TV actress-turned-singer Ariel Lin (林依晨, pinyin: Lín Yīchén) went straight to the top of the Taiwan album charts with her debut record Meeting Happiness (幸福遇见, pinyin: Xìngfú yùjiàn). The album accounted for almost 19 percent of all album sales in the week July 10 to July 16, according to the G Music charts which measure record sales in Taiwan (see the G-Music chart but in Chinese). The pint-sized 26 year old knocked off A-Mei Zhang who dropped to number 3 after two weeks in the top position.Ariel Lin first came to prominence with a starring role in the TV drama series True Love 18 back in 2002. She has since appeared in a string of popular series including My Secret Garden (2003), It Started with a Kiss (2005), Tokyo Juliet (2006), They Kiss Again (2007) for which she won a Golden Bell Award, and Legend of the Condor Heroes (2008).
The Meeting Happiness album contains just ten songs, but includes the hit singles Garden of Happiness (甜蜜花园) and Fireflies (萤火虫), a song that includes appearances by two members of Korean mega-band Super Junior. The excellent Singapore website The UrbanWire has a review of Meeting Happiness and describes it as of "uneven standard" - some good moments and some not so good moments.
I've heard the album recently and I'm not convinced Ariel's vocal technique is all that good, but she is so popular as an actress and so cut I'm not surprised it's doing well.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with the above comment, based on the few songs I've heard, that she's not a strong singer. Her reign at number one anyway was short-lived, dropping to number 5 (I think) this week.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I recommend the Never an Idol Moment blog, well on track towards its stated ambition to be "the Peter Craven (a Melbourne Australia reference there) of Taiwanese pop culture"!