Joey Yung Tso-Yi (, ; born 16 June 1980) is a Hong Kong singer and actress signed to Emperor Entertainment Group. Since her debut in 1996, Yung has received multiple awards at Hong Kong's major annual music ceremonies. She was ranked 63rd on the 2014 Forbes China Celebrity 100.
Yung was born on 16 June 1980 at Yan Chai Hospital in Tsuen Wan. She has a younger brother. She has ancestral roots in Xinhui, Guangdong. She attended Ma On Shan Lutheran Primary School, where she was classmates with actor Wong Cho-lam in the sixth grade.
At the age of 15, Yung competed in the Big Echo Karaoke Singing Contest and was subsequently signed by Go East Entertainment Co., Ltd. As an artist under Go East, she recorded the song "The First Time I Want to Be Drunk", but the release was commercially unsuccessful, and her contract was not renewed.
In 1998, Yung signed with the Hong Kong record label Fitto Entertainment (later acquired by Emperor Entertainment Group). In 1999, she was sent abroad for training and received singing lessons from Teresa Carpio and Roman Tam, whom she accompanied on concert tours to gain experience as a performer. By then, she had graduated from the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education with a diploma in tourism. She also made her first film appearance in The Accident (1999).
On 29 September 1999, she released her debut EP, EP 1 Joey. It sold approximately 130,000 copies in Hong Kong and remained on the IFPI Album Charts for 23 weeks, setting a record for the longest chart-topping stay by a debut artist in Hong Kong.
In February 2000, Yung's apartment in Happy Valley was destroyed in a fire. She had an appearance on Winner Takes All and made her first television drama appearance in The Green Hope. She also released her second EP, titled EP 2 Can't Afford to Miss, and her first studio album, Who Will Love Me. At the same time, she fronted campaigns for several brands, including Four Seas, the Red Cross, and Netvigator, and held her first concert, Joey Yung's 'See You Everywhere' Live Concert, at the Hong Kong Coliseum.
In 2001, Yung released her first compilation album, Love Joey, followed by two Cantonese albums, All Summer Holiday and Solemn on Stage. In November, she held her second live concert and first concert series, H2O+ 'Solemn on Stage' Joey Yung Live in Concert 2001 at the Hong Kong Coliseum. She launched her singing career in Taiwan with the release of her first Mandarin album, Honestly.
In 2002, she traveled abroad for two months to take dance lessons, returning to Hong Kong to release the Cantonese album Something About You. She then became the spokesperson for Nissin and Nikon. On 11 October 2002, she released the Mandarin album One Person's Love Song, and at the end of the year, she released her second compilation album, Love Joey 2.
In 2003, Yung became well known for the song "My Pride" (æÂÂçÂÂé©Âå²) (the theme song of the TV commercial for Banyan Garden developed by Cheung Kong Holdings), released on 25 March 2003 on the album of the same name. That year, she became the spokesperson for a slimming parlour; losing some weight and presenting a new image. She released the album Show Up! on 30 September 2003 and held her third concert, Show Up! Live at the Hong Kong Coliseum. On 17 December 2003, she released the Mandarin album Sola Portrait (ç¨砧). At the end of the year, she appeared in several major Hong Kong music award ceremonies, winning several awards, including the JSG Most Popular Female Singer award and the Gold Song-Gold award (éÂÂæ²éÂÂçÂÂ) at the JSG Best Ten Music Awards Presentation for "My Pride."
In 2004, Yung released the studio album Nin9 2 5ive and her first photo album, The Real Joey, Glamour in London. The photo album sold out after its release. Her second album in 2004, Give Love a Break, was also a commercial success; it broke the platinum mark with pre-orders alone. At the end of the year, Yung released a Cantonese cover of "Chihuahua" (a song previously released in English by DJ BoBo) as part of a Coca-Cola advertising campaign in Hong Kong.
In 2005, Yung released her third compilation album, Love Joey 3, as well as a new Cantonese studio album, Bi-Heart. Her fourth major concert, Reflection of Joey's Live Concert, spanned eight days in October and November. The concert's theme song, "好äºÂå¤Âçº", was mixed and re-arranged in South Korea, resulting in the "好äºÂå¤Âçº Reflection Mix". EEG was sponsored by Sony Ericsson for the theme song's music video.
On 27 February 2006, Yung released her tenth Cantonese studio album, Ten Most Wanted. She worked with Mavis Fan for two songs on the album, "Get Fit with Jane Fonda" and "Torn Tongue", both of which had lyrics by Yiu Fai Chow. On 21 July, she released a Mandarin album, Jump Up â 9492.
