Stefanie (album)

Stefanie is the seventh studio album by Singaporean singer Stefanie Sun (simplified Chinese: 孙燕姿; traditional Chinese: 孫燕姿), released on 29 October 2004 by Warner Music Taiwan.[1] Produced by Paul Lee, Peter Lee, and Stefanie Sun herself, it incorporates music genres such as pop, African world music, tango, soft rock and lounge music. In terms of musical structure, each song has an instrument as the main axis in terms of musical structure.[2]

Stefanie
Studio album by
Stefanie Sun
Released29 October 2004 (2004-10-29)
Recorded2004
GenreMandopop
Length46:36
LanguageChinese
LabelWarner
Producer
Stefanie Sun chronology
The Moment
(2003)		 Stefanie
(2004)		 A Perfect Day
(2005)

Before its official release, album pre-orders in Taiwan exceeded 200,000, while pre-orders in mainland China exceeded 400,000, and orders for the album across Asia exceeded 1.5 million.[3] One month after the album was officially released, total sales across Asia exceeded 2.2 million copies.[4] In Taiwan the album sold 180,000 copies throughout 2004, making it the 6th highest selling album of the year in the country. The album earned an IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Award for Top 10 Best Selling Mandarin Albums of the Year in 2004.[5] The album also earned two Golden Melody Award nominations for Best Mandarin Album and Best Female Mandarin Singer in 2005 at the 16th annual ceremony, and she finally won Best Mandarin Female Singer.[6][7]

Background and development

On August 22, 2003, Sun released her first compilation album, The Moment. On the first day of the album's release, 200,000 copies were sold in Taiwan,[8] and the final sales volume in Asia exceeded 1.5 million.[9] Shortly after the album was released, Sun publicly announced that she would "take a break" for a year. In the same year, she established her own management and production company called "Make Music".[10]

The reason for her hiatus is that after her debut in 2000, she released 5 albums in 3 and a half years. The overloaded work not only made Sun unbearable, but also caused the standard of the album to decline. In the meantime she spent more time with her boyfriend and family, and traveled to Japan, Thailand, and New York. According to the record company: “During this year, she rested and settled at the same time; she worked hard in life, but she also grew up at the same time. Over the past year or so, Stefanie has occasionally been seen and heard in concert venues or in clips of advertising screens, and more often, she is living an ordinary life that she has longed for in her own world”. After a year long break from the spotlight, Sun's mentality had become more peaceful. In addition to composing two songs and writing the lyrics to one, she also participated in the production of this album, selecting songs herself and participating in the discussion of the structure and arrangement of each song. Sun hoped to use this album to make a summary of her musical journey.[11] For the completion of the album, Sun also learned modern dance. She practiced until the skin on her feet was broken, but she still endured the pain and performed.

Writing and recording

The album Stefanie is the one in which Sun participated the most. The eighth track "Nurture Your Dreams" was written and composed entirely by Sun herself. In order to create more natural sound effects, she went to the Botanic Gardens in Singapore to perform sound recording work. She went there for several days to just to collect some natural sounds of insects and birds.[12] The album's genres are diverse, with each song taking an instrument as the main axis in terms of musical structure: including flute and violin ensembles; a combination of free music and rock music; harpsichord and strings; love songs with exciting strings Music and accordion; African world music; tango and other genres are integrated into each other to complete a music work exclusive to Sun. At the same time, the album creates a different musical index, taking into account both rich musicality and commercial marketability.[13]

The opening track "Running" is written by Tian Tian, who also wrote the lyrics to her 2001 hit song "Green Light", and is composed by Peter Lee. "Running" is a fast-paced song with equal emphasis on rhythm and melody.[14] Stefanie Sun's first attempt at a rock song, the verses and lyrics are explosive and speedy.[15] The song uses a mixture of electronic and rock music to complement Sun's passionate rock vocals.[16] The lead single "My Love" is written by renowned lyricist Xiaohan and composed by Yi Xin Lin. The arrangement of "My Love" is mainly piano and strings, and the piccolo is added in time to make the audience feel calmer and more distant.[17] "Wish You Happiness" was written and composed entirely by Jiahui Wu and musically takes influence from country and folk music. For the song "I Miss Him Too" the lyrics were written by Percy Phang and April, and the music was composed solely by Percy Phang. With the piano as the background, the atmosphere of a temperamental love song combined with the exciting string music and accordion, "I Miss Him Too" describes the youthful memories and ignorant love affairs that occurred in one's salad days. "Hear" is a song with a fresh style. The arrangement is based on rock and roll, combined with a relaxed flavor, and the embellishment of the harpsichord. The style of the song "Take It Slow" is very unorthodox in the world of C-Pop, with the rhythm of electronic dance music interspersed with the influences of flamenco and tango, which adds a unique charm to it.

