The “Dolphin Princess”

Jane Zhang is the most famous and acclaimed singer-songwriter and performer of the whole Asian continent and to date the number of her fans on Weibo (the Chinese version of Twitter) has reached almost 44 million people.

Zhang Liangying (张靓颖), this is her true name, was born on 11 October 1984 in Chengdu (the fourth most populous city in China), Sichuan province, where she graduated from Sichuan University School of Foreign Languages.

She achieved fame in 2005 after having participated in “Super Girl“, the greatest musical talent show in the world, which in the final episode of that edition attracted over 400 million spectators to television screens, becoming the most watched show in the history of television in China.

Jane is a “spinto soprano of coloratura” and she has been compared to other wonderful whistle register voices such as Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera and Sarah Brightman. Her vocal range goes from D below middle C to G above soprano C. In China this earned her the nickname “The Dolphin Princess“. There are many songs in which she reaches such levels of vocal range, including her famous rendition of “Lovin’ You” by Minnie Riperton and that of “The Diva Dance” by Eric Serra (composed for the movie “The Fifth Element“) .

During her career she has positioned herself with more than 15 songs in the first place of the Chinese music hit-parades.
The relentless ambition to reach stages all over the world leads her in 2009 to sing live in the famous American talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show“, in 2016 in Belgium at Tomorrowland with DJ Jack Novak, at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 with Andrea Bocelli, in 2016 at the grand opening show of the Disney Resort in Shanghai and in 2021 at the 5th anniversary of the resort with a new song specially written for the Walt Disney Company and published by Walt Disney Records.
She had participated with Big Sean in the making of the soundtrack of the movie “Terminator Genisys” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Additionally Jane boasts a wide range of musical collaborations which include Timbaland, 50 Cent, Eminem, John Legend, DJ Tiesto, Chris Botti, Kitaro, Andrea Bocelli, Lang Lang, David Foster, Ne-Yo, Tan Dun, Steve Aoki.

The internationally known single “Dust My Shoulders Off” was born from the collaboration with Timbaland, the famous American rapper and record producer of various songs for Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Nelly Furtado and other big names in world music.
Timbaland says of her: “Jane is a global artist, working with her is a great experience. Our collaboration allows us to build a bridge to bridge the gap between Chinese and American pop culture.”

In addition, Timbaland, multiple Grammy Award winner, is also the executive producer of Jane’s English-language album “Past Progressive”.

With her songs Jane wants to make known her vision of  art to the whole world.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (only the most significant):
• China Pop Charts Awards – “Best Female Singer” for 8 consecutive editions
• Oriental Top Music Awards – “Best Female Singer” for 7 consecutive years
• Chinese Music Awards – “Best Female Singer” for 3 consecutive years
• MTV Europe Music Awards 2015 (EMA) – “Best Artist in Asia Pacific”
• The only Chinese singer to ever make it into the top 5 of the US iTunes download chart

I always look for music that can set me apart from my past songs.  If i stop discovering myself through different music and changes in the environment, i will lose my vitality.

Jane

from an interview with China Daily on 12/15/2016