Tibetan pop diva Alan Dawa Dolma 阿兰·达瓦卓玛 attended Hunan TV’s X-Factor auditions accompanied by a five-person entourage.
This time, the professional singer was immediately recognised by judge Zhang Ziyi. “You’re the one who sang the theme song for the Red Cliff movie, right?” she asked as the audience oohed in recognition.
The former Avex star acknowledged her professional credentials but confessed her dislike for being known only as a soundtrack singer. “I don’t like that everyone qualifies my identity with something in front of my name,” she lamented. “‘Oh, she’s that Red Cliff singer, Alan.’ ‘Oh, she’s that InuYasha singer, Alan.’ ‘Oh, she’s that Bu Bu Jing Xi singer, Alan.’ I don’t like it.”
She continued: “I came here because the past is the past. I want to start anew. I hope everyone will support me.”
Alan belted out her own song, Hū Huàn 呼喚, while judge Eason Chan looked on, unimpressed, as Alan hit her signature high notes to the audience’s applause.
Eason cares little for Alan’s Tibetan-style vocals
“You have an infectious aura. It’s as if the stage was made for you. The music, nothing else matters,” Zhang Ziyi critiqued before giving Alan a YES.
“The stage is too small for you,” chimed Taiwanese judge, Lo Ta-yu. “I give you a very big YES.”
Eason reacted negatively after comparing Alan’s performance to riding a horse. “You didn’t perform well enough today. I say no.”
“Really?” the bemused Alan responded.
“I’ll wait for an opportunity to give you a yes,” Eason replied, “but it’s a NO for today.”
“I agree with Eason. Your performance wasn’t good enough,” said Zheng Jun. “It wasn’t your best.” But the judge manged to eke out a YES, sending Alan through to the next round with three yeses to Eason’s one no.
Alan’s advancement pits her professional reputation against that of Malaysian singer Jess Lee Jiawei 李佳薇. With two professional careers at stake so far, what do you think of Alan’s performance? Does she have the X-Factor over Jess Lee?
Why is she going on x factor? Why is she doing this what’s the point? Is this a some sort of publicity stunt?
she seriously has the looks and voice to make it big. She just needs the stage and management firm to complete the formula. Maybe EE-media might be able to do the job.
I wonder if she’s not going back to japan to pursue her career there.
I actually really like Alan’s Chinese album. It’s really good.
I agree that she probably could’ve sang better for her audition.
I understand why she want to shed her Japanese influence/career background. I also understand why she want to be known for her sound/music instead of by her song. For example, when you say Jane Zhang you think of her voice and her image as a singer instead of any particular song, but for alan it’ll always be “the girl who sang [this] ost”. But I really do not like all these professional singers going on this show, especially successful singers who are just kind of hitting a slight bump in their career. There are so may other singing competitions where professional singers can compete against each other.
Shin Band’s new lead singer also passed to the next round…
If X-Factor is true to the recent trend in reality singing contests, the established artists might have been invited to enter by the producers. I don’t necessarily take issue with that per se, but surely their managers and agents must realise that they’re essentially being set up to lose. I’m not sure why they would agree to it in that case. Or maybe they’re hoping for an ‘I Am A Singer’-style career boost. In which case, they probably should have waited for next season’s I Am A Singer, since the X-Factor isn’t rating as well as Hunan TV would probably like…
I think Alan should never use the lyricist for that song again … the random English ruins the entire song. Does she no longer have the rights to sing her Japanese songs? Because I feel like those are much better. Also, I don’t really understand her reasoning. I feel like a lot of singers would much rather have memorable works than be just a famous name.
The Engrish lyrics are taken from the original Japanese version of the song, “Echoes,” so I guess that wouldn’t really help. I kind of suspect that she’s deliberately hiding her Japanese career so as to not ruffle any anti-Japanese sentiment, too, because of how ambiguously she mentioned her international career. “Oh, I went overseas and released a lot of music there… and now I’m back!”
I sort of get where she’s coming from, though. I mean, what’s the first thing you think of when you hear “My Heart Will Go On”? A lot of people would say ‘Titanic’ instead of Celine Dion. So maybe she doesn’t want the movies/TV series to overshadow her music. Or perhaps she doesn’t want to be typecast as a singer, if that’s a thing?
Maybe your intentions are correct i’m not sure but your writing here does not make sense.
‘I kind of suspect that she’s deliberately hiding her Japanese career so as to not ruffle any anti-Japanese sentiment’
How can you not understand why she’s hiding it and how can it ruffle anti sentiments if she did not hide it?
‘because of how ambiguously she mentioned her international career. “Oh, I went overseas and released a lot of music there… and now I’m back!’
How is this ambiguous, having more than one meaning?
No ppl disagree with me?
I expected in reply something like just saying overseas instead of saying the name of a country coul’d be regarded as ambiguous.
Ah, yes, that’s what I was getting at. She didn’t mention Japan by name when she had at least two opportunities to do so, so I feel that she was being deliberately vague about it.
But with all reality shows like this, there is a lot of involvement on the producers’ part. So, again, it’s hard to tell if that was by Alan’s decision to avoid mentioning Japan, or the producers’, or if it was just a coincidence and she meant nothing by it.
Deliberately yes, vague no, use of the word overseas is too common to call it that and lol “coincidence”, it’s pretty obvious they all agree that that’s the best.