Stefanie Sun or Sun Yanzi (Teochew: Sng Iàn-chu; pinyin: Sūn Yànzī) is a popular Singaporean professional pop singer. She was born on July 23, 1978 to Sng Yeow Hong (Sng Iûⁿ-hông) and Sng Ee Kwai (Sng Iàn-koai). She has a sister, younger by 3 years (Sng Iàn-koai) and an older sister by 6 years. ( Sng Iàn-bí).
Yanzi studied in St Margaret's Secondary School and Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) and later majored in marketing at the Nanyang Technological University. She made her musical debut in June 2000 with the release of her first, self-titled album, Yan Zi ( under Warner Music. She is arguably the most popular local artist in her native Singapore, being one of the only major award-winning Chinese popular musicians from Singapore. Her meteoric rise in the Mandarin pop music scene seems to have inspired many more Singaporean artists to expand overseas. Local artistes who have made it big in Taiwan, Mainland China, and Hong Kong following her include JJ Lin and Huang Yi Da.
Although she is Singaporean and spends much of her time in Singapore, she does most of her recording and publicity in Taiwan, where she is also arguably one of the most popular artists.
Although her native language is Teochew, she sings almost exclusively in Mandarin with the exception of her song Thiⁿ-o·-o· where she sings, in Mandarin and Teochew, about a traditional Teochew song penned by Singapore composer Li Weisong. In her lyrics, she includes the first six words of this folksong in the original Teochew: "Thiⁿ-o·-o·, beh lo̍h-hō·".
She has won over 33 awards and other accolades for her music in the course of her career, in Singapore, Taiwan, mainland China and Hong Kong (as well as at the pan-Asian MTV Asia Awards).
Most of her albums are titled in both Chinese and English.
She also sang the official theme songs for Singapore's National Day Parade for 2002 and 2003 with "We Will Get There" (一起走到), and "One United People" respectively.
She collaborated with Mai Kuraki, a Japanese singer, on the last track of her Leave album. They collaborated again in 2003, this time on Mai Kuraki's If I Believe, released July 2003. One month after the second collaboration, Stephanie decided to take a one year break from making music, and returned in late 2004 with a new album titled "Stefanie", intended to be a mirror of her debut album (self-titled as well, but in Chinese). This was to symbolise her return with a newcomer's attitude. She also started her own company, Make Music, during this sabbatical.
Albums
Kite (2001)
My Desired Happiness (2000)
- 2000
- TVB 8 Mandarin Music Awards (Hong Kong), Best Newcomer
- Hong Kong's Radio Station, Most Promising Artiste
- Channel V Music Awards (Beijing), Best newcomer
- Channel V Music Awards (Beijing), Song Of the Year
- 93.3 Singapore Hit Awards, Most Promising Artiste
- Ming Sheng Bao Top 10 Stars, Most Promising Artiste
- China Music Awards, Best Newcomer
- China Music Awards, Best Female Vocal
- 2001
- Golden Melody Awards (Taiwan), Best newcomer
- MTV Chinese, Top 10 Most Popular Artist
- Golden Melody Awards (Malaysia), "Hong Ren" of the year (Gold)
- 2002
- 93.3 Singapore Hit Awards, Most Popular Female Artiste
- 93.3 Singapore Hit Awards, Best-Selling Female Artiste
- 93.3 Singapore Hit Awards, Best Local Artiste
- 2003
- 93.3 Singapore Hit Awards, Best Local Act
- 93.3 Singapore Hit Awards, Best Performing Regional Female Artiste
- 2005
- Golden Melody Awards (Taiwan), Best Female Mandarin Singer
- MTV Japan Music Video Awards, Best buzz ASIA from Taiwan
- MTV Asia Aid Awards, Singapore Most Popular Singer
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