hang Liyin (born February 28, 1989), better known in Korea as Jang Ri-in, is the firs
t (and currently the only) Chinese solo singer to break into the Korean music industry. Subject to much publicity, Zhang has been nicknamed the “Chinese BoA” and the next leader of the Korean wave. She speaks both Mandarin, which is her first language, and moderate Korean, and has released singles in both Korea and China, singing in both languages.
Zhang has released only one studio album since her debut in 2006, but its singles carried a few top ten titles, such as “Timeless,” which was a #1 hit. She is the also the first foreign artist to win Best New Solo Artist at the M.NET/KM Music Festival.
Life and music career
Early life
Zhang was born to violinists in Sichuan, China as a native from Chengdu. Throughout her childhood, her parents took her to their classical concerts and exposed her to a variety of music. At three years old, she began to learn the violin. Zhang was so accustomed to classical, American, and European pop music that she claims she never sang children’s songs when she was a child. She also developed the ability to sing a song after hearing it only once. When she was nine years old, she showed her musical ability when she sang Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”.
As she grew older, Zhang became more absorbed into pop music than classical music. She had to secretly listen to pop music because her parents were against it. When she was twelve, she was accepted into a middle school affiliated to Sichuan Conservatory of Music after scoring the highest with her violin talents, but she opted to become a singer instead. Eventually, her parents began to support her dream to become a singer and she gained confidence when she was selected as the top 10 adult singers in a national singing competition under the sponsorship of Shanghai.
Zhang was discovered after Beijing partners informed the head of Korean talent agency SM Entertainment of a young talent. In 2003, she moved to Korea and started training the age of thirteen. Singers received three years of special singing and dance training under SM Entertainment. Under the direction from producer Lee Soo Man, Zhang discovered her R&B voice.[1]
2006–2007: Early commercial success
Zhang’s debut was anticipated not only in Korea, but all of Asia, due to SM Entertainment’s advertising of her being the “Chinese BoA” as well as Lee Soo Man himself stating he was training her to be the next leader of the Korean wave. Before her official debut, it was already known that her first song was a duet with popular TVXQ member Xiah Junsu, which generated even more interest and anticipation in her. Before the official release of her single, “Timeless” was available for free download between August 31 and September 6 on her official website. “Timeless” is a Korean cover of the original single by Kelly Clarkson.
On September 8, 2006, “Timeless” was released. She made her stage debut on MBC’s Music Core on September 9, 2006 singing “Timeless” with Xiah Junsu. The first day Zhang debuted she was ranked #2 on the famous Korean music website, Melon[citation needed]; the following day she topped this chart and held her place respectively for two full weeks. The same day she also ranked #2 on the online charts of SBS’s Popular Songs, just after popular boy band, Shinhwa’s “Throw My Fist”. “Timeless” was also placed first on Daum’s Music Video chart as well as hitting the highest search number on the famous search engine, Naver. The “Timeless” music video, which is a two-part installment starring Lee Yeonhee and Super Junior members Han Geng and Siwon, was ranked #1 on Melon’s Video Chart for four full weeks. Within ten days of debuting, Zhang entered the “Take 7″ chart on SBS’s Popular Songs (complied from internet and industry statistics).
Zhang promoted the second track of her debut single, “Y (Why…),” in early 2007. SM Entertainment also released a “Timeless” documentary version of her “Y (Why…)” music video. This music video reveals her hardships during training; it also showed many behind the scenes clips of her promotion of “Timeless”, including never-before-seen footage of her with Xiah Junsu. However, promotions for “Y (Why…)” ended quickly, and SM Entertainment announced that she would be on hiatus from the music industry throughout the rest of the year to prepare for her major debut in China in the end of the year. Zhang made a surprising guest appearance at TVXQ’s second Asia tour concert in Seoul on February 23, 2007. She performed “TRI-ANGLE” with TVXQ, singing a part in the song that was previously performed by BoA. She made a second appearance with TVXQ on November 24, 2007 in Malaysia for the same concert, and was TVXQ’s regular guest star for their “O” Asia tour until its finale in June 2008.
2008: Mandarin market
Zhang’s first Mandarin album, I WILL was originally announced to be released in 2007, but the release date was pushed to early March 2008. The album was finally released in different regions of China starting March 3, 2008 and on March 28, 2008, I WILL made its Asia-wide release. Before the release of the album, two music videos were released online on February 27, 2008 to promote the album. Similar to “Timeless”, the two music videos “I WILL” and “The Left Shore of Happiness”, are one story but separated to two parts. Han Geng, Siwon, and Lee Yeonhee are also the cast for those two music videos.
I WILL received moderate success in both China and Korea. The album’s first single, “I WILL” debuted as #16 on Guanzhou Music Charts and moved up ten spots to #6 after two weeks of release. The second single, “The Left Shore of Happiness” moved up ten spots to #7. “I WILL” peaked at #6 in China’s national music chart Top in Music for several days and the same single peaked at #1 on Korea’s Melon Music Chart for two full weeks. The album debuted at #22 on Korea’s MIAK Monthly Album Chart of March and sold over 2,000 copies in Korea that month.
Zhang co-wrote the lyrics for “One More Try”, an R&B dance single which became a song dedicated to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Notable events
Visa
Similar to fellow label mate Han Geng, Zhang holds an E-6 (Entertainment industry) passport, for foreigners in South Korea. Foreign artists carrying out promotional activities have limitations in terms of location and other factors. Han’s passport only allows him to work under SBS and KBS, while Zhang’s allows her to work only with SBS and MBC, which is why she only performs on the two stages. On August 1, 2008, the Korean government’s law of restrictions on foreigners were lifted, and foreign entertainers in Korea are now allowed to perform in every station. However, Zhang becomes unable to perform on MBC due to the channel’s controversy with her company.
