G.E.M.

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Tang. G.E.M Tang Zhi-kei 鄧紫棋 (born Gloria Tang on 16 August 1991), is a Hong Kong singer, songwriter, and actress. Short for "Get Everybody Moving", the unique name G.E.M. symbolizes her dream of inspiring people through her voice and music. Her first EP G.E.M. brought her the attention of the music industry, winning her the title of 'Best New Artist' in nine awards. In the same year, G.E.M appeared on two feature films, Love Connected (保持愛你) and Trick or Cheat (愛出猫). In June 2012, G.E.M worked with iTunes Live@Hong Kong and performed with Jason Mraz, in anticipation of her album release Xposed on iTunes. G.E.M was chosen by iTunes itself to represent 13 of the Asian countries, and performed a bilingual rendition of Lucky with Jason Mraz himself . The clip was posted on the Chinese website Sino and Tudou, which has more than 1 million views. The album, which represents a more mature side of G.E.M features the chart-topping lead single Someday I'll Fly, the second plug What Have U Done and latest single Miracle, which were all penned by the singer-songwriter. On the day of its digital release, which was an iTunes exclusive only, G.E.Ms album was featured on the front of the iTunes store and her single reached number 9 on the top 10 positions within the first 2 days, out selling Linkin Park. G.E.Ms single What Have You Done reached number 1 on four of Hong Kong's music charts (RTHK Chinese Pop (中文歌曲龍虎榜), CRHK Ultimate 903 (903專業推介), Metro Radio Pop Chart 997 (新城勁爆本地榜 and JSG Billboard (勁歌金榜)), with the album reaching number 1 on half of Hong Kong's Radio Charts (HKRM (香港唱片商會)). The album maintained the number 1 position for the 5 weeks, and has proved to the industry that G.E.M is here for the long haul. With her popularity on the rise, G.E.M has acted as the ambassador for many Charity events. As an influential role model for Chinese youth, G.E.M. supports the Project Kaisei - a non-profit organization focused on increasing awareness of the scale of marine debris and the solutions for both prevention and cleanup. She also actively promotes another charity group called Changing Young Lives Foundation, which commits itself in helping underprivileged youngsters and changing young lives for the better, in both Hong Kong and the Mainland. G.E.M's YouTube channel has received more than 50 million views, averaging with 2 million views per month, which is an 173% increase in the year 2011. G.E.M also has over 2.5 million followers on the website Weibo, and potentially reaches over 26 million people on Facebook. On average, one million users see her posts on Facebook each week, where as each post reaches 150 thousand users. G.E.M's following is not restricted to Hong Kong and China, with a wide range of fans from Taiwan, Macau, USA, Canada, Australia, UK and other SE Asia. With such a large following throughout the world, G.E.M has sold out many concerts. Early life and career beginnings edit: G.E.M was born in Shanghai and moved to Hong Kong at the age of four. She was brought up in a musical family, her mother graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, her grandmother teaching singing, her uncle playing the violin and her grandfather playing the saxophone for an orchestra. G.E.M.'s own musical life began when she was five, and she appeared on Educational Television for Mandarin when she was seven. G.E.M. started writing songs as a composer at the age of ten entering many singing competitions, winning inter-school singing competitions. When she was 13, she achieved a grade 8 in piano. In 2006, G.E.M entered the "Spice it Up" competition in which she won first place. She caught the attention of her now-manager, Tan Chang, who offered her a contract with Hummingbird Music thus becoming a professional singer at 16. G.E.M graduated from Heep Wah Primary School and True Light Girls' College in Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong, scoring 21 points on the HKCEE. G.E.M continued with her education at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in acoustics, as a part-time student. However, her busy schedule made her unable to attend classes frequently, and she decided to quit the course during the first half of 2009. G.E.M was highly successful in her debut year, 2008, winning ten major awards. G.E.M released her first EP featuring the award-winning song "Where Did You Go." G.E.M won the gold new female singer award from CRHK Ultimate 903 (903專業推介 sponsored by Manhattan ID 信用咭), becoming the first minor to win the award. The media gave G.E.M nicknames such as "巨肺少女" and "巨肺小天后" meaning "Girl with Giant Lungs" and "the Young Empress of Heaven with Giant Lungs" respectively because of her B♭3-E6 vocal range, and she had performed songs by Whitney Houston in a number of occasions. In May 2009, G.E.M went to Los Angeles, California, to record her first studio album, 18... with Hummingbird co-founder and producer Lupo