Jane Zhang, born October 11, 1984; also known as Zhang Liangying (Simplified
Chinese: 張靚穎; Traditional Chinese: 張靚穎; pinyin: Zhāng Liangyǐng); is
a Chinese pop singer who placed third in the 2005 season of the Super Girl
contest, a national all-female singing competition, held in the People's
Republic of China. Throughout the competition, she sang in English, Spanish
and Cantonese besides Mandarin Chinese.
Her vocal range ranges from at least the D below middle C, up to the F above
soprano C (later demonstrated in her rendition of Minnie Riperton's "Loving
You").

Background information
Also known as: Jane Zhang
Born: October 11, 1984 (1984-10-11) Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Genre(s): Pop
Occupation(s): Singer
Years active: 2005–present
Label(s): Huayi Brothers Corp.
Website: www.janezhang.com

Biography
Early years
Zhang was born in Chengdu, Sichuan. During her childhood, she performed at
her parents' work place on several occasions. Her parents were divorced when
she was 13. Two years later, Zhang's father passed away. This had forced her
to work outside of school; she started to sing at a local public house, where
her uncle played the accompaniments.
Zhang was exposed to a wide variety of music genres in the pub and developed
a taste for Western singers such as Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera as
well as American country music. However, she was unable to afford her own
music players, so she frequently borrowed a walkman and headphones from her
classmates and skipped lunches to save enough to buy cassettes.
2005: Super Girl competition
In 2005, she entered the local Chengdu preliminaries of Super Girl contest in
2005. She became the first runner-up of the preliminary rounds and entered
the national competition with Li Yuchun and He Jie.
Throughout the competition, Zhang demonstrated the ability to sing songs in
foreign languages. During the national competition, Zhang sang foreign songs
such as "Any man of mine", "I Still Believe", "What's Up", "Beautiful", and
"Don't Cry for Me Argentina".
Her fans called themselves "Liang Fen" (涼粉), the combination of the
pronunciation of her name(Liang), and the English word "fan". The same term
has been used to define a particular type of bean jelly snack in central
China. This usage came from Hong Kong years ago, but nowadays more people use
it.
Although she received positive reviews from most critics and professional
musicians, she was not the most popular contestant among young supporters.
Her final number of votes (1.3 million) by messaging fell behind Li Yuchun
and Zhou Bichang, placing her in third place.
2005-2006: The One
After the completion of the competition, Zhang was invited to visit her alma
mater in Sichuan University during its orientation week celebration in early
September. She performed her own rendition of Shania Twain's "Any Man of
Mine" there.
On September 26, 2005, she became the first Super Girl contestant to hold a
personal music show for her fans. Numerous celebrities attended the show.
These guests included Huang Jianxiang, Zeng Zimo, and Wu Sikai. They are
CCTV's hosts on football shows, Phoenix TV's famed host, and a singer from
Taiwan, respectively.
She has also signed a contract with CCTV to play the supporting role in a
stage music show The Song of the Movie. The musical was produced by Taiwan
pop musician Jonathan Lee. Harlem Yu and Yuan Quan also starred in the
musical, which opened in Beijing in December 2005 and later in Hong Kong.
In January 9, 2006, her first EP, Jane·Love (Simplified Chinese: Jane·愛;
Traditional Chinese: Jane·愛) was released. The E.P. contains contained six
tracks in total, 3 songs and 3 instrumentals. The EP has sold 210,000 copies
in China.
Her debut album, The One was released on October 11th, 2006 which was her
22nd birthday. For the production of the album, Zhang had visited the United
States to collaborate with music producer, Craig Williams. She also
collaborated with producer Peter Hyams, who has worked with Celine Dion and
R. Kelly. The album contains ten songs, among those three are in English. The
three English songs were produced by Craig Williams.
She has also sung many popular theme songs for various films and series,
including the song Only for Love (Simplified Chinese: 我用所有報答愛;
Traditional Chinese: 我用所有報答愛) for the film The Banquet and Unparalled
in the World (Simplified Chinese: 天下無雙; Traditional Chinese: 天下無雙)
for the TV series The Return of the Condor Heroes. Both songs have reached
high popularity and have reached the charts among China. Only for Love was
nominated by 2007 Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Original Film Song.

2007: Update
In February 2007, she was invited by World Peace One (WP1) to join a hundred
world renowned singers and bands to record a song called "Give Your Love".
This was aimed to bring attention to all cultures of the globe. This project
aims to promote awareness of the poverty of thirdworld countries. Zhang is
the only Asian female singer that has been invited to the United States to
participate and it was reported that Craig Williams recommended Zhang to the
organiser of the event.
Zhang performed her first North American concert on March 31, 2007 in
Pasadena, California. Famous Japanese musician Kitarō and Gavin Christopher
also attended the concert, in which Gavin Christopher and Zhang sang I Will
Be There together. On April 8, 2007, she was awarded the Best Singer Award in
the 2007 Music Chart Awards ceremony was held in Beijing Exhibition Centre
Theater.
Her July 28, 2007 concert in Beijing has also set a record for the most
expensive VIP seating for a Chinese mainland artist. She performed live
versions of hit songs from her debut album "The One," new songs from her
second album "Update", which was released due out in August 2007, as well as
Richard Marx's signature ballad "Right Here Waiting" and Beyonce Knowles's
"Listen" from the award-winning Broadway musical Dreamgirls.
On August 2, 2007, her second album, Update was released. When asked about
the album's name "Update," Zhang explained that this is an upgraded step from
her first album, The One. R&B and jazz style songs ware included in the new
album. One of her tracks, We Are Together (Simplified Chinese: 我們在一起;
Traditional Chinese: 我們在一起) was produced for a project by the United
Nations Children's Fund.
Zhang had been invited, along with other renowned Chinese performers such as
Elva Hsiao, Joey Yung, Alan Tam, Eason Chan and Hacken Lee to record We Are
Ready in July 2007 for the countdown to the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was
released on August 2nd. We Are Ready was composed by Peter Kam and Keith
Chan, at the request of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the
XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), for the celebration of the oneyear countdown to the
start of the 2008 Olympics. On August 8th, the artists who recorded the song
gathered at Tiananmen Square and performed the song for the first time.

Vocal ability
Zhang, a spinto soprano, has been compared with other whistle register
masters such as Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera and Sarah Brightman. Her
vocal ability ranges from the D below middle C to the G above soprano C that
was demonstrated in her rendition of Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You" when she
was performing on Super Girl. As such, she has been given the nickname "The
Dolphin Princess" as Chinese musicians refer to the whistle register as the
dolphin vocal sound (simplified Chinese: 海豚音)