Valen Hsu
| Valen Hsu | |
|---|---|
Performing at National Taiwan Normal University in 2007, Taipei, Taiwan.
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| Background information | |
| Chinese name | (traditional) |
| Chinese name | (simplified) |
| Pinyin | Xǔ Rúyún (Mandarin) |
| Birth name | Hsu Hung-hsiu () |
| Born |
September 20, 1974 Taipei, Taiwan |
| Other name(s) | Hsu Ru-yun, 琇琇 |
| Occupation | Singer, composer, songwriter, actress |
| Genre(s) | Mandopop, Cantopop |
| Instrument(s) | Piano, keyboard |
| Label(s) | What's Music (1995–2000) EMI Music Taiwan (2001–2003) Silver Fish Productions (2004–2006) Seed Music (2007–2009) Valen Voice Production (2010–present) |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Spouse(s) | Choi Jae-sung (m. 2013) |
| Website | Official Website |
Hsu Ru-yun (born Hsu Hung-hsiu on 20 September 1974), better known as Valen Hsu, is a Taiwanese pop singer-songwriter, author and occasional actress. Since the mid-1990s Hsu has been one of the most popular female singers in the Mandopop scene, and is best known for her love ballads.
A classically trained pianist, she started playing the piano when she was 4. While she was attending high school in 1993, she was discovered while performing in a restaurant in Taipei, where many known pop artists began their careers. She was offered a contract with Taiwan’s What’s Music Record label and began work on her first commercial album, all before the age of 19.
Valen Hsu is known for her vocals, which are wispy yet strong and crystal-clear. Her singing voice and technique have been compared to Hong Kong's Faye Wong. In 1998, the Japanese magazine publication Asia Pop voted her as the best female pop vocalist in Asia. She has been known to deliver CD-quality live performances. Occasionally, she will play the piano while singing live at her concerts.
Valen Hsu has recorded 14 studio albums over the span of eight years, as well as four "Best Of" compilations. Her first album, Tau Hao, was completed in 1994 and received critical acclaim from the Asian music industry. However, record sales did not exceed expectations, only selling a little over 50,000 copies. Her next studio album was what significantly changed her career. Lei Hai, or Tear Sea as translated, sold more than 300,000 copies in Taiwan. And her third album, If the Cloud Knows, sold over 2.2 million copies alone in Taiwan. Her fourth album, Ri Guang Ji Chang (Sunlight Airport) was completed in 1998 and sold 800,000 copies in Taiwan, but over 3 million copies in Asia, permanently placing her in the company of Asian divas such as Faye Wong and Sandy Lam and becoming an integral part of a new Mando-Pop era including Coco Lee and A-Mei.
In 1999, after the sale of What’s Music to Universal Records (Taiwan), she recorded a duet with Enrique Iglesias entitled You’re My No. 1, released on Enrique’s Asian version of his Enrique album.
She ended her contract with What’s Music in 2001 and signed on with EMI Taiwan. The first album with her new record label was titled I Just Want to Tell You, and it was produced by Yosinori Kameda, a famous Japanese music producer. In 2001, she decided to broaden her professional career by acting in her first TV drama with F4, Taiwan’s boy-band equivalent to 'N Sync. She further broadened her acting career in 2003 by performing on stage with Zuni Icosahedron, an independent cultural collective concentrating on alternative theater and multi-media performances. In 2004, she decided to take a hiatus from the music industry to pursue other interests, including learning English in New York City.
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