On Monday, Jane Zhang and Universal Music held a press conference for their joining on the anniversary of Faye Wong’s debut. In attendance were our beautiful Jane, Eason Chan, legendary lyricist Lin Xi and Universal Music Asia VP Sam Hole.

It’s uncertain how Universal will affect Jane’s career. As of now, she has yet received any epic theme songs like she once did under Huayi. Meanwhile, her performance outfits lost their class. Hopefully, those will be temporary and Jane can find what she wants under Universal – ie. more capable composers who don’t simply write for movies but also for her album. A change that Universal is certainly pushing for is the increase of the amount of fast and powerful songs over ballads that Jane will sing. I’m not yet sure how that’ll work with Jane. She has proven to excel at both, but I think it is far easier for her to find good ballads than fast and powerful songs in Asia, which means Universal’s connections will be useful. On the movie theme side, though, it’s unlikely Jane will get as many good ones she once did under Huayi, which is known for major films and series.

Either way, getting a personal message from Mariah Carey was probably worth everything for Jane.

Jane’s new song, unaffiliated with Universal Music: