We’ve all heard of K-pop, but did you know that Mandopop is growing in popularity too? While Mandarin popular music really evolved from the 1920s, the style that we know today began in the noughties with an explosion of pop idols influenced by Western pop music. The rise of Chinese film and television, as well as music competitions, went hand-in-hand with the rising demand and popularity of Mandopop. In this blog, we share some of our favourite artists who all differ in style:

Crowd Lu

Lu learned to play guitar in hospital after a freak accident. Following this near-death experience, his guitar skills gained a huge following among students at his university and consequently he won numerous national awards during the late 00s. The iconic singer-songwriter is a bit of a cult hero nowadays, and he still features in the Chinese Charts.

Karen Mok

Karen Mok is a world-famous, two-time Golden Melody Award-winning singer. The Hong Kong pop diva has toured the world, released 17 smash-hit solo albums and has over 15 million followers on Weibo. Her prestigious career has spanned three decades and she is a leading figure of the Mandopop movement. Fun fact: Karen holds the Guinness World Record for the highest altitude music concert when she performed in Tibet at an altitude of 3650m.

A-Mei

Kulilay Amit, whose stage name is A-Mei, grew up in a Payuma indigenous family in Taiwan. Despite her humble upbringing, she managed to get to the final of national singing competition, and never looked back. Her albums Truth (2001), Amit (2009), and Faces of Paranoia (2014) each won her a Golden Melody Award for the Best Mandarin Female Singer, and she is widely regarded as the ‘Queen of Mandopop’.

Jay Chou

Jay Chou is another iconic Mandopop figure from the early 00s who has collaborated with the likes of A-Mei. His pioneering style merges hip-hop, R&B, Chinese folk, and classical music to the typical Mandopop sound. Jay Chou modernized Chinese music, influenced a new generation of Mandopop artists and became an international star in the process.

Eric Chou

In contrast, Eric Chou is a Taiwanese singer-songwriter who is famed for his slow, emotional ballads. Eric Chou became a YouTube sensation in 2014 after his debut album, The Distance of Love. His style and songs have made him be dubbed the ‘King of the Lovelorn’ by Taiwanese media, and rightly so!

Are you a big fan of Mandopop and want to understand the lyrics? Start learning Mandarin with IH London! Find out more about our Mandarin courses here.