Tanya Chua: Four-Time Golden Melody Queen—How a Singaporean Made Taiwan Her Home

30-Second Overview: Tanya Chua is Singaporean, born in Singapore in 1975. She entered the Mandopop scene in 1999 with her first Mandarin album, Breathing, and has been active for 26 years. She is a four-time winner of the Golden Melody Award for Best Mandarin/Mandopop Female Singer (2006/2008/2012/2022) and is the only female singer to win four awards in a single night—at the 33rd Golden Melody Awards in 2022, her album DEPART swept Album of the Year, Best Mandarin Album, Best Recording Package, and Best Mandarin Female Singer. She is not only a singer but also a producer, winning both Best Mandarin Female Singer and Best Album Producer in 2008. She has written songs and produced albums for Faye Wong, Stefanie Sun, A-Mei, Fish Leong, Na Ying, and Rainie Yang. In 2024, she crossed into a new field as the music designer for the drama We Are Not Good Enough. Though she has never held a Taiwanese passport, this island is effectively her home ground.

On the evening of July 2, 2022, at the Kaohsiung Arena. As the 33rd Golden Melody Awards neared its conclusion, the envelope for Album of the Year was opened, and the host announced: "《DEPART》—Tanya Chua."

That was her fourth award of the night. The previous three were Best Mandarin Female Singer, Best Mandarin Album, and Best Recording Package. One album, four awards in one night. In the 3erm history of the Golden Melody Awards, no one had ever achieved this.

She walked onto the stage, her eyes moist, but her first words were: "I don't want to cry, because my hair and makeup took a long time."¹

Laughter followed. Then she said: "I didn't think I would have the chance to win this; I had fantasized about it, but I didn't think it was possible."¹

Next came the acceptance speech that would be quoted repeatedly: "All musicians are storytellers. Everything that happens to us, all the details, the air we breathe, every story we see—it is all written down by us, the musicians. When aliens come in the future and hear our music, they will know what happened."¹

She was 47 years old that year. It had been 16 years since her first Golden Melody Award. It had been 26 years since she first stood on a bar stage and was told to shut up by a keyboardist.

1996 Singapore: A Keyboardist Told Her to Shut Up

Rewind to Singapore in 1996. A young woman, a recent graduate of Singapore Polytechnic majoring in Business Administration, was performing in bars. While the band was rehearsing a cover, she offered a suggestion: "This song could be rearranged to be more interesting."

The keyboardist told her to shut up. "He thought I knew nothing about music."²

She was 2_1 years old then and had been singing in bars for several years. "I never thought about ending this life of performing covers; I was young then, and my thoughts were simple. I loved singing, and I thought singing in bars was a fun way to earn pocket money."³

But that "shut up" prompted her to think: if she truly knew nothing about music, she had to learn. In 1998, she received a scholarship to study electric guitar at the Musicians Institute (MI) in Hollywood, California.

Upon returning to Singapore, she wrote her first English album, Bored (released in 1997 via Yellow Music in Singapore). Then came 1999: the year that changed everything. She signed with PolyGram (later merged into Universal Music) to prepare for her first Mandarin album.

That album was titled Breathing. Released in December 1999, it targeted the Taiwan market primarily. In 2000, she was nominated for Best New Artist at the 11th Golden Melody Awards based on this album⁴.

📝 Curator's Note: The Mandopop scene in 1999 belonged to the era of Stefanie Sun, Elva Hsiao, Na Ying, Faye Wong, and Sandy Lam. Tanya Chua was not yet a protagonist. Her first Mandarin album was not an immediate massive hit, and she rarely mentioned it in later interviews. However, this album defined her position for the next 25 years—a singer-songwriter from Singapore carving out a new niche in the mainstream Mandopop industry.

2006: India, then Taipei

In 2005, she won her first Golden Melody Award: Best Mandarin Female Singer for Amphibians⁵. For any singer, a first Golden Melody Award is a career peak. But for Tanya Chua, that year was actually one of confusion.

Her contract was still tied to Warner Music and Music & Movement (a Singaporean agency). Commercial pressure was mounting; the label wanted her to follow a mainstream love-song trajectory, filming more MVs and taking on more endorsements. She began to doubt if this path was truly hers.

