S.H.E

S.H.E is a Taiwanese girl group whose members are Selina Ren, Hebe Tian, and Ella Chen. The name of the group is an alphabetism derived from the first letter of each member's name. Since releasing their first album Girls Dorm (2001), S.H.E has recorded 10 albums with sales totalling over 4.5 million,[4] and set ticketing records in each of their two concert tours. The group has acted in seven drama series, hosted two variety shows, and contributed 10 songs to six drama soundtracks. S.H.E has endorsed more than 30 companies and products, including Coca-Cola and World of Warcraft.[5][6] Thanks largely to S.H.E's success, other Taiwanese record labels began forming their own girl groups.

In 2000, Ren, Tian and Chen signed up for a singing contest, and the winner, Ren, was awarded a record contract. Tian and Chen, who were both finalists, joined Ren to form S.H.E. The trio frequently covers songs by other artists, and performs original compositions. The group produces albums under the HIM International Music label. Avex Asia distributed S.H.E's music in Hong Kong, but transferred this role to WOW Music in 2007.EMI Music China is the distributor in Singapore and the People's Republic of China.

Before releasing S.H.E's first songs, HIM International focused on the group's chemistry, and assigned the three girls to live together in a dormitory room.[10] On September 11, 2001, S.H.E released their first album, Girls Dorm (Chinese: 女生宿舍), in memory of their prior living quarters. Although the CD sold an impressive 150,000 copies for a debut group,[11] the trio gained notoriety for singing off-key during their first live performance.[12][13] Nevertheless, sales of Girls Dorm resulted in a nomination for Best New Artist at the 13th Annual Golden Melody Awards.[14] On January 29, 2002, Youth Society was released and went on to sell more than 250,000 copies.[15] With the release of their second album, "S.H.E Girl Friends" underwent a name change and became simply "S.H.E". The trio's third album, Genesis, was released on August 5, 2002, approximately six months after Youth Society. Continuing the successes of the group's previous albums, 20,000 copies of Genesis were ordered in advance of the release date. The album would go on to sell 180,000 copies.[11] S.H.E later signed an endorsement deal with N-age, a South Korean on-line game company. Not only did N-age appear in a couple of music videos, they also sponsored S.H.E's first major concert in Tainan, the N-age Genesis Concert, which attracted over 20,000 fans.[16] On January 23, 2003, S.H.E released Together, their first compilation album.
The title track from S.H.E's fifth album, Super Star, topped several music charts and won four awards. The song was later covered by Sweetbox.
The title track from S.H.E's fifth album, Super Star, topped several music charts and won four awards. The song was later covered by Sweetbox.

S.H.E's fifth album was intended for release on August 6, but due to an injury to Ella,[17][a] Super Star arrived in stores on August 22, 2003.[18] The album featured the group's first pop/rock song, "Super Star", which, for ten consecutive weeks, placed no lower than fourth on Singapore's YES 93.3 music charts.[19][20] To date, Together and Super Star have combined to sell 580,000 copies;[21] 250,000 copies of Super Star were sold in Taiwan alone.[22] On February 6, 2004, S.H.E released their sixth album, Magical Journey, in two different versions: a Magical Version and a Journey Version. The two versions combined to sell 1.5 million copies in Asia,[23] including 160,000 copies in Taiwan alone.[11] On June 2, S.H.E and HIM International agreed to extend the trio's contract,[24] which would have expired in October 2005.[25] Later that year, on September 4 2004, S.H.E began their first major tour, the Fantasy Land Tour. The tour started in Taipei, where more than 25,000 attendees were present,[26] and ended in Genting Highlands, Malaysia. During their concert at the Shanghai Stadium, the trio set an attendance record.[27] The tour raked in NT$22.4 million in gate receipts.[28] The release of S.H.E's seventh album, Encore, was pushed to November 12 2004 to accommodate Selina's graduation from university in late November. Encore sold 1 million units in Asia within one week of its release;[29] since then, that number has surpassed 2 million.[30] By the time Encore was due for release, media outlets had already begun labelling S.H.E as "The Number One Girl Group" (女子第一天團).[31][b]
Due to S.H.E's concert tour and Selina's (centre) graduation from university, Once Upon A Time was not released until twelve months after Encore.
Due to S.H.E's concert tour and Selina's (centre) graduation from university, Once Upon A Time was not released until twelve months after Encore.

S.H.E had released albums every few months until the end of 2004. But due to their busy concert schedule, it was over a year until their next album appeared. After releasing Encore, they contributed to the Reaching for the Stars soundtrack, which sold only 50,000 copies.[11] That same year, the girl group Twins released their first Mandarin album, Trainee Cupid, in the Taiwanese market. That album would sell 800,000 copies in two months.[32] The poor sales of the soundtrack and the success of the Twins album led to this period being described as one of the lowest times of S.H.E's career.[33] On November 25, 2005, the trio finally released their eighth album, Once Upon A Time. The CD not only set a record with 50,000 pre-orders, but it sold more than 1 million copies, overshadowing Trainee Cupid. Once Upon A Time debuted on the G-music Chinese language album charts at #1, retained that position for four consecutive weeks, and stayed on the charts for a total of 13 weeks.[34] The album's title track, "Don't Wanna Grow Up",[c] won Song of the Year at Hong Kong’s TVB8 Awards.[35]

On July 21, 2006 S.H.E released their ninth album, Forever, which sold 150,000 copies within a week.[36] The album featured five new songs, a compilation of older works, and three songs from older drama soundtracks. Forever included many collaborative works with other artists in the Taiwanese pop music industry. C-pop megastar Jay Chou composed "Electric Shock" for the album. The song "Solo Madrigal" was a duet between Selina and Tank, the latter of whom had originally recorded the song for his debut album. For the Tokyo Juliet soundtrack, Hebe and boyband Fahrenheit sang "Only Have Feelings For You," which won several awards including Taiwan's Best Duet Song at the 2006 Sprite China Music Awards.[37]

S.H.E's second major concert tour, The Perfect 3 World Tour, commenced on July 8 2006 in Shanghai, where they set yet another attendance record by filling more than 60% of the stadium.[38] After their Perfect 3 concert in Hong Kong, which was recorded and released as the group's second live CD, S.H.E was commended for their perseverance, amount of dance preparation, and ability to hit their notes.[39] Within the tour's first five months, the group attracted over 200,000 fans, and collected NT$200 million in gate receipts.[40] On April 18, S.H.E signed on with WOW Music to improve their presence in Hong Kong.[41] Play, the trio's tenth album, was released on May 11, 2007, and was the first S.H.E album released under the new distribution label.[42] Play went double gold within the first four days of the album's pre-order period;[43] by June 5, more than 150,000 copies were sold.[44] A month after Play's release, S.H.E was nominated for the Most Popular Female Artist award at the Golden Melody Awards, but lost to pop diva Jolin Tsai.[45] · close