Prudence Liew's bio

Prudence Liew Mei-Gwan is a multi-platinum selling cantopop singer and Golden Horse Award winning actress, having released 13 studio albums and appearing in numerous films.

Career start

Liew was born in Hong Kong. From the age of 8, she began appearing in television commercials. In 1986, while working as a film producer, Liew was approached to sing the theme song for a movie. The song, Midnight Love was on heavy rotation at major Hong Kong radio stations and she was quickly signed as the flagship artist to Current Records. In December 1986, she released her self-titled début album to rave reviews and high sales. The album eventually sold over 500,000 copies and was certified 10x platinum by the Hong Kong IFPI. The lead single from the album, The Last Night is a cover of the Bad Boys Blue song You're a Woman, and is considered Liew's signature song.

In addition to music, Liew has also appeared in films and television dramas as an actress. In 1988, she was nominated for a Hong Kong Film Awards Best Supporting Actress award in the movie Law or Justice.

Between the period of 1986 and 1995, Liew has released 11 studio albums under Current Records, which was bought out by BMG Music in 1989 and later Columbia Records from 1992 to 1995.

Retreat

In 1995, Liew decided to leave the Hong Kong music industry after the divorce from her director husband, Tai-Loi Wong (with whom she had 1 son and 1 daughter) and due to having problems with her vocal chords. She then relocated to San Francisco, USA with her children to find peace. During her time in the US, Liew found a love for yoga, which she practices regularly. She also met her second husband, whose name she will only disclose to the media as "Mr. Yan" for privacy reasons, while in San Francisco. Together they have a daughter. In an interview in September, 2008, Liew announced that she has separated from Mr. Yan.

Love Yourself

In 2000, with help from her longtime friend and fellow singer, Sandy Lam, Liew landed a record deal with Taiwan-based record company, Rock Records and released her first mandopop studio album entitled Love Yourself. However, she returned to the US quickly after the first single, Everytime, I Take it Very Seriously was released, thus no other singles, nor follow-up albums were released afterwards in Taiwan. In the same year, Liew also appeared in the ATV series The Love You Want, co-starring Amy Chan and Tanny Tien.

Return to Hong Kong

On 19 April & 20, Liew held a 2-night performance called Opening the Sexual Boundaries Concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum. Also, a compilation greatest hits album was released to accompany the concert. And after a 20-year hiatus from motion pictures, she took the lead part to the movie, True Women For Sale, directed by Herman Yau.[5] The film was the opener for the 2008 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival and her role as a drug-addicted prostitute won Liew the award for Best Leading Actress at the 2008 Golden Horse Awards, as well as a Best Actress nomination at the 28th Hong Kong Film Awards.

In 2009, Liew was announced as the host for season 1 of the TVB program, The Voice. The Voice is a 26-part singing coompetition that eliminates one or several contestants each episode in the same fashion as American Idol but scores are based solely on professional judges with no viewer voting involved. On October 22, 2009, Liew released her first Cantonese studio album in 15 years, titled The Queen of Hardships.

On December 30, 2009, it was announced that TVB is relieving Liew of her hosting duties from The Voice, three episodes shy of the season finale due to the controversy between TVB and the HKRIA over song royalties. Liew, who is currently signed to Cinepoly Records under the Universal Music label governed by the HKRIA, is part of the group of Hong Kong singers all signed to HKRIA record labels that are currently banned from appearing on all TVB programming until the issue is resolved. close