At the end of 2005, she traveled to India to study yoga and engage in self-exploration. Then, she made a decision: "If I am to continue moving forward on my musical path, I must rediscover my original intention for music and become a true singer-songwriter."⁶

In October 2006, she ended her contracts with Warner and Music & Movement. She moved to Taipei alone and established "Tianya Music Studio." She signed the distribution rights for her Mandarin records to Asplin Music: a much smaller company, but one that offered her creative freedom.

This was the true turning point of her career. It wasn't her 1999 debut or her 2005 first Golden Melody Award; it was the 2006 decision to "end the major label contract, move to Taipei, and establish a studio."

From that year onward, her Golden Melody Awards were won as a singer-songwriter, not just a singer. From that year, she found a substantive "home" in Taiwan—not legally, but creatively.

📝 Curator's Note: That 2006 decision included an option outsiders might not have seen: she could have returned to Singapore. Although the Singaporean Mandopop scene is small, it serves as an export hub for Mandopop, and she already held the title of Golden Melody Queen; returning as a veteran would have been easy. Instead, she chose Taipei—a city where she had no passport, no family, and no childhood memories. Why? She has never answered this question directly. However, every decision made in the following 18 years (collaborators, residence, permanent residency, tour home bases) has been an extension of that choice.

2007: Writing "Blank Space" in Five Minutes

In October 2007, one year after moving to Taipei, she released her first album under Asplin Music, Goodbye & Hello. The album contained a song called "Blank Space" (空白格).

She later mentioned in an interview that the song was written in just five minutes one night. At the time, she was writing in her room while crying, the lyrics revolving around a failed online romance. During recording, she had to pause multiple times due to being too emotional.

"Is it because we never grow up that we mistake wandering for being carefree?"—the opening line of the song. Later, Sam Lee (Sam Lee/Sha Sam) covered this song, and many people did not even know the original singer was Tanya Chua. But this misunderstanding, to some extent, proved the song's power: it had transcended the original performer to become a "love letter to oneself" version of the track.

The Goodbye & Hello album also featured notable works like "Darwin I" and "When You Leave." At the 19th Golden Melody Awards in 2008, Tanya Chua won two awards simultaneously: Best Mandarin Female Singer + Best Album Producer⁷.

This is a rare feat of dual mastery in Mandopop. In this industry, singers are often just singers and producers are just producers; dual masters are rare. Since the early 2000s, Tanya Chua has written for other artists and produced albums: Faye Wong's "Wronged" (2001), Stefanie Sun's "Sixth Sense" (2003), A-Mei's "Don't Disturb His Heart" (2002), Fish Leong's "Premonition of Happiness" (2002) and "Turn Left, Turn Right" (2003)⁸. Later, artists like Na Ying, Rainie Yang, Renee Lou, Eason Chan, Jam Hsiao, Bii, and Penny Tse also collaborated with her.

📝 Curator's Note: Tanya Chua's identity as a producer goes deeper into the industry than her identity as a singer. A singer who only performs their own songs has influence limited to their own audience; but a producer who writes for mainstream A-listers influences an entire generation of Mandopop. When you hear Fish Leong's "Premonition of Happiness," Stefanie Sun's "Sixth Sense," or Faye Wong's "Wronged"—Tanya Chua's fingerprints are behind them. This is another layer of her record beyond being a "four-time Golden Melody Queen."

2018: The Night "Suicide Note" Was Written

From 2007 to 2017, Tanya Chua released five Mandarin albums under Asplin Music: Goodbye & Hello, If You Meet Him (2009), Talking About Love (2011), Dialogue Between Angel and Demon (2013), and The Aphasic (2015). Among them, Talking About Love led to her third Golden Melody win at the 23rd Golden Melody Awards in 2012⁹.

In 2017, she returned to Universal Music. In December 2018, she released the album I Want to Give the World the Longest French Kiss. This album was the result of three years of introspection, and it contained a song called "Suicide Note" (遺書).

In an interview, she said the starting point for this song was the passing of a friend. Her struggle with depression from years prior resurfaced. One night, she began writing the lyrics and melody, feeling deeply unsettled.

