David Tao
Male singer-songwriter and music producer, born in Hong Kong. From 1993 wrote songs and produced albums in Taiwan for Hong Kong and Taiwan artists, released a first self-titled album in 1997, and the next year won Best New Artist and Best Record Producer at the Golden Melody Awards.
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About the artist
David Tao, a male singer-songwriter and music producer, genealogical name 陶緒忠, was born in Hong Kong on July 11, 1969.
David Tao's father, 陶大偉, was a Taiwanese singer, and David Tao's mother, 王復蓉, was a Peking-opera actor; the 2005 song "Catherine" is about that mother-and-son relationship. From childhood David Tao appeared with the family in milk-powder and Coca-Cola advertisements. In 1980, while still in grade 7 at 伯大尼小學 in Taipei, David Tao was on television for the first time, duetting with father 陶大偉 on "Baby Talk" in the TTV programme "小人物狂想曲". David Tao studied at 伯大尼美國學校 in Gongguan, Taipei, went to the United States at 15, settled in California, and attended the University of California, Irvine, and the University of California, Los Angeles, majoring in psychology and film. At 17 David Tao formed the band "Instant Pictures" with classmates. The Chinese Wikipedia records that David Tao has said that, from childhood, David Tao listened to the Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Lo Ta-yu and other musicians. In 1988 David Tao worked in the United States as an English tutor, and in a raw-sugar factory, a musical-instrument shop, a shoe shop, a clothing shop and the police, and also worked as an extra, playing a Japanese police officer in the Hollywood film "Black Rain".
In 1992 David Tao scored "小葫蘆歷險記". In the spring of 1993 David Tao first met 王治平 in a musical-instrument shop in Los Angeles, and at 王治平's strong invitation returned to Taiwan to develop a career, beginning to write songs and produce albums for Hong Kong and Taiwan singers or groups; among those David Tao worked with were 周葆元, L.A. Boyz, 陳淑樺, Jeff Chang, 楊采妮, 陶晶瑩, 鄭中基 and 孫耀威. In 1997 David Tao moved from behind the scenes to the front, joined the newly founded 俠客唱片, and the same year released the first self-titled album "陶喆", the whole of which was made at home in Los Angeles. In 1998, for that first self-titled album, David Tao received five nominations at the 9th Golden Melody Awards: Best New Artist, Best Male Mandarin Vocalist, Best Composer, Best Record Producer and Best Pop Vocal Album, and in the end won Best New Artist and Best Record Producer. Between the first and second albums, David Tao also wrote songs for the Taiwanese boy group Tension and produced "I'll Be With You".
In 1999 David Tao released the second original album "I'm OK", received six Golden Melody nominations, and in the end won Best Producer; the music video for "Rain" later won Best Chinese Music Video at the 2000 MTV Music Awards. In 2001, when the Disney animation "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" opened in Taiwan, David Tao and aMEI voiced the male and female leads of the Mandarin version; during the dubbing David Tao got the idea for the song "I Believe", which Disney chose as the theme of the film's international Mandarin version. In 2002 the album "黑色柳丁" was released.
The Chinese Wikipedia records that, after the nominee list for the 14th Golden Melody Awards was announced in 2003, David Tao was unhappy at being shortlisted for only Best Male Mandarin Vocalist for "黑色柳丁", publicly questioned the judging standards, and said David Tao would not attend the ceremony. The same year David Tao ended six years of work with 俠客唱片, moved to 伊世代娛樂, held a series of concerts in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, and released the live album "Soul Power Live". During the SARS outbreak David Tao and Wang Leehom called on dozens of Taiwanese artists to sing "手牵手" together, to raise spirits against the outbreak. For the fourth original album, "太平盛世", the same article records a 2005 release, while the MusicBrainz release group records a first-release year of 2004; this album won Best Mandarin Pop Vocal Album at the 17th Golden Melody Awards. The rock song "孫子兵法" on the album, made with the Twelve Girls Band, was shortlisted for Best Arranger, arranged jointly by David Tao and Goh Kheng Long. From 2005 to 2007 David Tao held "Love Can就是愛你音樂驚奇之旅 世界巡迴演唱會". In 2006 the fifth original album, "太美麗", was released; "今天妳要嫁給我", a duet by David Tao and Jolin Tsai, won Best Song of the Year at the 18th Golden Melody Awards.
Each of David Tao's first five albums has at least one old song in a new arrangement, for example "望春風" on "陶喆", "夜來香" on "I'm OK", "月亮代表誰的心" and "宮保雞丁" (reworked from "小毛驢") on "黑色柳丁", "Susan說" on "太平盛世" (reworked from the Peking-opera piece "蘇三起解"), and "忘不了" on "太美麗".
On July 7, 2007, David Tao opened the world tour "1.2.3我們都是木頭人" at Hongkou Football Stadium and released "Power of Live影音全紀錄". From 2007 to 2008 David Tao was with EMI, and from 2008 to 2009 with Gold Typhoon. In 2009, three years apart, the sixth original album "69樂章" was released; besides taking on all the production behind the scenes, David Tao also directed, shooting music videos, a film and a documentary, and the next year won Best Male Mandarin Singer at the 21st Golden Melody Awards for this album. From 2009 to 2010 David Tao held "上太空說 世界巡迴演唱會". From 2012 to 2021 David Tao was with Seed Music, and in 2013 released the album "再見你好嗎".
On January 11, 2014, David Tao opened the world tour "小人物狂想曲 The Glamorous Life" at Hongkou Football Stadium, and in 2017 released the live album "Live Again 小人物狂想曲現場專輯". The Chinese Wikipedia records that David Tao and 江佩蓉 held their wedding banquet on August 31, 2014, at the Mandarin Oriental, Taipei. In 2016 David Tao was a mentor on the third season of "中國好歌曲", and the same year held "無二不樂 世界巡迴演唱會"; in 2018 David Tao held "「陶喆初心演唱會I Love You Live」美加巡迴演唱會". In 2023 the live album "Bring The Light In 欢迎光临台北演唱会" was released.
In 2024 David Tao toured with the world tour "Soul Power II", with dates including Taipei, Kaohsiung and Macau. In 2025 David Tao joined Universal Music, and the same year released the eighth original album, "Stupid Pop Songs", 12 years apart. In a TVBS report David Tao said: "Winning awards is not the most important thing. The most important thing is to keep maintaining the quality of the things one makes oneself."
Overview
- Born
- July 11, 1969age 57
- Born in
- Hong Kong
- Career start
- First album · December 6, 1997
- Active
- December 6, 1997 – present29 years
- Gender
- Male
- Aliases
- 陶喆, R&B教父, David, 도철
- Instruments
- Vocals, Guitar, Piano / Keyboard
Catalogued works & releases
No catalogued works yet.