"Someone Like Me" was written by Yi Jiayang, composed by Paul Lee, and arranged by Terence Teo. Breaking away from Stefanie Sun's previous personal creative style, "Nurture Your Dreams" is based on the concept of African world music. The lyricist of "Cloudy Day", Liao Ying-Ru, depicts the rich and innocent side of Sun, and all the sounds in the arrangement are full of childishness. "Turn Around" integrates dance-pop with heavy metal instruments, such as electric guitar and bass, and features a rap section in English. The album's title track is a pop rock ballad written by Sun herself and composed by Chen Dawei. "Let's Vino" is an upbeat, spritely pop rock song. "The Brilliant Unknown Future" was written by Xiaohan and music was composed by Eric Ng. The lyrics describe young people's attitude towards the future, and how they want to control the unknown years by themselves and don't want anyone to arrange it.

Title and artwork

The album is named after Stefanie Sun's English name "Stefanie".

Release and promotion

On October 10, 2004, it was formally announced that the album would be available for pre-order on October 15, 2004.[18] It was also reported that the first lead single "My Love" from the album will be premiered simultaneously across Asia from October 13th to October 15th.[19] On October 27, 2004, Sun held a press conference for the release of the album.[20] Before its official release, album pre-orders in Taiwan exceeded 200,000, while pre-orders in mainland China exceeded 400,000, and orders for the album across Asia exceeded 1.5 million.[21]

When Warner Records confirmed that the sales of the new album had exceeded 1.8 million copies, Sun held a new song release party to thank her fans, attracting tens of thousands of people to the small town of Tamsui. At the new song launch conference she appeared in a gorgeous big skirt. Sun, who rarely wears such a gorgeous dress, greatly surprised the fans in the audience. After that, she successively sang songs such as "Running" and "I Miss Him Too", which aroused the fans' excitement and screams.[22] On the afternoon of November 27th, Sun also held a grand album celebration and stamping event in Ximending. During the event the label announced that it had sold more than 2.5 million copies in Asia. At the event that day, Stefanie Sun entered the venue with a "100-meter run". On the 100-meter red carpet runway, four low hurdles were set up, each representing a sales volume of 500,000. She happily performed the "100-meter hurdle" to enter the venue, and finally crossed the 2.2 million victory line at the end, symbolizing her journey along the way. The fans who came to the venue that day not only came to see their idol, but also enthusiastically responded to Sun's call for love and brought all kinds of candies for Sun to take to India to give to local children.[23]

On November 30, 2004, Warner released the Platinum Edition of the album, which additionally includes a DVD containing "My Love - 25-Minute Music Special of Paris Trip", "My Love - 15-Minute Paris Music Movie", the music video for "Running" and "Someone Like Me", along with a set of six postcards to boot.[24]

Singles and music videos

On October 29, 2004, Sun released the single, "My Love". The music video was directed by Jinhe Lin and filmed in Paris, France. In addition to filming the music video during this trip to France, she also went to Normandy where the Allied forces landed in Europe.[25] In the music video, the director tried to reproduce Sun's characteristics through a time and space that can be zeroed in: simple and ordinary, the courage to give up, face it, and the courage to start over. Let Stefanie Sun go to a place where no one knows her, a place full of tourist atmosphere, live like an ordinary person, and create the power of singers and music to humanize. Use the transformation of time and space and the guidance of images to suggest the beginning of a new stage. Being an ordinary person is her greatest desire. A girl who likes to sing is her true self, showing Sun's characteristics and charm.[26]

The shooting for the "Run" music video, which was directed by Shockley Huang, took two days, one day in the studio and one day on location. When filming, the director asked Sun to keep running until her feet were battered and bruised, and finally called three strong men to pour water on her. In the video, Sun not only dances modern dance, but also hangs on a tightrope and does somersaults.[27] Throughout the music video, Sun shows the strength of her body through dance, and runs, jumps and dances in the grassland.[28]

