Singer Zhu Zheqin (Dadawa) is flying the Chinese music flag high after winning the World Fusion award of the Seventh Independent Music Awards of the United States in June with her album Seven Days. It is the first time a Chinese artist has won the award.
Launched in 2006, Seven Days is Zhu's latest work after the widely acclaimed album Sister Drum. A world class production team, including innovative composer He Xuntian, ensured the quality of the album. The music is a brave creation of blending space and time in a new pan-Asian style with Zhu's voice adding to the emotive offering.
Last year, Zhu was nominated for a BBC World Music Award on the strength of this album. Although she did not win, the nomination showed the wide recognition Seven Days has gained around the world. So, this year, at the Independent Music Awards, results that are determined via the votes of music fans online, Zhu has proved she is a force to be reckoned with in world music.
Zhu made her name for the quality of her voice and is called the "Chinese Enya" by her fans. The Sister Drum album came about after a trip she and He made to Tibet in search of the culture and beliefs of the plateau. Because of the Tibetan style of the music many people thought Zhu herself was Tibetan. She was in fact born and raised in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province.
Although her parents hoped she would become a teacher, Zhu has always believed she was born to be a singer. Her music career formally started in 1990 when she left home without letting her parents know to participate in the national youth singing competition in Beijing. She won the second prize of that competition.
Despite this early success she did not use her new fame to continue her musical path.
"If I entered an art organization, singing might have been a job for me, but that is not what I want. I hope to realize my personal value, which might not succeed, but is very precious. My dream is to make good music," Zhu said in one of her earlier interviews.
She then chose to learn music in southwest China's Sichuan Province, during which time she met composer He, who was a professor at the Department of Composition of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music at that time. The two have collaborated ever since.
In 1995, her album Sister Drum was released. Many people were impressed by her trademark heavenly voice, and the album became a big hit in China and internationally. It was the first concept-style album in China and also the first Chinese song album that distributed globally. In more than 60 countries, the sales volume of the album exceeded 2 million copies, making the album Sister Drum and the song of the same name a milestone in China's music history.
The album won numerous international awards and fame for Zhu. She was said to be the first Chinese female vocalist that entered the world music stage and achieved success. The New York Times once commented that Zhu's album Sister Drum realized the Chinese dream of having their music reach a global audience.
In 1997, her song Voices From the Sky was released in 56 countries and the MTV channel made the live broadcast for the debut of the song in 81 countries, making Zhu one of only five musicians in the world to achieve this honor. Among the five, she is the only Asian.
Then, after several years of absence from the music world, Zhu returned in 2006 with her new album Seven Days. This album does not contain any Tibetan elements, but still maintains certain Buddhist ideas. Musically, the album heads more toward traditional Chinese folk songs with Pan-Asian elements. However, her unique and beautiful voice remains.
Zhu now lives in Canada, and in recent years she has developed a reputation as a world traveler and adventurer as she visits many countries and immerses herself in a variety of cultures around the world.
The World Fusion award that Zhu received in the United States is part of a trend where Chinese musicians are beginning to emerge on the world stage. In the beginning of this year, young Chinese pianist Lang Lang was a nominee at the 50th Grammy Awards and gave an awesome performance at the awards ceremony. In April, another Chinese female singer, Sa Dingding, won the BBC World Music Award.
(Beijing Review July 24, 2008)
