Adrienne Lau (born 7 September 1983) is an Asian-American

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

and TV personality. She may be the first

Chinese-American Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...

female singer to reach the Top 20 on the U.S. Pop Billboard Sales Chart.

Early life

Born in Hong Kong in 1983, Lau grew up splitting her time between

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. She speaks English,

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

, and

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

. Lau graduated from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

with a double major in

Communications Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

and

Sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

Career

Lau participated in an advertising campaign and was the

spokesmodel A promotional model is a Model (person), model hired to drive demand, consumer demand for a product, service, brand, or concept by directly interacting with potential customers. Most promotional models are conventionally attractive in physical app ...

for Vigoss Jeans in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. In January 2005, her debut album, ''Hypnotic'', was released. Her first single, "Hypnotic Love," features Jin tha MC and the single's music video includes an appearance by

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1985 and 2024. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson i ...

. Additionally, Lau collaborated with

Mýa Mya Marie Harrison (; born October 10, 1979), known professionally as Mýa, is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer, and actress. She was born in Washington D.C. and studied ballet, jazz, and tap dance as a child. Her ca ...

, who produced the song "Xtacy" in the album. Lau performed at the ''MTV Chi Rocks'' concert for MTV Chi in September 2006. In December 2006, she performed on ''The V Party'' for

Channel V Channel '' ("V" as in the letter, not the Roman numeral "5") is a Chinese and former Asian pay television musical network originally launched by Star TV Hong Kong (now Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific). It was part of the unit of Disney In ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. In March 2007, Lau made an appearance in the Bangkok International Fashion Week in Thailand with a performance on the

catwalk A fashion show is an event put on by a fashion designer to showcase their upcoming line of clothing and/or accessories during a fashion week. Fashion shows debut every season, particularly the spring/summer and fall/winter seasons. This is where ...

. In 2008, Lau sang the song "Olympics Beijing" ("Ao Yun Beijing") for the 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2010, she released her single "Coming" in Hong Kong. The single ranked number one on the HMV Charts. She started a fashion business, a restaurant, and bar businesses in Hong Kong. Hosting TV shows in Hong Kong, Lau invited her K-Pop star friends to appear on her show ''Seoul Stars'', which she hosted for TVB.

Controversy surrounding MIG Records and Henry Jones

In the early 2000s, Lau received a record deal from Henry Jones of MIG Records (later renamed to Global Village Records). Jones used the proceeds from Tri Energy to fund his MIG Records enterprise. The

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

(SEC) filed a suit against Henry Jones and argued successfully that Jones was operating Tri Energy as a

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays Profit (accounting), profits to earlier investors with Funding, funds from more recent investors. Named after Italians, Italian confidence artist Charles Ponzi, this type of s ...

.U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, "Litigation Release No. 21000," 15 April 2009
/ref> Although Jones (sentenced to 20 years in prison) claimed Lau had nothing to do with the scheme and that usage of Lau's bank account was just an innocent mistake, Lau was named a Relief Defendant and ordered to pay a disgorgement of $200,000 plus prejudgment interest of $20,000.U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, "Litigation Release No. 20239," 13 August 2007
/ref>

Videography

* Hypnotic Love * Magic Tricks * You're The One

References

External links

Lau on
''

HK Magazine ''HK Magazine'' was a free English-language alternative weekly published by HK Magazine Media Group in Hong Kong. Launched in 1991, it offered coverage of local affairs, social issues as well as entertainment listings. The 1000th issue was publi ...

''
Lau on
''Baccarat Magazine''
"Adrienne Lau Breaking the Racial Barrier in Pop Music"
on ''Spice Magazine'' *https://okmagazine.com/news/nightly-news-adrienne-lauasian-sensation-julie-benz-stars-new-movie/ * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lau, Adrienne American women singers American musicians of Chinese descent University of California, Los Angeles alumni Living people 1983 births American women pop singers 21st-century American women