"On the night I wrote 'Suicide Note,' I was originally very restless, but as I kept writing, my heart became calm. Seeing every word I had written, I realized that all of it has passed—I have loved, lived, given, strived, struggled, and overcome; I have written all the songs I needed to write with all my heart. So what is there left to regret?"¹⁰

"I never thought I would one day write a song called 'Suicide Note.' But life is reality; in recent years, I feel like these two words that I 'dare not mention' have constantly appeared in my life."¹⁰

The music video for "Suicide Note" was directed by Yu Ching-ping, using a single-take technique. "Filming in a single take is actually quite difficult; all the angles and emotions rely on chemistry. I have worked with Xiao Yu many times; she was my only choice for director."¹⁰

She later said in an interview: "Is the uncertainty of the future that scary? What should come will come, what should go will go—who can control it?"¹⁰

"I hope this song allows you to look back on your life and find the preciousness of existence."¹⁰

"Suicide Note" was nominated for Best Composer at the 30th Golden Melody Awards but did not win. However, this song allowed many to re-understand Tanya Chua: how a singer-songwriter faces the issue of death in her 40s is entirely different from how she wrote love songs in her 20s.

📝 Curator's Note: In Tanya Chua's 25-year creative trajectory—from the youthful confusion of Breathing to the heartbreak anxiety of "Blank Space" to the confrontation with death in "Suicide Note"—she has never remained stuck in any single emotional slice. Her work changes with every decade. This is the difference between a pop singer and a singer-songwriter: a pop singer lives within hits, while a singer-ictory lives within their own life.

2021 _DEPART_: An Album Written Through Scent

In August 2021, Tanya Chua released the album DEPART. A work following three years of incubation, it contains 14 songs. In later interviews, she described this album in a very unique way: through scent.

"This album is to prove myself and to record the things that have happened over these few years."¹

The album structure is tripartite:

• Herbal/Earth Segment: "Bluebirds," "Into The Wild," etc.; the scent is grass after rain in a meadow.
• Daily Life Segment: "Departure," "Let Romance Lead," etc.; the scent is freshly baked bread and newly cooked rice.
• Woody Finale Segment: "Om Tara"; the scent is sandalwood and cedar.

Structuring an entire album through scent is extremely rare in Mandopop. Most Mandopop albums use "themes" or "storylines," but Tanya Chua uses "scents"—this is more akin to conceptual art than commercial pop.

But she was talking about more than just scents. "I want to write songs for the Earth, and for humanity."¹ "Bluebirds" writes of the vast plains; "Departure" writes of leaving one's comfort zone; "Om Tara" is an English version of a Tibetan Buddhist Tara mantra: an album that appears abstract is, at its core, built on the dual axes of environmentalism and spirituality.

At the 33rd Golden Melody Awards in 2022, this album swept four awards: Album of the Year, Best Mandarin Album, Best Recording Package, and Best Mandarin Female Singer¹¹. That night, she said: "Album of the Year is what I wanted to win most, perhaps because of its significance."¹

Four-time winner. Record holder.

2023 Taipei Music Hall: 55 Million TWD All-Live

On May 6 and 7, 2023, Tanya Chua held her Let's Depart! The Longest Kiss to the World concert tour at the Taipei Music Hall. Both shows sold out all 22,000 tickets, with box office revenue reaching approximately 55 million TWD. The total production cost was 50 million TWD, including 3 million TWD spent on creating the "Cosmic Bluebird" stage set¹².

The most special part: The entire performance used no backing tracks (programs)—it was purely Live. This is extremely rare in contemporary Mandopop concerts. Most singers use a program to bolster the sound (background music or backing vocals played via computer, with the singer only performing the lead melody), but Tanya Chua chose full Live: meaning the band and backing vocalists had to truly play and sing throughout the entire show.

This choice continues her "singer-songwriter" philosophy. If the songs are written by herself and produced by herself, then the performance should also be real.

The Let's Depart tour later expanded to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Chongqing, and more. On September 14, 2024, an additional show was added at the Kaohsiung Arena. A Singaporean, touring the Mandopop-speaking world as her home ground.

