Priscilla Chan Wai Han (Chinese: 陳慧嫻; Jyutping: Can4 Wai6 Haan4; pinyin: Chén Huìxián; born 28 July 1965) is a Hong Kong singer. She is renowned for her contralto singing voice and her maturely clear, technically skilled, and emotion-rich vocals. Debuted in 1983 at age 18 from a trio album project named Girls' Magazine (少女雜誌), which was formed by Fiori Productions Ltd. (法安利製作有限公司), with the hit "Forgotten Promise" (逝去的諾言), Chan began her solo singing career in 1984 and has since remained popular for more than three decades.[3] Chan signed to PolyGram Records, Hong Kong (寶麗金) in 1986 and reached her career peak between the late-1980s and mid-1990s, and scored several hits particularly in the 1980s, most remarkably including "Silly Girl" (傻女) from her 1988 album Priscilla's Love (嫻情), as well as her signature song, "Thousands of Songs" (千千闋歌), one of the all-time Cantopop classics, from her 1989 best-selling farewell album Forever Your Friend (永遠是你的朋友), which also elevated Chan to the top tier of Hong Kong singers. Chan continued to release albums during her study, and resumed her full-time singing career in 1995 after graduation, achieving a huge success for her comeback album titled Welcome Back. Chan's work remained relatively popular throughout the 1990s, eventually falling out of favour in the early 2000s when she was overtaken by a new generation of Cantopop singers. Chan made a few brief comebacks in the 2000s, including the one in 2003 when she signed to Universal Music Hong Kong, performed a concert with two shows, and released an album entitled Love Knot (情意結). Feeling frustrated upon poor record sales, Chan stepped back from the Hong Kong musical industry and embarked on her live performances at private functions and concerts overseas and in mainland China, where her popularity was further boosted. After a decade of hiatus, Chan officially returned to the Hong Kong Cantopop scene in 2013, when she signed to Universal Music Hong Kong again with the relaunch of the PolyGram label in Hong Kong. Chan then successively released two cover albums, namely By Heart (2014) and Evolve (2015), and the compilation album Back to Priscilla (Back to Priscilla 嫻情三十) (2014) commemorating the 30th anniversary since her debut. Chan also performed in two major concert series, namely the "Back to Priscilla: 30th Anniversary Concert 2014 Live" (2014) and the "Priscilla-ism Live 2016" (2016) at the Hong Kong Coliseum, with world tours, live performances, and private functions mainly held in mainland Chinese cities, and sporadically in North America and Russia. Background Priscilla has one younger sister, one younger brother, both parents, and a dog named gucci&humphrey. Before retirement, her father was a senior officer of Hong Kong Immigration Service. She currently lives in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, with eight cats. Her favorite artistes are Michael Douglas and The Carpenters. She attended Marymount Secondary School in Happy Valley(formerly known as Maryknoll Sisters School), which is one of the best secondary schools in Hong Kong. As one of the very active students, she entered singing contests often as a teenager and got discovered by a recording company. Today, she is known for expressing great passion and emotion in her love songs, in which many of them are cantopop classics. Music career Priscilla started her life as a professional singer when she was 18 in 1983. Her first song was titled "Forgotten Promise" (逝去的諾言), which is recorded in an album "Girl Magazine" (少女雜誌) that also featuring two other new comers. The song propelled Priscilla's career; thus, she released her own first album "The Feelings of a Story" (故事的感覺) in 1984. The next year, she released "Priscilla," which included the hit "Flower Shop" (花店). In 1986, the album "Revolt" (反叛) had several classics and push Priscilla to new heights. Song included "Dancing Street" (跳舞街) (a version of Angie Gold's "Eat You Up" but based production wise, on Yōko Oginome's version, titled "Dancing Hero" (ダンシング・ヒーロー)), "Loving Accident" (痴情意外), "Love Me Once Again," "Revolt" (反叛), and "Hugging with Tears" (與淚抱擁). Priscilla had a rough 1987, but she rebounded nicely in 1988 with the album 嫻情 1988, and the song "Silly Girl" (傻女, a Cantonese rework version of the Spanish song "La Loca") that first confirmed her status as a serious contender in the golden age of Cantopop. "Silly Girl" was re-made into a disco-version by a new comer in Hong Kong in 2007. Priscilla chose to retire in 1989 in order to pursue her degree in psychology at the Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, a promise to her parents that she kept. In her supposed-to-be last album, (永遠是你的朋友) "Always Be Your Friend," the everlasting hit "Thousands of Songs" (千千闕歌) elevated her status in the legendary mega pop stars heavy industry including Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui and Alan Tam. This best-selling album of 1989 also recorded hits like "Night Flight" (夜機) and "Dancing Boy." During her academic career, she returned to Hong Kong and recorded three albums from 1992-1994 during the summer vacations. The song "Snowfall" (飄雪) was very popular for karaoke at the time; other hits included "Red Tea Shop" (紅茶館), which was voted among the Top 10 song of the Year in 1992, "Come Back!" (歸來吧!), and "Jealousy." The album sales were surprisingly good despite the fact that she spent most of the time in the U.S. with minimum publicity. By 1995, Priscilla has returned to the music industry in full force. Her initial return brought her back to the top of the pop chart with two albums: "Welcome Back" and "I'm Not Lonely" (我不寂寞). In fact, "Welcome Back" topped the sales chart for a modern record of six weeks! Songs like "It's Always Raining Tonight" (今天夜裡總下雨), "Missing You" (留戀), "Missing Love and Dust" (戀戀風塵), "I'm Lonely" (我寂寞), and "Flow" (飄) became instant classic. Her 10-night series of concerts in 1996 reaffirmed her popularity with the public. Another concert in 1997 with Hong Kong Philharmonic Symphony (HKPS) in Hong Kong made her the second pop