Groining. Upon her return to Hong Kong in December, G.E.M preceded to travel to Toronto and Richmond Hill in Canada for her first mini-concert in Canada, and held an autograph session in Pacific Mall. In the same year, G.E.M appeared in two feature films, Love Connected (保持愛你) and Trick or Cheat (愛出猫), and demonstrating her acting skills on the wide screen. In May 2010, G.E.M stayed in Taiwan for ten days to promote the Taiwanese edition of 18.... After the promotional tour, G.E.M returned to Los Angeles to record her next album, My Secret with her producer Lupo Groining. The album was recorded in the span of ten days in Santa Monica. During her time in LA, G.E.M has also appeared at the US Swimming National Open Water Swimming Championships in Long Beach, California, as a youth ambassador for Project Kaisei. MySecret Album and Get Everybody Moving World Tour: 2011 edit: In 2010, G.E.M released her third album MySecret, with the majority of songs and lyrics written by herself, and became the top selling album in Hong Kong, outselling Taylor Swift's album Speak Now. On 1 November, G.E.M released her album boxset MySecret Box Set, featuring her hits Get Over You, Good To Be Bad, and My Secret. The album also features three songs sung in Cantonease and seven sung in Mandarian, showing G.E.M's diverse musical influences in many languages. When the album was released to be pre-ordered online, the overwhelming amount of online traffic caused the website to freeze and crash.The album preceded to do extremely well on the Hong Kong music charts, with four of the singles reaching number one on 新城國語力. G.E.M's track 愛在當下 on the album was also chosen to be used as the theme song for Solar Project (太陽計劃2011), an event organised by RTHK that encourages young people in Hong Kong to make use of their summer. G.E.M was also approached to sing the theme song to the Japanese animated film The Borrower Arrietty (借東西の小矮人亞莉亞蒂). The Film proved to be a successes in the Box Office, winning Best Animated film in 2010 at the 34th annual Japanese film Awards. The album became the best selling album in 2010 (IFPI), and won Most Popular Mandarin Single 2010 with "A.I.N.Y.". G.E.M was also awarded the title of Most Popular Female Artist of China 2011, Most Popular Female Artist of China 2011, and the award of Outstanding Hong Kong Singer Song Writer 2011. The success of MySecret established G.E.M as a singer songwriter, which led to a sold out world tour in 2011. In May 2011, G.E.M began her world tour G.E.M Get Everybody Moving World Tour, and performed in more than nine cities around the world. The tour showcased more than ten shows, including cities such as Hong Kong, Macau, Guangdong Provience, Australia, Toronto and Reno in USA. Tickets each of the three shows in Hong Kong were sold out in less than 15 minutes, and even caused the server of the website to crash due to an overload of users. Seeing as there was a high demand for more shows, G.E.M added an additional two nights at the Hong Kong Colosseum in September 2011. Tickets for the additional shows were sold out in less than 45 minutes. In March 2012, G.E.M represented Hong Kong in three of the Asia Music Connection 2012 shows. She sung with Naoto Into Raymi, Danson Tang and Crowd Lu in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong during the Asia leg of theTour. On 27 June 2012, G.E.M worked with iTunes Live @ Hong Kong and performed with Jason Mraz during his Love Is A Four Letter Word Word Tour, along with Khalil Fong at the Hong Kong World Expo. G.E.M also collaborated with iTunes and released a digital copy of her fourth studio album Xposed on the same day, which was an iTunes exclusive only. The hard copy of the album was officially released a week later on 5 July. The album reached number 9 on the top 10 albums in Hong Kong, outselling Rock band Linkin Park. The album Xposed preceded to reached number 1 on RTHK's Global Chinese Pop Chart (全球華語歌曲排行榜) and 新城國語力. On 8 July, G.E.M held an album signing at the Hong Kong Mall apm, which attracted more than a thousand fans to attend. The boxset Xposed was also released two days later. At the end of July, G.E.M began her promotional tour in Taiwan and held her first Taiwanese Concert in Riverside, Taiwan. On 7 September, G.E.M released her music video for her track Miracle (奇蹟) which reached more than 90 thousand views in two days, thus demonstrating her popularity on social media sites. 