At the end of 2006, Yung released the Cantonese album Close Up. A second version of the album was released on 26 January 2007, containing a bonus DVD with music videos for the songs "Splendid Encounter (è¯éºÂéÂÂé )" and "Elated Heart (å¿Âè±æÂÂæ¾)". Around the same time, Yung held a concert organized by Neway with appearances from other artists such as Anthony Wong, at17, Hins Cheung, Yumiko Cheng, Vincent Wong, and Sun Boy'z.
In 2007, she became Hong Kong's ambassador for the World Vision 30 Hour Famine campaign and visited Kenya in March. On 5 July 2007, she released her fifth Mandarin album, Insignificant Me, with the title track produced by Jay Chou. It was one of her worst-selling Mandarin albums. On 7 July 2007, she performed at the Live Earth concert in Shanghai. On 7 November 2007, she released another album, Glow.
In early 2008, Yung released her fourth compilation album, Love Joey 4, and held her fifth concert, titled StarLight Live, over ten days at the Hong Kong Coliseum. In February 2008, Yung travelled to New York City with the hope of improving her dancing skills. That year, she sang several official songs for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and began a world tour shortly afterwards with shows in Malaysia, Canada, the United States, Mainland China, Singapore, and Macau.
The year 2009 marked the tenth anniversary of Yung's career with EEG. To celebrate the occasion, two albums (A Time For Us and Very Busy) and a documentary were released, and a mini-concert (Perfect Ten Live at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre's Grand Theatre, where Yung won her first major singing contest in 1995) was held on 4 October 2009, with tickets for the two shows selling out within seven minutes. The Perfect Ten Live Boxset was released in two versions in December 2009: the standard version included two concert DVDs, the Perfect 10 documentary, and a photo album, while the deluxe version contained two more CDs from Perfect Ten Live and more photos.
On 29 January 2010, the 10th Anniversary EP titled Joey Ten was released together with the Joey Ten Boxset. The EP consisted of 10 different covers (9 for Version 1 and 1 for Version 2) and five songs. The Joey Ten Boxset included a photo album, stickers, a thank you card from Yung, a 'Chofy' bookmark, a comic book, a 'Chofy' USB, a DVD, and the new EP ('Chofy' is a plush that represents Joey, and the name is a combination of her Chinese name and Miffy). Three songs were promoted from the EP, all reaching number one on at least three charts. In March, Yung concluded her StarLight Tour with two final shows in Sydney and Melbourne. On 20 August 2010, she released another EP, EP2010, and in November she began her Number6 concert, which was her sixth major solo concert held at the Hong Kong Coliseum.
In 2011, Yung took a break for the first time since 2002 and travelled around the world. She stated that she would be focusing on the Mandarin-language market after the break, recording a new Mandarin album and carrying out promotions in Taiwan and Mainland China. On 26 April 2011, Yung became the first Chinese female singer to perform at London's Royal Albert Hall and the third Chinese singer overall, after her mentor Roman Tam in 1979 and Eason Chan in 2010. This was her first concert in Europe, and on 23 September 2011, Yung released her 21st studio album, Joey & Joey. From the album, the song "13:00 (13é»Â)" took the number one spot on three of the four major Hong Kong music charts, and the songs "The Tree with a Thousand Flowers (è±åÂÂ樹)" and "Wallpaper (çÂÂç´Â)" were number ones on all four charts. Joey & Joey became the highest-selling local album of the year. Yung also starred in the film Diva, produced by Chapman To.
During the first half of 2012, she continued to tour with her Number 6 concert in Macau, Reno, Atlantic City, and Toronto. In July, she released her seventh Mandarin album Moment, from which she promoted the songs "Right Time (æ£好)", "Looking at Flowers Through the Fog (é§è£ÂçÂÂè±)", and "Increase Power (å 大åÂÂ度)". That year, she sang the theme song "Drama Series (é£çºÂÃ¥ÂÂ)" for the TVB show The Hippocratic Crush and received a total of fourteen awards at the four major awards ceremonies.
In May 2013, Yung released her first single of the year, "View in a New Light (å¦ç¼ç¸çÂÂ)". On 29 June 2013, she performed the last date of her Number6 world tour in Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore. On 15 August 2013, she released the album Little Day, which went 4àPlatinum. She followed the album up with two compilation albums, the Hopelessly Romantic Collection (released 3 December) and the All Delicious Collection (released 20 December 2016).
