Tanya Chua
Singaporean singer-songwriter and music producer. Debuted with an English album in 1997, released a first Mandarin album in Taiwan in 1999, and in 2022 won Album of the Year and three other prizes at the 33rd Golden Melody Awards for "DEPART".
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About the artist
Tanya Chua, a Singaporean singer-songwriter and music producer, was born in Singapore on January 28, 1975, and later moved to Taipei. Before debuting Tanya Chua appeared in the musical Hot Pants, and in 1997 debuted in Singapore with the first English album "Bored". In 1998, on a scholarship, Tanya Chua went to the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California, to study further, majoring in electric guitar. According to an introduction on the Singapore songwriters' site Singapore Songwriters, the year after debuting Tanya Chua became the first Singaporean to win the Asia Song Festival. In 1999 Tanya Chua signed a Mandarin recording contract with PolyGram and released the first Mandarin album "呼吸" in Taiwan; the same year Tanya Chua sang the official Singapore millennium song "Moments of Magic" with two other singers.
In 2000 PolyGram was folded into Universal Music, and from the second Mandarin album "記念" onward the releases were on Universal Music Taiwan. In 2001, Taiwanese music-copyright groups launched a boycott of cable-television operators, the "308 clause dispute"; Tanya Chua's third Mandarin album that year, "I Do Believe 相信", was caught in it. According to the album note on Apple Music, the music videos therefore could not be shown on television, sales were poor, and Tanya Chua fell into a low point. In 2002, with this album, Tanya Chua was nominated for the first time for Best Female Mandarin Singer at the 13th Golden Melody Awards, and, as the composer of Faye Wong's "打錯了", was nominated for the first time for Best Composer.
In 2003 Tanya Chua moved to Warner Music, and the album "陌生人" was released on June 6. A 2019 report in Mirror Media says this album was what opened Tanya Chua's reputation.
In 2004, for the first time producing for another singer, Tanya Chua produced three songs on 梁詠琪's album "歸屬感". Early in 2005 the album "雙棲動物", finished the year before, was released, including "原點" sung with Stefanie Sun, and with this album Tanya Chua won Best Female Mandarin Singer for the first time at the 17th Golden Melody Awards. An ELLE Taiwan interview says that when the career stalled Tanya Chua once thought of either giving up music or going back to being a singer-songwriter; later, taking three months' salary, Tanya Chua moved to Taiwan, reset to zero while holding a Golden Melody Award, and earned pocket money by playing campuses, until, at a meeting with 亞神唱片, Tanya Chua said, "I only want to make my own music. If you are willing, I will go with you." In May 2007 Tanya Chua signed the Mandarin release rights to 亞神音樂.
Ticketed solo concerts were held in Hong Kong in March 2008, in Taiwan from the end of July into early August, and in Shanghai in December; in July the album "My Space" came out, with a live recording of a small January concert in Beijing and three demos, and this album won Tanya Chua Best Female Singer, Hong Kong and Taiwan, at the 9th Music Radio China Top Chart Awards. In 2010 Tanya Chua won Best Singer-Songwriter at the 14th 全球华语榜中榜, and on March 19, 2011 won the Singapore-region "华语五强" prize at the Oriental Billboard for the second time. On December 31, 2012, at Hunan Television's New Year's Eve gala, Tanya Chua sang "红色高跟鞋" and, with 陈翔, sang "思念是一种病".
In 2014 and 2015 Tanya Chua was a mentor on seasons one and two of the CCTV-3 variety show "中国好歌曲". On July 18, 2017 Tanya Chua joined Universal Music Group and held an Asia signing press conference in Beijing. In April 2019 Tanya Chua and rapper 路壹Lu1 released "Just Say So"; in August 2020 Tanya Chua took part in the "若你碰到我" TME live online concert, and on November 5 released the single "在哪里都很好" with 王源.
The 2021 album "DEPART" was the first on which Tanya Chua took on composing, arranging and acoustic-guitar playing throughout. On May 18, 2022, the 33rd Golden Melody Awards nominations were announced and Tanya Chua was nominated in seven categories; in June the three English albums "Bored", "Luck" and "Jupiter" went up on digital platforms worldwide; on July 2, for "DEPART", Tanya Chua won Album of the Year, Best Mandarin Album, Best Female Mandarin Singer and Best Vocal Recording Album. According to PTS News Network, Tanya Chua had already won Best Female Mandarin Singer at the 17th, 19th and 23rd editions, tied with aMEI at three, and winning again this time broke the Golden Melody record for Mandarin female singers.
From October 4 to 6, 2023, Tanya Chua took part in the Shanghai Simple Life festival. In April 2025 Tanya Chua was nominated in six categories at the 3rd Wave Music Awards.
Overview
- Born
- January 28, 1975age 51
- Born in
- Singapore
- Career start
- First album · 1997
- Active
- 1997 – present29 years
- Gender
- Female
- Aliases
- 蔡健雅, Tanya
- Instruments
- Vocals, Electric Guitar, Piano / Keyboard
Catalogued works & releases
No catalogued works yet.