18 Live edit: During 2009, G.E.M. held her first concert, 18 Live, on 20th and 22 November at Hong Kong International Trade & Exhibition Centre Star Hall (香港國際展貿中心). Originally, the concert was slated for two nights, however, due to its popularity, an extra performance was added on the 22nd of November. The concert also featured guests such as Jan Lamb (林海峰), who has previously worked with G.E.M. for the song "食煙飲酒講粗口", and Justin Lo (側田) who sang the first performance of "合唱歌" with G.E.M. at the concert. G.E.M Freelance Tour edit: In January 2012, G.E.M announced on her personal page a new project that she will be working on. G.E.M explained that she began her career at the age of 16, and had never experienced working outside the field of music. Throughout the tour, G.E.M will choose to try out different job professions, taking on ideas and suggestions given by the fans through her personal page. Episode One edit: On 24 February, G.E.M released the Pilot episode of the series.3 The episode showcased G.E.M working at a juice stand in Causeway Bay. G.E.M took on the role of making pancakes and making fruit juices to a hungry crowd of fans and photographers. Episode Two edit: On 22 March, G.E.M worked as a weather anchor for Asia Television Limited. The episode gave a behind the scenes look into the world of broadcasting. G.E.M's weather segment was featured after the evening news. The clip was recorded and published on YouTube, and hit 24 million views within 24 hours, and preceded to reached 33 million views within two days. Episode Three edit: On the third episode of the Freelance tour, G.E.M decided to work as a domestic helper 4. G.E.M explained that she wanted to experience their working conditions and lifestyle, since these domestic workers have taken on such a profound and an important role in the Hong Kong lifestyle. The trailer 5 of the episode was posted on 18 May, whilst the full episode was broadcast on 21 May 6. The episode received a lot of attention from the media, and was featured in the newspaper Apple Daily, entitled G.E.M Speaking for the minorities. Episode Four edit: During her fourth episode, G.E.M attempted at working as a professional motorcyclist, but she also took 'time out' to become excavator operator 7. Episode Five edit: In the fifth episode of the Freelance tour, G.E.M took on several summer jobs in the area of sales and services.8 These jobs ranged from working at a Mr. Whippys Ice Cream truck, 7-11 Convenience store shopkeeper and salesperson for Maybelline. Episode Six edit: On the sixth episode of the Freelance tour, G.E.M. worked in Apple Daily, where she is the editor for the footages of her recent Awards Ceremony, and voice-over artist for Next Media Animation (Apple Action News). Episode Seven edit: On the seventh episode of the Freelance Tour, G.E.M. worked in Mai Po Nature Reserve as Educational Officer for World Wildlife Fund. G.E.M. Get Everybody Moving World Tour Dates edit: G.E.M began the first leg of her World Tour on 14 May 2011 in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Colosseum. G.E.M performed three shows back to back, and was named the youngest female singer to grace the Colosseum. On 27 August, G.E.M held her first Australian Concert at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. G.E.M began the second leg of her World Tour Get Everybody Moving 2011 on 9 September in Hong Kong, performing two shows at the Hong Kong Colosseum. On 15 October, G.E.M held her first mainland concert at the Guangzhou Gymnasium, filling the stadium with more than 10,000 fans. On 22 October, G.E.M performed at Macao's Venetian Cotai Arena. On 26 November, G.E.M released her G.E.M Get Everybody Moving 2011 DVD. On 16 December, G.E.M had her first Canadian performance in Vancouver Canada. Three days later, on 19 December, G.E.M had her second Canadian performance in Toronto. G.E.M began the third leg of her tour in April 2012 in China, performing at Foshan Shi and Panyu. In May 2012, G.E.M had her first US performance in Reno, Nevada USA. Brand New Star edit: Aside from being a singer, songwriter and performer, G.E.M has also had an active role in discovering new artists. In 2010, G.E.M and her music label Hummingbird Music Ltd. launched an online singing competition Brand New Star, which attracted many young and talented artists in Asia who entered the competition. G.E.M was a judge of the competition, and announced that the prize was a chance to work with music producer Lupo Groining. The winners of the 2010 & 2011 competitions were Robynn Yip and Jude Tsang. The Borrower Arrietty (借東西の小矮人亞莉亞蒂) Theme Song edit: Singer-Songwriter G.E.M was asked to re-write a Chinese version of the theme song for the Japanese animated film The Borrower Arrietty. Arrietty (classified under the title The Borrower Arrietty 借東西の小矮人亞莉亞蒂) is a 2010 Japanese animated fantasy film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, written by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film is based on British novelist Mary Norton's novel The Borrowers, which was written in 1955. The Film proved to be a successes in the Box Office, winning Best Animated film in 2010 at the 34th annual Japanese film Awards. Online Presence edit: With the help of Hummingbird Music, G.E.M has successfully gained a large online audience. G.E.M started her own personal YouTube channel 9 in July 2008, and has since gained just under 60 thousand subscribers in the span of four short years. . G.E.M's YouTube channel has received more than 