Fish Leong

Fish Leong (traditional Chinese: 梁靜茹; simplified Chinese: 梁静茹; pinyin: Liáng Jìngrú; born June 16, 1978 in Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia with family roots in Shunde, Guangdong, China) is the stage name of Jasmine Leong, a Malaysian Chinese singer in the Mandarin pop scene who has had much success in Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan. Leong, known as "the Queen of Love Songs", is famous for her love-themed ballads, many of which have become popular KTV hits.

Leong was born in Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia and she grew up in Bahau, a small town where is half an hour driving time away from Kuala Pilah. Her real name is "Leong Chui Peng" (Chinese: 梁翠萍; pinyin: Liáng Cùipíng). She started her career as a cover version singer at Hai Luo Music Cafe. Z-Chen is her cousin.

In her youth, Leong had participated in many local singing competitions and emerged as the winner in a few of them. Veteran singer Jonathan Lee discovered her during a singing competition at Hai Luo. She was then singing a song called Qī Dài (期待) which was composed by her friend. She started her career in Taiwan, in October 1997, after joining Rock Records of Taiwan. It was then that she adopted the name "Fish", because the last character of her name "茹" sounds like "fish" (魚) in Cantonese. Her debut album Yí Yè Zhǎng Dà (一夜長大) was released after two years, only to encounter an earthquake on the day of the album launch promotion (21 September 1999). Her career only managed to take off after the successful launch of her second album Yǒng Qì (勇氣), which means courage. The hit song "Courage" about courage in love and especially in forbidden relationships.^[1] From then on, Leong has continued to sing love songs about the different stages of relationships, from first love in "Quiet Summer" to life after a breakup in "Happy Breakup."

Leong has enjoyed collaborations with prominent Chinese songwriters and producers, such as Lee-Hom Wang and Ashin of Mayday, the latter being her fellow labelmate. She has also sung duets with fellow Malaysians and labelmates, Guang Liang, Pin Guan and Yu Heng. Her albums have been best-sellers in the East Asia region, including Singapore and Taiwan, where she is based. Since making her debut in 1999, Leong has released ten solo albums. Her best-selling album The Power of Love had sold in excess of 1.5 million copies in Asia, including more than 300,000, 35,000 and 40,000 copies in Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore respectively. Wings Of Love, her seventh and double-platinum album, topped Singapore’s RIAS sales chart for two weeks and remained within the top 15 positions for more than two months. Her Silk Road album in 2005 had sold 1 million copies in Asia. At the Singapore Hits Awards 2003, she was crowned the Best Female Vocalist. In 2004, she was presented with the Regional (Malaysia) Most Popular Singer prize at the same event. In 2005, she won the Most Popular Female Singer and Regional (Malaysia) Most Popular Singer awards. Her 2006 album "Kissing The Future Of Love" was a hit and topped the Mandarin charts for weeks. A year later, the same feat would be achieved with her 2007 album "j'Adore."

After the success of the Love Parade World Tour 2004/2005, she had performed for another series of world tour concerts (including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore) which took place starting from February 2007. Starting from December 2007, she has a new series of "Today is Our Valentine's Day concerts". The name of the concert came about from Leong's desire to tell her fans that "Although the concert won't be on the Valentine's Day this year, I want to tell my fans that everyday could be Valentine's, when you have the right person next to you,". ^[2]

Fish Leong recently collaborated with Hong Kong singer/actor Leo Ku in the duet "還是好朋友" for Leo's new mandarin album.^[when?]

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