(Photo: CNA)
Chinese Name: 田馥甄
Born: March 30, 1983
Birthplace: Hsinchu County (Northern Taiwan)
Taiwanese pop singer Hebe Tien was a Hakka from Hsinchu County. In 2000, 16-year-old Hebe participated in a singing competition and later was signed by a record company. Together with two other female singers, Selina Jen (任家萱) and Ella Chen (陳嘉樺), they formed a female idol group S.H.E. In the ten years after that, S.H.E has become a representative and iconic female singing group in the Mandarin-speaking region in terms of influence, popularity, record sales, and concert box office.
Hebe sang two solo songs "Too Much" and "Let Her Love You for Me (替我愛你)" in S.H.E.’s first album "Girl's Dorm (女生宿舍)" released on September 11, 2001. That gave her the opportunity to showcase her solo singing talents in an album for the first time. Many critics believed that by the time S.H.E. released its seventh album "Encore," Tien’s singing technique was stunningly impressive.
S.H.E is undoubtedly the most successful girl group in Taiwan in the past 20 years, but Hebe's musical dream is not limited to this. In September 2010, she officially released her first solo album "To Hebe.” She went on to release five albums in ten years. Over those 10 years, Hebe sang many songs that became popular, such as "Still in Happiness (還是要幸福)", "You Better Not Think About Me (你就不要想起我)", "Leave Me Alone (寂寞寂寞就好)," etc.
In August 2016, Hebe Tien sang the theme song "A Little Happiness (小幸運)" for the movie "Our Times (我的少女時代)", which was the first Mandarin song in YouTube history with more than 100 million hits, but she has never been stereotyped or restricted, and her fifth album "Time Will Tell (無人知曉)" has a richer style of music, ranging from rock, electronic music, psychedelic, to lyrical. Some people say that her songs are between mainstream and non-mainstream, but she said: "Everyone can have their own opinion, and they can define me, label me or tear off labels on me, but I’m just myself."
In 2021, Hebe won the Best Female Mandarin Singer Award at the 32nd Golden Melody Awards. She was very grateful that her efforts have been recognized and said that making a music album is like climbing one of her favorite mountains. The most important thing is to find a group of partners to enjoy this beautiful process, and the Golden Melody Award is like a beautiful mountain view; it’s not the purpose of going up the mountain.
(Photo: CNA)
From being a member in the girl group to becoming a solo artist, Hebe has been in the music world for 20 years. Her love for music has not changed at all, the only difference is that she has become more relaxed, showing more different aspects in each piece of music she creates.