artist ever to work with the HKPS. With the signing of a new recording company, Cinepoly, her fame started to fall. The death of her beloved cat, Remington, in 1998 marked the start of three year period when she found life difficult as the new recording company wasn't working well for her. In 2000, after the last album with Cinepoly named "Good For You" (為你好), she retreated the music scene until 2003 when she made a come-back with an album named "Loving Knot" (情意結) and a series of concert in Hong Kong. However, due to the album sales that's below her expectation, mostly because of illegal online downloading and piracy, she decided to retreat once again. She criticized the trend of Cantopop audiences, of whom she believed was only interested in admiring the entertainers' image and not appreciating their music. However, she has reiterated her desire to continue singing as many loyal fans still remained around the world. In 2007, Chan signed temporarily with EC Music under International Entertainment Corporation (國際娛樂有限公司) until its closure in 2008, and released a new live album recorded at one performance of a two-night benefit concert held at the Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre in Hong Kong in 2008.[86] A new track named "Ring Finger" (無名指) was released as the concert's theme song. From 2008 to 2012, Chan held concert tours in various mainland Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Nanning. During her tours in mainland China, Chan released a few Mandarin singles, such as "Asia" (亞細亞) (2010), one of the theme songs of the 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou, and "Let Love Blooms" (讓愛綻放) (2012), a commemorative track for the fourth-year anniversary of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. On 16 April 2013, Chan signed with Universal Music Hong Kong again, with the relaunch of the PolyGram label. On 28 August 2013, Chan participated in the "PolyGram Forever Live Concert" held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre with former PolyGram pop stars like Alan Tam (譚詠麟), Hacken Lee (李克勤), and Shirley Kwan (關淑怡). Chan then released "By Heart", a cover album and her first album after returning to the relaunched PolyGram Records, on 7 April 2014. The album features Chan's cover of 10 songs produced in the former PolyGram Records. The compilation album that commemorates the 30th anniversary since her debut, "Back to Priscilla" (Back to Priscilla 嫻情三十), appeared on 17 June, before she held her 30th-anniversary commemorative concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum from 19 to 21 June, with Jacky Cheung and Joey Yung (容祖兒) as live guests. Kandy Wong (黃山怡), a Hong Kong singer who is regarded as a lookalike of Chan, also watched Chan's concert and the two took a photo together. Chan then performed at the "PolyGram Forever Live Concert in Singapore" organized in Singapore Indoor Stadium on 19 July. Chan announced her extension of singer contract to PolyGram records and signed her management contract to Universal Music Hong Kong on 9 April 2015. She then made her one night concert performing her greatest hits at the Resorts World Genting, Malaysia in July 2015. On 19 November, Chan released another cover album titled "Evolve", which included remakes of 10 of her own classics. The album was certified gold (7,500 unit sales for cover albums) in only two days. Personal life Her personal life was closely scrutinized by the Hong Kong press, who even went to great lengths to search the garbage of her family's (parents and younger sister) home. She simply was not the press' favorite as the Hong Kong tabloids often report negative news of hers for no apparent reason. Since 2003, she has not been particularly active, preferring to appear on TVB or Mainland television programmes and singing in overseas concerts; sometimes she'd attend some private events in Hong Kong as well. But in 2007, she started to be active again as she prepared for a new album and new concert. Many in Hong Kong believed she made a wrong decision to leave the music industry at the peak of her career for college in 1989. In a radio interview, Priscilla disagreed. She considered singing was an important part of her, but she valued education more. Furthermore, she reiterated the reason for getting a college degree was to fulfill her promise to her parents. Her integrity remains to be something that youngsters can look up to. Her love life is in great interest of the media as well. She has had three boyfriends over the course of her adult life. First was with her music producer Michael Au in the 1980s, but they ended their relationship before her return to Hong Kong in 1995. (Au has since married). After Au, Priscilla dated an artist/designer Michael Cheung, and that relationship ended in 2001. Finally, the latest boyfriend was Dr. Tony Tse, however, both agreed to end the 5-year relationship in July 2007. The cause of the break-up, according to Priscilla, is personality differences. Discography Albums Girls Magazine 少女雜誌 (1984) Thousand Years Lover 千年戀人 (Japanese album) (1984) The Feelings of a Story 故事的感覺 (1984) Priscilla (1985) Revolt 反叛 (1986) Transform 變變變 (1987) Remix + Best of (Remix + 精選) (1987) Priscilla's Love 嫻情 (1988) Silly Girl 傻女 (Mandarin album) (1988) The Color of Autum 秋色 (1988) Always Be Your Friend 永遠是你的朋友 (1989) When I'll See You Again Live in Concert 幾時再見演唱會 (1989) Get Up and Dance (1990) Come Back! 归来吧! (1992) I'm Always On Your Side 你身邊永是我 (1993) Who's My Lover Today 今天的愛人是誰 (1994) Welcome Back (1995) I'm Not Lonely 我不寂寞 (1995) Satisfy 心滿意足 (1996) Max Factor Priscilla Chan Live in Concert 96 雪映美白96'演唱會 (1996) Problematic Woman 問題女人 (1996) My Heart's About to Fly Away 心就要飛了 (Mandarin Album) (1997) Musical Encounters with Priscilla and Philharmonic 港樂奇妙旅程 (1997) In Love for 2000 Hours 愛戀二千小時 (1998) This is Love 正視愛 (1999) This is Love 正視愛 (Mandarin Album) (1999) Music is Live (1999) Good For You 為你好 (2000) Loving Knot 情意結 (2003) Priscilla Chan Real Concert 2003 陳慧嫻「珍」演唱會2003 (2003) Priscilla Chan Concert Live 2008 陳慧嫻 活出生命2 演唱會2008 (2008)