Tanya (1999)
Tanya Chua
How does one go from being a feted small-time singer- songwriter to being a commercially viable pop star?
Beyond being worthy records in and of themselves, Tanya Chua’s early works offer some interesting answers.
Her debut album Bored (1997) sold 3,000 copies while her second record Tanya (1999, above) racked up sales of over 200,000 in the fiercely competitive Taiwan market.
The most obvious difference between the two is the language. Chua, 37, sings in English on Bored and in Mandarin on Tanya. Her lightly husky pipes, honed from years of performing in live venues, is equally at home in both languages.
What made her stand out, particularly in the Mandopop market, was also the fact that she was no sweetie-pie singer but someone who clearly had a mind of her own and was not afraid to speak it.
It helped that she was both a composer and lyricist and English tracks such as Bored, You Sorry Ass!! and My Colour TV Set had an engaging honesty. While none of the Chinese lyrics were written by her, there was a clear link between the material on her first two solo albums.
The English songs found their way to the album Tanya in different ways and to different degrees. While there is a track titled Hao Wu Liao (Bored), it features a new melody from Chua.
As opposed to the more downbeat Bored with lines such as “I wanna get that silly high on cigarettes”, Hao Wu Liao paired a breezy jangly melody with lyrics about love. It won her the best local music composition prize at the 6th Singapore Hit Awards in 1999.
One could say that Hao was playing to the Mandopop market in which love songs are the mainstay.
But it did so in a way that was smart and one still had a sense of Chua’s spirited character with lyrics such as: “I hate arguing with you/Can sing a different tune to anything/Why not go our separate ways/Better than being bored together.”
Other songs had a more straightforward makeover in which the melody remained but the lyrics were changed.
The spunky You Sorry Ass!! became Ni Kuai Zou Kai (You’d Best Get Lost). In Ass, the vitriol directed at an ex-lover is cushioned by jangly guitars: “I hope someday you will find someone/And she will treat you like you treated me/Then how you’ll fall apart now I should wonder?”
The sting is further lessened on Zou Kai, though she still berates an ex: “I hate the tone you take with women/Don’t care about me at all, I’ve really had enough/You’d best get lost”.
Impressively, while it builds upon an earlier record, Tanya manages to be a cohesive album in its own right, balancing commercial dictates with a singersongwriter’s distinctive voice. While the Chinese lyrics were farmed out, Chua composed the music for seven tracks.
Apart from the fact that she could pen memorable hooks, the use of the harmonica on several tracks also gives the album a distinctive folk-pop sound.
Unfortunately, the record company’s pick for the lead single was Breathe, one of three tracks not composed by Chua.
To add insult to injury, her face was not seen in the music video, which led to speculation she must be a plain Jane.
In later interviews, Chua would say she felt trapped when she could not express herself in her own words. And one can see how she has sought greater control of her music over the years.
She wore the producer hat for the first time on Goodbye & Hello (2007) and by her seventh album If You See Him (2009), she was responsible for penning more than half the Chinese lyrics.
It is a journey that has borne fruit as she has now reaped three prestigious Golden Melody Awards for Best Female Mandarin Singer, the latest for Sing It Out Of Love (2011).
Chua, who will perform at The Straits Times Appreciates Readers (Star) concert on July 15 at Gardens by the Bay, has indeed come a long way.
Regardless of how she might feel about her Mandarin debut now, it introduced her to a bigger audience and paved the road for her future successes.
And it remains a treat to listen to today.
(ST)