Angela Chang (張韶涵)
Angela Zhang (Simplified: 张韶涵 , Pinyin: Zhāng Shàohán , English: Angela Chang) is a Taiwanese pop singer. Her family immigrated to Canada when Angela was 12. At a Chinese-Canadian singing contest “BCC Star”, Angela won first place by singing 張雨生’s popular song “The Day without Cigar (没有烟抽的日子)”. She was subsequently offered the chance to go to Taiwan for the final, which she did not attend due to school commitments. After she graduated from high school (Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School), Angela started her career in 2000. Her producers told her to audition for a drama. She disliked the idea but went ahead with the audition and got the lead role. Her unexpected acting career took off and she eventually released her first album which was well received due to her popularity of the dramas she acted in. She has been producing hit singles ever since and has been nominated twice for Best Leading Actress in a Television Series at the Golden Bell Awards in Taiwan. Source 1, 2.
Featured Songs
歐若拉 Aurora
口袋的天空 Pocket’s Sky
手心的太陽 The Sun In The Palm of (My) Hand
能不能勇敢說愛 Say “Love” With Courage
Other Songs
為愛而活 When You Live for Love
刺情 Tattoo Love
活在此刻 Living in this Moment
淋雨 一直走 Keep Walking
最近好嗎 How Are you Recently
浮雲 Clouds
真的 Really
Angela Zhang & Christine Fan – 如果的事 If’s
白白的 White
Wrapup
I’ve listened to Angela before but I was never really a fan of her music nor have I watched her dramas. Back then, her voice kind of annoyed me. Angela sings in a kind of vibrato that makes her voice sound unique but also slightly auto-tuned-ish. There were times that I could not tell if she was using auto-tune or not. Although this was before I knew what vibrato was but I think you can hear what I mean if you listen to her song “Keep Walking”.
I wanted to give Angela a fair chance so I decided to check out four of her albums. Two of them were recent ones while the other two were some of her earlier releases. After listening to those albums for this request, I think my opinion of her has changed. I got used to her voice and started enjoying her music. Now that her vocals don’t bother me anymore, the main problem that I still have with her is the fact that I don’t really love any of her songs. She has some nice songs but there weren’t any standouts that I thought were amazing and would listen to repeatedly. The closest song to do that would probably be “Aurora”.
The other problem I have with her is that her attempts at dance music aren’t very good. “That Girl” isn’t that bad but the chorus feels very lacking and flat. I also hate simple and repetitive choruses in general. Then “OK蹦” is just boring. I appreciate trying to mix it up but she might be better off trying other things instead.
To end things, I want to ask if her 2006 drama “Bump Off Lover” is worth watching or not. I was always interested in it but I never got myself to start it. So if anybody has seen it before, thoughts would be appreciated!