The music videos for "Wish You Happiness", "Take It Slow" and "I Miss Him Too" were also directed by Shockley Huang. The song "I Miss Him Too" was used as the Taiwan theme song of the movie Crying Out Love in the Center of the World. The music video for "Someone Like Me" was directed by Jinhe Lin and the music video for "The Brilliant Unknown Future" was directed by Ma Yizhong. On 6 January 2005 the tracks, "My Love", "Someone Like Me", and "Running", were listed at number 5, number 26, and number 39 respectively on the 2004 Hit FM Top 100 Singles of the Year chart.[29]

Accolades

Stefanie earned an IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Award for Top 10 Best Selling Mandarin Albums of the Year in 2004.[30] On January 19, 2005 the song "My Love" won the Bronze Award for Outstanding Popular Mandarin Song at the 2004 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards.[31] On March 20, 2005, "My Love" from the album won the Hong Kong and Taiwan Top Ten Golden Melody Awards in the 5th Music Chart. At the same ceremony Sun also won Best Female Vocalist of the Year, Taiwan’s most popular female singer, and Peter Lee and Paul Lee won Best Producer.[32] On April 22 of the same year, the album won the Best Album of the Year in Hong Kong and Taiwan on the MusicRadio China TOP Ranking.[33]

At the MTV Asia Awards 2005 Sun won the MTV Asia Award for Favorite Artist Singapore for the fourth year in a row. The album also earned two Golden Melody Award nominations for Best Mandarin Album and Best Female Mandarin Singer at the 16th annual ceremony, and she finally won Best Mandarin Female Singer.[34][35]

Track listing
  1. "奔" (Running)
  2. "我的愛" (My Love)
  3. "祝你開心" (Wish You Happiness)
  4. "我也很想他" (I Miss Him Too)
  5. "聽見" (Heard)
  6. "慢慢來" (Take It Slow)
  7. "同類" (Someone Like Me)
  8. "種" (Nurture Your Dreams)
  9. "反過來走走" (Turn Around)
  10. "Stefanie"
  11. "Let's Vino"
  12. "未知的精彩" (The Brilliant Unknown Future)

References
  1. (in Chinese) Warner Music Taiwan Stefanie album information Archived 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine 29 October 2004. Retrieved 2011-05-09
  2. "专辑：孙燕姿--《Stefanie》" (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2023-09-14.
  3. "孙燕姿新专辑明日全亚洲同步推出(组图)" (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2023-09-14.
  4. "孙燕姿西门町活动轻松募得万颗爱心糖果(图)" (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2023-09-14.
  5. (in Chinese) IFPI Hong Kong 2004 IFPI Hong Kong Album Sales Awards winners list The lead single "My Love" reached number 5 on the Hit FM Top 100 Singles of the Year.Archived 2012-07-02 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2011-04-19
  6. (in Chinese) GIO, Taiwan 16th Golden Melody Awards nomination list Archived 2012-07-09 at archive.today 15 April 2005. Retrieved 2011-07-01
  7. (in Chinese) GIO, Taiwan 16th Golden Melody Awards winners list Archived 2012-07-08 at archive.today 20 March 2006. Retrieved 2011-07-01
  8. "孫燕姿一天賣20萬張". appledaily.com (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 2023-09-06.
  9. "懷舊專題／孫燕姿《天黑黑》一唱成名奠定天后寶座" (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 2017-07-22.
  10. "孫燕姿20周年巡演藏「密語」 催淚文致歌迷：謝謝聽我的歌長大" (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 2022-01-22.
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  13. "专辑：孙燕姿--《Stefanie》" (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2023-09-14.
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  21. "孙燕姿新专辑明日全亚洲同步推出(组图)" (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2023-09-14.
  22. "孙燕姿专辑大卖180万张 新歌发布会被fans挤爆" (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 2004-11-17.
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  31. "香港十大中文金曲颁奖礼昨落幕" (in Chinese (China)). 2005-01-20.
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  34. (in Chinese) GIO, Taiwan 16th Golden Melody Awards nomination list Archived 2012-07-09 at archive.today 15 April 2005. Retrieved 2011-07-01
  35. (in Chinese) GIO, Taiwan 16th Golden Melody Awards winners list Archived 2012-07-08 at archive.today 20 March 2006. Retrieved 2011-07-01


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