📝 Curator's Note: The decision for "Full Live without Programs" is rooted in economics—it is more expensive, harder, and more exhausting. But for Tanya Chua, this is the dividing line between a singer-songwriter and a commercial singer. She could have chosen the version that saves money, effort, and time, but she didn't. This choice is a microcosm of her 26-year career: choosing the difficult path, consistent with the songs she writes.

2024 Crossover: _We Are Not Good Enough_

On April 12, 2024, Tanya Chua released We Are Not Good Enough: Drama Music Design Album. This is the soundtrack for the PTS/myVideo drama We Are Not Good Enough: but her role was not just "OST performer," she was the music designer for the entire drama. It includes 6 original songs + 8 pieces of dramatic score.

The origin story is fascinating: Director Hsu Yu-ting was "unintentionally moved" by Tanya Chua's DEPART album during the scriptwriting stage and proactively suggested to the producer that they invite her to do the score; at the same time, Tanya Chua had expressed to her manager a desire to work on drama music. Both parties independently thought of each other¹³.

The theme song "Our Kindness" (善良的我們) features lyrics by Ke Da-wei and music by Tanya Chua. This is another collaboration in their decade-long partnership: Ke Da-wei is one of Taiwan's most renowned lyricists, having worked with Tanya Chua on tracks spanning from "Beautiful Love" and "Blank Space" to Fish Leong's many songs, through to 2024's "Our Kindness."

Crossover drama music is another dimension of testing for a singer-songwriter. Writing a single serves one song; writing a drama score serves an entire narrative. Tanya Chua succeeded—this album was later nominated for Best Crossover Album at the 36th Golden Melody Awards (though it did not win), but the crossover itself is an extension of her 25-year career.

At the 2024 Golden Melody Awards (the 35th), she did not win. In 2025, she wrote "Chain Reaction" for Tseng Pei-tzu. Regarding progress on a new album, she said in an interview: "None at all."

But "no new album at all" means something different to a singer-songwriter of 25 years. She no longer needs to prove anything through a new album.

From Bars to Aliens

Returning to the 2022 Golden Melody Awards scene from the beginning. That line, "When aliens come in the future and hear our music, they will know what happened"—is actually a profound proposition.

It suggests: Music is not just entertainment; it is a record of civilization. And musicians are not just performers; they are the chroniclers of this era.

For Tanya Chua, these 2_6 years have recorded: the disbelief in a bar in 1996; the exploration of a Singaporean entering the Mandopop scene in 1999; the gamble of leaving a major label to move to Taipei alone in 2006; writing a song in five minutes in 2007 that later became a classic; the proof of dual mastery as both singer and producer in 2008; the mid-life awakening facing a friend's death in 2018; the creative ambition of an environmental album using scent in 2021; the record-breaking night of four Golden Melody Awards in 2022; the professional persistence of a full-live, no-program concert at the Taipei Music Hall in 2023; and the next dimension of crossover drama music in 2024.

These events strung together are not the resume of a pop singer, but the life notes of a singer-songwriter. Every decade her work changes, but she uses the same method—her own melodies, her own lyrics, her own production, her own choices.

She has never held a Taiwanese passport. But her Golden Melody Awards, her studio, her collaborators, her concert home grounds, and her most beloved songs—they all grew on this island.

"A musician's local identity is not in their passport, but in where the songs they write grow"—Tanya Chua never said these words herself, but her 26-year career is the proof of this thesis.

And that Album of the Year in 2022 was the official certification of this thesis.

Further Reading

• Stefanie Sun — A fellow Singaporean Mandopop singer of the same era; part of the dual-star landscape of the 2000s.
• A-Mei — Tanya Chua once wrote "Don't Disturb His Heart" and "Relief" for her.
• Yoga Lin — A mainstream Mandoput male singer of the same era; a comparison in the singer-songwriter lineage.
• Rainie Yang — Tanya Chua wrote "Loneliness is a Kind of Security" for her.
• Hello Nico — A band occupying the bridge between indie and mainstream during the same period.
• Chen Chien-chi — A Taiwanese producer axis; a contemporary singer-songwriter producer to Tanya Chua.

References