Biography
-
Born
2 March 1974 (age 50)
-
Born In
Taipei, Taiwan
楊乃文(Naiwen Yang) (Simplified: 杨乃文 Pinyin: Yáng Nǎi Wén English: Faith)
After graduating from Sydney University, Faith returned to Taiwan to start a music career. She soon gained a cult following in the university and pub circuit in Taiwan while touring with her backing band - Monster. In 1996 she signed with Magicstone records. Her first two albums are heavily influenced by the Australian pub rock style, with a gothic undertone noticeable in tracks such as "Silence", "Fear" and "Monster", while her third album has a lighter pop style, with only hints of the anger evident in the first two recordings. All three albums were huge hits in Taiwan and in 2000 Faith won the Taiwan Golden Music awards for Best Female Performer and Best Album.
Faith did not renew her contract with Magicstone, claiming the label had become too commercial for her style of music. In 2004 it was reported that she had signed with Sony label Silver Fish Records.
In late 2007, Faith released Continuation (女爵), which included increased production value ("Be In Love"), mature songwriting ("分開"), and help from Eason Chen (陳奕迅) on the upbeat pop-rock track, "Television" (電視機).
After the May 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, Faith participated in CCTV's benefit concert, singing "但愿人長久", which was popularized by Chinese singing icon, Teresa Teng (鄧麗君). The performance was notable for not only including verses by Faith, Eason Chen and male pop singer, Ah-Niu, but also a rare live performance from Faye Wong (王菲).
In 2009, Faith released an all-covers album, Self Selected, which included her takes on English-language songs such as Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees", The Verve's "Drugs Don't Work", Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", T.Rex's "20th Century Boy", Blur's "Song 2", Coldplay's "Scientist" and another duet with Eason Chen, a cover of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day." One original track was written for the album, an ambient tune titled "Miss Underwater."
Faith also works as a fashion and cosmetics model for companies such as Rado and Neutrogena, as well as continuing to tour on the Taiwan pub circuit. She has also considered a number of acting roles. In 2000 Faith played a lead part in the web movie "175 Degrees of Color Blindness (175度色盲)", a 20 part flash movie made especially for release on the internet.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
