Jolin Tsai (Cài Yīlín) 蔡依林

Jolin Tsai is among the top performers in Chinese Pop music. She has sold over 25 Million records and has had a profound influence on music and culture. Wikipedia has an extensive bio here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolin_Tsai

I think only die-hard fans would argue that Jolin is a phenomenal vocal talent, but few could argue that her status as an entertainer and pop icon are nearly unrivaled in the Chinese music world.

Her career began over 20 years ago when she rocketed to stardom after winning an MTV singing competition. She has gone through many changes over the years, (72 changes one song alone), so choosing a representative group of videos for her is a challenge because she has reinvented herself so many times. We’ll start with her first hit song – but don’t for a second think this is what she does. But this was a worthy start.

So from the beginning, let’s jump straight to her latest release, Ugly Beauty.

So now that you have heard her first and latest hits (as of 1/26/2019), I think it is best to proceed chronologically. As usual, my preferred list does not necessarily align with her best sellers. IMHO some of her top songs would not appeal to Western audiences. Some are too cute and others, to me, seem written to cure insomnia. That said, these are 10 of the songs that make me a fan.

Did you catch how I started numbering here so I can keep my list to 10? “Spirit of the Knight” and “I Know You’re Sad” were among the first songs I heard when I started listening to Chinese music- around 2001.

So these first two songs were written by Jay Chou. At that time, Jolin and Jay were the two biggest pop stars in the Chinese music world. And the internet was all atwitter (three years before Twitter existed) with rumors of their romantic relationship. While predictably, their union did not last, they both continue to be huge Mandopop stars.

These are the 72 Changes I mentioned earlier. I never counted but I don’t think there are really 72 in this video.

I was always torn between this version of the song and this version sung by the composer of the song, Wesley Chia and his group, Awaking.

The previous song is most often translated as “Pulchritude”. I had to look it up. It means physical beauty. This is the first song on this list (chronologically) written by Scandanavians. From this point on, much of Jolin’s music is Europop sung in Chinese.

I really loved this song and I was playing in my car with a cameraman
I work with (who is also in a heavy metal band) and he insisted I turn it off before he threw up. He’s a great guy but the music HE played made me want to shoot myself. Different strokes..

I debated adding this here because I am actually withholding a group of Jolin’s songs for a post about LGBT mandopop musical influencers. Some people give a lot of credit to Jolin for changing minds about same-sex relationships. Though not enough to pass same-sex marriage in Taiwan in recent (November 2018) referendums.

The Great Artist is written by, Dsign Music, a songwriting company from Norway. They have written tons of hits for Japanese and Korean artists as well as Ricky Martin. I have to admit, I have liked a number of their songs. But it always feels like a guilty pleasure.

In I’m Not Yours, Jolin teams up with one of the best-selling J-pop stars, Namie Amuro. Amuro is credited with disrupting the Japanese music industry by challenging the young “Idol” stereotype and proving that a female performer could manage her own career. Don’t worry if you miss the Idol stereotype – It’s alive and kicking, (kicking really high in really short skirts), in the K-pop world. I mourn old K-pop.

Last, I added one extra song partly because of a large gap between 2014 and late 2018, and partly because this last video has almost 5 million YouTube views. Plus it’s so 可爱.