Yumiko Cheng | |
---|---|
Chinese name | 鄭希怡 (traditional) |
Chinese name | 郑希怡 (simplified) |
Jyutping | Zeng6 Hei1 Ji4 (Cantonese) |
Origin | Hong Kong |
Born |
Shanghai China |
6 September 1981
Other name(s) | Cheng Hei Yee (Cantonese Jyutping) |
Occupation | Singer |
Genre(s) | Cantopop |
Instrument(s) | Singing |
Voice type(s) | Dramatic Contralto |
Label(s) | Emperor Entertainment Group |
Years active | 2002–Present |
Associated acts | 3T |
Website | Official Website |
Yumiko Cheng is a Hong Kong-based Cantopop singer. Cheng was given the Japanese nickname "Yumiko" by her friends in secondary school, and upon signing with EEG, adopted it as her official stagename.
Yumiko was originally marketed as a member of the group 3T (along with Mandy Chiang and Maggie Lau), which released an EP in 2002. Yumiko went on to release her own solo EP later that year. This was followed by a second EP, DanceDanceDance (舞舞舞) and her first full-length album One2Three, in 2003.
In 2004, she released the album, Perfect Date, though made a decreasing number of media appearances due to health problems and an overall strategy re-evaluation within her company.
2005 saw a return with the lead single 'Arabian Market' (亞拉伯市場), complemented by a novel image that featured her in traditional Arabic dress. She would continue onto covering various Middle-Eastern pop hits in subsequent singles such as 'Lupine Girl' (狼女, originally sung by Aneela Mirza) in 2006, and 'Five Centuries' (五個世紀, OT:Bechom Shei In The Heart of Tel Aviv) in 2008, which became a minor hit in its own right in the Chinese dance charts, and was even mentioned in a report by a major Israeli newspaper.
Yumiko's Space, the 2005 album to which 'Arabian Market' (亞拉伯市場) belonged, otherwise showed an 80s disco and electronic influence. Veteran music producer Carl Wong (王雙駿) took on songwriting and production credits for 6 songs, including that of the second single 'Think' (想). Electronic pop duo PixelToy also contributed one song, who again appear with songwriting credits on Cheng's 2008 Mandarin album Spectacular Era (精彩年代). Cheng has interviewed in the past that Yumiko's Space remained a personal favourite of all her albums.
Aside from a career in pop music, Cheng has starred in several films and made a special guest appearance in Stanley Kwan's 2005 feature Everlasting Regret.
Yumiko dominated the entertainment headlines in December 2006, due to a wardrobe mishap while performing an aerialist stunt for TVB's annual charity show. While being retrieved from mid-air on a trapeze, her trousers were accidentally pulled off by her stunt partner Chin Kar-lok, revealing her underwear. Much to Yumiko's embarrassment, the incident garnered a great deal of media attention. The MC Eric Tsang later apologised due to public disapproval over a number of remarks made at the time of the incident, including a request for a replay of the accident in slow motion, though other MCs such as Nancy Sit and Lydia Shum were seen to have laughed uncontrollably in the television broadcast.