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| Birth Name(s) : Twinnie Cheng |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
singer, actress |
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Full Sammi Cheng Biography
Sammi Cheng Sau-Man (Chinese: 鄭秀文; Cantonese: Cheng Sau-Man; Mandarin pinyin: Zhèng Xìuwén) is a Hong Kong actress and Cantopop singer.
Sammi Cheng Sau Man entered the entertainment industry through a high profile, annual TV singing contest, New Talent Singing Awards in 1988, when she was only 16. Though she was placed third in the competition, the sponsoring record company, "Capital Artist", spotted the potential in Sammi and offered her a recording contract. At the time, Sammi was still in school, so she had to learn to balance her studies with her blossoming singing career. Before finishing school, Sammi had managed to release 3 full-length studio albums: Sammi, Holiday and Never Too Late. The sales of each of these albums surpassed the previous one. Holiday, which was released in 1992, surprised everyone by managing to stay on the Top 10 Albums of the Week Sales Chart for a record-setting 10 weeks (despite by merely lurking around in the bottom half of the chart). The gross sales of these albums were considered successful for a new artist, but didn't launch Sammi onto the playing field of A-list artists.
In 1993, Sammi realized that in order to go from a top B-list artist to an A-list artist, she had to create a unique image for herself. At the time, another rising female artist, Faye Wong, had started a wild and crazy fashion trend in the music industry. Capitalizing on the attention she had been getting from her duet with a strict A-list artist Andy Hui, "其實你心裡有'有我" (Do you really have me in your heart?), Sammi went through a complete 180-degree transformation; she dyed her hair orange, purposely 'westernized' her pronunciation of Chinese and successfully toned her physique. At that time, dying your hair was only popular among street gangsters and it was a 'taboo' for artists to try to look rebellious. Sammi then came out with her 4th studio album, "鄭秀文的快樂迷宮" (Sammi's Happy Maze), which included the hit single, "Chotto 等等" (Chotto Matte). Her new image fit perfectly with the new single, which was a remake of a very upbeat Japanese song by Maki Ohguro. The success helped Sammi boost her singing career to the brim of one worthy of an A-lister.
In 1994, Sammi continued to capitalize on her wild, new image. Her first album of that year was "大報復" (Big Revenge). The album included the mega hit "叮噹" (Ding Dong), which became one of Sammi's all-time signature songs. But with her new fame also came a lot of backlash from the media. Critics pointed out that Sammi purposely "westernized" her Cantonese: instead of saying "Ding Dong", Sammi pronounced it as "Deen Dong". Despite the criticism, the song was one of most popular dance songs of that year. Throughout the rest of 1994, Sammi continued to release hit single after hit single, such as: Ten Commandments, Not Your Typical Love, Passion Island, Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo, Amnesia and Bitter Love. The racy and controversial cut of Ten Commandments (which includes tiny bits of what can be recognized as a porn soundtrack) was banned from the radio a few days after its initial airplay. Of course, with prohibition came another level of attention and fame for Sammi. Her savvy way of handling the controversy and the media in the midst of that incident was arguably a confirmation to music industry insiders that Sammi was here to stay. And she continued to ride on her fame....
In the beginning of 1995, Sammi did not renew her contract with Capital Artists. The record company reacted by putting her on the sideline, using marketing resources previously dedicated to promoting her to promote the labels' other artists. Sammi disappeared from the public eye for nearly half a year. Later in that year, it was revealed that Warner Music had signed Sammi as their recording artist. Sammi wanted a fresh start. She let her hair color return to black and temporarily abandoned the wild image she used to have.
Following the success of Needing You, Sammi went on to star in more box office hits like (Summer Holiday, 2000), 鍾無艷 - (Wu Yen, 2001), 瘦身男女 - (Love on a Diet, 2001), 嫁個有錢人 - (Marry a Rich Man, 2002), 我左眼見到鬼 - (My Left Eye Sees Ghost, 2002) and many more, including the latest film, 長恨歌 - (Everlasting Regret, 2005), which earned her a nomination for Best Actress in the critically acclaimed Venice Film Festival.
Sammi re-invented herself once again, and held her 6th concert in HK from 18 to 25 May 2007 titled "Show Mi" (as 'Mi' being the nickname of SamMI given by her fans). Due to the huge demand for the tickets, the concert went from four performances to eight. The concert was both commercially and critically successful. According to news sources, many audience members stood up, cheered and danced along with Sammi throughout the entire performance. At the end of the first show, audience members continued to shout 'encore' for 15 minutes until Sammi came back out and sang "Our Theme Song - 我們的主題曲".
22 - 23 Jun 2007: Genting Highlands, Malaysia29 Jun 2007: Toronto, Canada7 Jul 2007: Las Vegas, US13 Oct 2007: Singapore20 Oct 2007: Shanghai, China |
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