Jane Zhang supergirl superstar

Monday, April 10, 2006


Jane LiangYing Zhang (Chinese:张靓颖 PinYin:Zhāng Liàngyǐng) (born 1984 October 11) is a Chinese singer.
She held the third place in Super Girl 2005 female singing competition in People's Republic of China. She is best known for her singing ability in English, Spanish, Cantonese and other languages besides Mandarin Chinese. She is regarded by some critics to be one of the top-level foreign language singers in China. Some critics further commented that she sings with her soul.

Humble Beginnings
Liangying Zhang was born in a modest family in Chengdu, Sichuan province. She has developed a natural talent in singing and stage performance at a very young age. She had performed at her parents' work place several times. Her parents were divorced when she was 13. Two years later, her father died and worsening family economic situations forced her to work outside of school. She starts to sing at a local PUB, where her uncle plays music instruments. She fell in love with music of Western singers such as Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera as well as American country music at the same time. Unable to afford buying music equipments, she frequently borrowed walkman and headphones from her class mates and skipped lunches to save enough for buying cassettes. Several years later, she started to gather attention from listeners and gained a small group of followers.

Super Voice Girl Competition
She entered the local Chengdu competition for Super Voice Girl and won the local final competition and entered the final competition with Li Yuchun and Hejie. She is known for singing her favorite songs, especially foreign language songs. Her style attracted wide supports from the educated and college students heavily influenced by the West. At the same time, her performance irritated several critics and received negative reviews from them. Her fans, outraged by the criticism, launched online protests and eventually forced two critics to resign from the board of review. During the final competition, she sang "Reflection", "I still believe", "What's up", "Beautiful", and "Don't cry for me Argentina". Her outstanding performance in foreign language music lead some commentators to suggest that she sing at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Although she gathered positive reviews from some critics and professional musicians, she is not the most popular amongst young supporters of the TV program. Her final number of votes (1.3 million) by messaging fell behind Li Yuchun and Zhou Bi Chang, placing her in the 3rd place.

Performances in Super Voice Girl Competition
Date
Round
Track
Original artist
May 26, 2005
Preliminary Round
Contigo En La Distancia
Christina Aguilera
June 4, 2005
Round I(eliminate 30 out of 50)
I Turn to You
Christina Aguilera
June 10, 2005
Round II(eliminate 10 out of 20)
Any Man of Mine
Shania Twain
June 17, 2005
Round III(eliminate 3 out of 10)
Simply the Best
Tina Turner
June 24, 2005
Round IV(eliminate 2 out of 7)
Country Love (Simp. Chinese: 乡恋; Trad. Chinese: 鄉戀);Passionate Desert (Simp. Chinese: 热情的沙漠; Trad. Chinese: 熱情的沙漠)
Guyi Li (Chinese: 李谷一);Feifei Auyeung (Simp. Chinese: 欧阳菲菲; Trad. Chinese: 歐陽菲菲)
July 1, 2005
Chengdu Final
I Still Believe
Brenda K. Starr
July 15, 2005
National Round I(eliminate 3 out of 15)
Long Live Journey (Chinese: 漫步人生路);Beautiful
Teresa Teng (Simp. Chinese: 邓丽君; Trad. Chinese: 鄧麗君);Christina Aguilera
July 22, 2005
National Round II(eliminate 2 out of 12)
Remember Me
Beverley Knight
July 29, 2005
National Round III(eliminate 2 out of 10)
Vision of Love
Mariah Carey
August 5, 2005
National Round IV(eliminate 2 out of 8)
Don't Cry for Me Argentina
Madonna
August 12, 2005
National Round V(eliminate 1 out of 6)
Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
Starfish
August 19, 2005
National Round VI(eliminate 2 out of 5)
Lovin' You
Minnie Riperton
August 26, 2005
National Final 3rd place
What's Up
4 Non Blondes


Influence
Although many of her followers could not comprehend the lyrics of her songs, she sparked language learning interests among her fans and appreciation of Western music.
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 snack in central China.


Current Updates
Liangying was inivited to visit her alma mater, Sichuan University during its orientation week celebration in early September and performed on stage Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine". On September 26, 2005, she become the first among the Super Voice Girls contestants to held a personal music show to her fans. Numerous celebrities including NBA Basketball player Yao Ming attended the show.She has signed a contract with CCTV to play heroine in a stage music show "The Song of the Movie".
Please note: Yao Ming did not attend the show, it's Yu Jia (one of CCTV's hosts of NBA broadcast) who brought Yao Ming's signed suit to Zhang.
These guests included: Huang Jianxiang (one of CCTV's hosts of football programme), Zeng Zimo (Phoenix TV's famed host of commercial programme),Wu Sikai(singer from Taiwan),etc.

Music Awards Received
1998 Second Place in Chengdu Ailang Singing Contest
2004 First Place in Tongyi Ice Tea National College students singing contest
2004 First Place in Jingdu PUB singer contest
2005 Third Place in Super Voice Girl National Competition

Video:
http://www3.youtube.com/watch?v=DTgyMO7gl9k

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