received positive reviews from most critics and professional musicians, she was not the most popular contestant among young supporters. Her final number of votes (1.3 million) by messaging fell behind Li Yuchun and Zhou Bichang, placing her in third place.

2005-2006: The One

After the completion of the competition, Zhang was invited to visit her alma mater in Sichuan University during its orientation week celebration in early September. She performed her own rendition of Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine" there.

On September 26, 2005, she became the first Super Girl contestant to hold a personal music show for her fans. Numerous celebrities attended the show. These guests included Huang Jianxiang, Zeng Zimo, and Wu Sikai. They are CCTV's hosts on football shows, Phoenix TV's famed host, and a singer from Taiwan, respectively.

She has also signed a contract with CCTV to play the supporting role in a stage music show The Song of the Movie. The musical was produced by Taiwan pop musician Jonathan Lee. Harlem Yu and Yuan Quan also starred in the musical, which opened in Beijing in December 2005 and later in Hong Kong.

In January 9, 2006, her first EP, Jane·Love (Simplified Chinese: Jane·爱; Traditional Chinese: Jane·爱) was released. The E.P. contains contained six tracks in total, 3 songs and 3 instrumentals. The EP has sold 210,000 copies in China.

Her debut album, The One was released on October 11th, 2006 which was her 22nd birthday. For the production of the album, Zhang had visited the United States to collaborate with music producer, Craig Williams. She also collaborated with producer Peter Hyams, who has worked with Celine Dion and R. Kelly. The album contains ten songs, among those three are in English. The three English songs were produced by Craig Williams.

She has also sung many popular theme songs for various films and series, including the song Only for Love (Simplified Chinese: 我用所有报答爱; Traditional Chinese: 我用所有报答爱) for the film The Banquet and Unparalled in the World (Simplified Chinese: 天下无双; Traditional Chinese: 天下无双) for the TV series The Return of the Condor Heroes. Both songs have reached high popularity and have reached the charts among China. Only for Love was nominated by 2007 Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Original Film Song.

2006-present: Update

In February 2007, she was invited by World Peace One (WP1) to join a hundred world-renowned singers and bands to record a song called "Give Your Love". This was aimed to bring attention to all cultures of the globe. This project aims to promote awareness of the poverty of third-world countries. Zhang is the only Asian female singer that has been invited to the United States to participate and it was reported that Craig Williams recommended Zhang to the organiser of the event.

Zhang performed her first North American concert on March 31, 2007 in Pasadena, California. Famous Japanese musician Kitarō and Gavin Christopher also attended the concert, in which Gavin Christopher and Zhang sang I Will Be There together. On April 8, 2007, she was awarded the Best Singer Award in the 2007 Music Chart Awards ceremony was held in Beijing Exhibition Centre Theater.

Her July 28, 2007 concert in Beijing has also set a record for the most expensive VIP seating for a Chinese mainland artist. She performed live versions of hit songs from her debut album "The One," new songs from her second album "Update", which was released due out in August 2007, as well as Richard Marx's signature ballad "Right Here Waiting" and Beyoncé Knowles's "Listen" from the award-winning Broadway musical Dreamgirls.

On August 2, 2007, her second album, Update was released. When asked about the album's name "Update," Zhang explained that this is an upgraded step from her first album, "The One." R&B and jazz style songs ware included in the new album. One of her tracks, We Are Together (Simplified Chinese: 我们在一起; Traditional Chinese: 我们在一起) was produced for a project by the United Nations Children's Fund.

Zhang had been invited, along with other renowned Chinese performers such as Elva Hsiao, Joey Yung, Alan Tam, Wang Feng, Eason Chan and Hacken Lee to record We Are Ready in July 2007 for the countdown to the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was released on August 2nd. We Are Ready was composed by Peter Kam and Keith Chan, at the request of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), for the celebration of the one-year countdown to the start of the 2008 Olympics. On August 8th, the artists who recorded the song gathered at Tiananmen Square and performed the song for the first time.