Between December 2013 and October 2015, Yung performed in the Ageas Joey Yung in Concert 1314 tour, beginning at the Hong Kong Coliseum and holding dates in China, Malaysia, and the United States. In 2014, Yung suffered another period where she lost her voice and had to take care of a family illness. In 2015, Yung performed in concert with Hacken Lee, and she released the EP Me, re-do in April. In 2016, Yung appeared alongside Hacken Lee on the Chinese television series I Am a Singer as the second substitute singer of the season and was eliminated before the second round of the finale.
After six years in planning, Yung performed My Secret Live in the Concert Hall of Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. It was a concert where all the songs were non-promotional side tracks from each of her albums. The venue itself was also lesser known and smaller, as the total full attendance in the 17 shows combined was less than half the capacity of the Hong Kong Coliseum. On 31 October 2017, as Yung shifted her focus to commercial sponsorships and various ambassadorial work with Twins, she decided that she would not attend any music awards for the first time in her career in 2017/18 awards season. This was also due to her having no album releases or new works as a singer or an actress in 2017, meaning she would give up defending all her titles during the awards season.
On 24 August, Yung held the nineteenth "Pretty Crazy Joey Yung Concert Tour" at the Hong Kong Coliseum. Yung invited many famous singers to the concert as guests, including Andy Lau, Leon Lai Ming, Jacky Cheung, JJ Lin, Nicholas Tse, Ekin Cheng, Jeff Chang, Louis Koo, Kenny Kwan, The Grasshopper, Julian Cheung, Leo Ku, Hacken Lee, etc.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Yung has spent most of her time since mid-2020 in China. Yung released a Cantonese single in November 2020 entitled "Live in the Moment (æ±京人壽)". This also marked the first time Yung participated in the composition of a song she had co-written with Howie from Dear Jane. A special music video for the song was released in December with clips from the Pretty Crazy Tour. In February 2021, "Gone with the Flare (ç Âè±ç´Â)" was released. The song title was inspired by the lyrics of her 2009 hit song "In Search of Deities (æÂÂç¥Âè¨Â)" from the album A Time for Us.
Yung embarked on the Pretty Crazy Tour in early 2020 before cutting it short in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021, Yung joined the second season of the Chinese reality series Sisters Who Make Waves (season 2) which sees 30 women, all established artists in their own right, compete in various singing and dancing challenges weekly. Cecilia Cheung was also part of the lineup. Yung ranked second during the initial evaluation stage of Episode 1 and subsequently led her team to victory for the third public performance. The fifth and final public performance took place in April 2021 and Yung emerged 4th overall in the final results, thus successfully debuting in a team.
Yung released a Chinese single, "So Fresh (featuring Dany Lee)," in August 2021. She joined The Masked Dancer (season 2) as a judge and participant. On 29 September 2021, she released a Cantonese single, "After All These (ä¸Âé Â)". She also directed the accompanying music video. During a live session, Yung also revealed that she would be releasing her first Cantonese studio album in 5 years by the end of 2021.
On 1 January 2022, Yung joined the "Sailing in the Greater Bay Area, 2022 New Year Concert". On 1 February, she performed the song "Ya Ya Ya" at the "2022 Guangdong TV Spring Festival Gala: Leaping Forward in the Greater Bay Area". The following day, she participated in "Blossoming Spring, 2022 Chinese Literary and Art Circles Spring Festival Gala". On 31 May, the theme song "Forward," celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China and featuring Yung as one of the lead performers, was released on a dedicated website for the anniversary celebrations. At 8 p.m. on 3 June, she took part in the CCTV-1 cultural program "Ancient Rhymes, New Voices" for the Dragon Boat Festival, performing the song "Pride of the Fisherman: May Pomegranate Blooms Enchanting". In June, the music video for the CMG theme song "We Will Be Better"âÂÂcelebrating the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return and performed by Yung with othersâÂÂwas released. On 27 June, she performed "The More I Sing, the Stronger I Become" at a cloud concert for the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return and participated in the "Our Bauhinia" cloud concert livestream event. On the evening of 30 July, she attended the 36th Hundred Flowers Awards ceremony.
In June 2012, Wilfred Lau publicly announced their relationship, which Yung subsequently confirmed. They broke up in 2018. She has openly expressed a pro-establishment stance during the 2019-2020 Hong Kong Protests and was featured prominently in a video campaign by the People's Daily to "oppose violence" and "rebuild Hong Kong." In March 2021, Yung posted on Weibo, expressing her support for cotton made in Xinjiang, after companies suspended purchasing of cotton from there due to human rights concerns.
Yung has received awards at Hong Kong's four major annual music ceremonies since 1999.
Selected awards:
Award records: