Susan Wong (born 1 January 1970) is a Hong Kong

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, ...

and

smooth jazz Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. History Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 1 ...

singer, known for her alto vocals.

Life and career

Wong was born in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, and immigrated to

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

with her family at the age of seven. Musically inclined from a young age, she learned to play the piano at age five and later she also learned the violin. At

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in Sydney, she sang alto in the choir and appeared in the school dramas (

Gilbert & Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which '' H.M.S. ...

& the like) and entered a number of piano competitions. She received an associate diploma (ATCL) in piano from

Trinity College London Trinity College London (TCL) is an examination board based in London, United Kingdom, which offers graded and diploma qualifications (up to postgraduate level) across a range of disciplines in the performing arts and English language learning and ...

. Her first break in the music world was at the age of sixteen when her parents entered her for a singing contest in Sydney. It was organized by

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and TVB ...

with the winner to be offered a recording contract with one of the big music companies in Hong Kong. She won the competition and went to Hong Kong, where she met with the

producers who wanted her to sign with one of the music labels. After much deliberation she decided that a music career wasn’t right for her at that time and instead returned to Australia to study at University. After graduating from university, she returned to Hong Kong in 1997 to help run her family’s accounting business; at this time, she gained her

CPA CPA may refer to: Organizations Political parties and governmental organizations * Christian Peoples Alliance, a political party in the UK * Coalition Provisional Authority, a transitional government of Iraq 2003–04 * Commonwealth Parliame ...

certification. One of her students, who she was teaching piano, was working for a Hong Kong independent label, and Wong asked the boss if they wanted a singer. Wong started recording her favourite English songs and made the album ''Close To You'' (2002). In early 2007, Susan Wong signed a new recording agreement with Hong Kong-based Evolution Music Group and released her first album under evosound in August 2007. The first release under this agreement, ''Someone Like You'', was recorded in Nashville, USA and won critical and commercial success throughout South East Asia. Wong recorded her second album, ''511'', for the evosound label in Geneva Switzerland with producer Adrien Zerbini. It contained bossa nova influenced versions of songs such as

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

’s ''

Billie Jean "Billie Jean" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson, released by Epic Records on January 2, 1983, as the second single from his sixth studio album, ''Thriller'' (1982). It was written and composed by Jackson and produced by Jackson and ...

'' and ''

Everytime You Go Away "Everytime You Go Away" is a song written and composed by Daryl Hall. It was first recorded in 1980 by the American duo Hall & Oates but was not released as a single. A cover version of the song by Paul Young became an international hit in 1985, ...

'' by

Hall & Oates Daryl Hall and John Oates, commonly known as Hall & Oates, are an American pop rock duo formed in Philadelphia in 1970. Daryl Hall is generally the lead vocalist; John Oates primarily plays electric guitar and provides backing vocals. The two ...

. ''Billie Jean'' received extensive airplay throughout South East Asia and a version on YouTube received over 450,000 views. Returning to Geneva in 2010, Wong started work again with producer Adrien Zerbini along with guitarist Ignacio Lamas. The recordings mostly concentrated on sparse acoustic new interpretations of classic pop songs from the late 1960s and early 1970s including ''

California Dreamin' "California Dreamin'" is a song written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips and first recorded by Barry McGuire. The best-known version is by the Mamas & the Papas, who sang backup on the original version and released it as a single in ...

'', '' The Sound of Silence'' and ''

Have You Ever Seen the Rain? "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" is a song written by John Fogerty and released as a single in 1971 from the album ''Pendulum'' (1970) by American rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song charted highest in Canada, reaching number 1 on the ...

''. The ‘studio master’ download of the album peaked at No. 1 on the Linn Records ‘studio master’ download chart and spent over six months in the Top 10. Five years on from her first visit Susan Wong returned to Nashville to record at Ocean Way Studio. The live in the studio project ''My Live Stories'' was released on CD, SACD, and HQCD in December 2012 with the live DVD/Blu-ray released in 2013. In 2014, Wong released her fifth studio album, ''Woman in Love'', which is a tribute to great female ballad singers.

Discography

;Studio albums * 2002: ''Close To You'' * 2004: ''I Wish You Love'' * 2005: ''These Foolish Things'' * 2005: ''Just A Little Bossa Nova'' * 2006: ''A Night At The Movies'' * 2007: ''Someone Like You'' * 2009: ''511'' * 2010: ''Step Into My Dreams'' * 2012: ''My Live Stories'' * 2014: ''Woman In Love'' * 2019: ''Close to Me'' ;Others albums * 2006: ''My Choice'' * 2008: ''The Best Of'' * 2020: ''Christmas Love To You'' EP

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Susan 21st-century Hong Kong women singers English-language singers from Hong Kong Living people 1979 births