50 million views, averaging with 2 million views per month, which is an 173% increase in the year 2011. G.E.M also has over 2.5 million followers on the website Weibo, and potentially reaches over 26 million people on Facebook. G.E.M's following is not restricted to Hong Kong and China, with a wide range of fans from Taiwan, Macau, USA, Australia, UK and other SE Asia, she has a large fan base across many countries. On average, one million users see her posts on Facebook each week, where as each post reaches 150 thousand users, thus demonstrating the significant amount of users that follow her online. Through the means of social media, Hummingbird Music and G.E.M created a new business model that utilizes the Internet as a tool to promote their music. Combining the elements of creativity and the success of viral videos, Hummingbird Music came up with the idea of MySecret Puzzle. MySecret Puzzle is a competition, consisting six interactive videos which G.E.M posted on her YouTube page. In order to win the competition, the user must solve the clues and meanings hidden behind these viral videos. The five winners of the competition would have the opportunity of having G.E.M guest sing at their own home. The competition received an overwhelming response, and inspired G.E.M to promote even more interactive videos and games on her personal website. With the successes of MySecret Puzzle, G.E.M featured a special surprise inside her album box set MySecret Boxset, which featured a special interactive cardboard code. The code, when paired with the webcam application on her official site, would provide her fans with a unique interactive video of G.E.M performing her single MySecret. The video was exclusive to the Boxset, and therefore could not be viewed on any other social media sites. Charity Work edit: Helping those who are less fortunate than her has been a priority in G.E.M's career. G.E.M has acted as an ambassador in trying to promote the awareness of several important charities, such as Famine 30, The Sun Project, Disneyland, Cervical Cancer Union and Changing Young Lives Foundation. Acting as an ambassador for Changing Young Lives Foundation, G.E.M worked with the foundation to protect children from abuse, neglect and exploitation, ensuring that they are kept safe at all times with a sufficient enough of shelter, food, health care and education. During the press conference in July 2011, G.E.M called for everyone's awareness and care towards the underprivileged children as well as their family. She hoped to spread out the message though her fans to a wider range of society, and promised that she will continue to support the foundation. Personal life edit: During April 2011, just a month before G.E.M's sold out concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum, G.E.M experienced a death within the family. G.E.M's grandmother passed away just weeks before G.E.M's scheduled concert in May, thus not having the chance to watch her granddaughter perform. In loving memory of her grandmother, G.E.M dedicated a section of her concert especially to her, and sang Josh Groban's You Raise Me Up, thanking her grandmother for her endless love and support. The song 不存在的存在, which features on G.E.M's latest album Xposed, was written by G.E.M in loving memory of her. Accent edit: G.E.M's accent can lead her to being mistaken for a foreign singer. Her accent is caused by the shrinkage of her left jawbone, therefore, the upper and lower teeth do not close up completely, leaving a gap in between. When G.E.M speaks, air leaks through the gap. There are surgery operations to correct this problem, but doctors suggested she not undergo the surgery until she turned 21 when her body was fully developed. However, G.E.M has already announced that she has temporarily opted against the surgery because of its high risks, and the problem has not deteriorated in recent years. Filmography edit: Year Title Role Other notes 2009 Love Connected, 保持愛你 Ah Yee (阿儀) Guest Trick or Cheat, 愛出猫 Herself Leading Actress Television Appearances edit: 2008 edit: 24 May：TVB音樂台Live House （11月9日）, 21 July－1 August：TVB Playlet《理想前程有Say有Way》, August：英皇娛樂台E之班街頭爭霸 Music Battle, 2 October, 9 October：TVB Pay Vision Limited《星級廚房》, 14 December：《大龍鳳茶樓》, 2009 edit: 12 January：娛樂直播, 24 January：激優一族, 31 January：型人型樂館, 7 February：勁歌金曲（Part Time Host）, 17 May：美女廚房, 13 September：美女廚房《天堂地獄爭霸戰09》, 20 September, 27 September：超級巨聲 Episode 10, Episode 11, 16 October：勁歌金曲, 7 November：翡翠歌星賀台慶, 2010 edit: 8 January：《勁歌金曲》, 30 April：台視《百萬小學堂》, 30 April：三立都會台《完全娛樂》, 1 May：八大綜合台《娛樂百分百》, 2 May：公視《音樂萬萬歲》Episode 60, 8 May：Channel V《我愛黑澀棒棒堂》Episode 113, 8 May 中視《我猜我猜我猜猜猜》, 8 May：華視《天才衝衝衝》, 10 May：中天綜合台《大學生了沒》, 11 May：三立都會台《型男大主廚》, 12 May：東風衛視《王牌大明星》, 13 May：TVBS《TVBS哈新聞》, 22 May：台視《百萬大歌星》, 2012 edit: 7 April︰亞洲電視《ATV2012感動香港人物推選》Host, 4 May︰《勁歌金曲》, 21 July︰《Music Café》, 10 August：台視《百萬小學堂》, 18 August：華視《天才衝衝衝》

Source: Wikipedia

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