Teresa Teng

Taiwanese singer

Teng Li-Chun (traditional Chinese: 鄧麗君; simplified Chinese: 邓丽君; pinyin: Dèng Lìjūn;Jyutping: Dang6 Lai6-gwan1; 29 January 1953 – 8 May 1995), commonly known as Teresa Teng, was a Taiwanese singer, actress, musician and philanthropist.

Referred to by some as "Asia's eternal queen of pop," Teng became a cultural icon for her contributions to Mandopop, giving birth to the phrase, "Wherever there are Chinese people, there is the music of Teresa Teng," and is cited by many as one of the most successful Asian artists of all time.

With a career spanning almost 30 years, Teng established herself as a dominant and influential force in Asia throughout most of her career, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, and, to some extent, South Asia.

She is often hailed as Asia's first pop superstar and by some as the pioneer of contemporary Chinese pop music—a major force in the development of the Chinese music industry by incorporating western and eastern styles into her music, replacing the most revolutionary songs then prevalent in mainland China and laying the foundation for modern Chinese popular music.

Besides, Teng was also instrumental in bridging the cultural gap across Chinese-speaking nations and was the first artist to connect Japan to much of East and Southeast Asia by singing Japanese pop songs.

In Taiwan, she was famous for entertaining the armed forces and singing patriotic songs that appealed to the natives of the island.

She was nicknamed "the patriotic entertainer" and "the soldiers' sweetheart." She recorded more than 1,700 songs throughout her career, starting when she was 14 years old, not only in Mandarin, but also in Hokkien, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Japanese, Indonesian, English, and Italian.

To date, her songs have been covered by hundreds of artists all over the world.According to available IFPI statistics, Teng has sold over 48 million albums as of 2010 (excluding the sales data in mainland China).

In 1986, Time named her one of the seven greatest female singers in the world.In 2009, in a poll by a Chinese government web portal, Teng was selected as the "most influential cultural figure in China since 1949" by 8.5 million netizens.

In 2010, on the eve of "March 8th International Women's Day," she was voted "the most influential woman in modern China" by the Chinese media and radio stations in and outside the country.

Teng was inducted into the "Popular Music Hall of Fame" at the Koga Masao Music Museum in Japan in 2007.