孫楠

Despite being active in the Beijing pop scene since the early 90s, Mandopop singer Sun Nan’s career took off in 2002 with the release of his eighth album Heaven’s Destiny. Born on February 18, 1969, Nan grew up in a house full of artists - his father was a singing teacher and the rest of his family were seasoned dancers. A precocious talent, he picked up the piano and guitar at a very early age and formed his first band shortly after. Inspired by Hong Kong and Taiwan’s booming pop music scene, Sun Nan decided to pursue a career in music and released a string of classic Mandopop albums throughout the 90s, including Curved Moon (1990), We're All Sad People (1993), Life After Life (1995), Understanding (1997), Go There And Be Healed (1998). In 1999, he rose to fame thanks to a feature on the soundtrack of Feng Xiaogang’s Invisible or Not with the song “Be There or Be Square.” The song’s success propelled Nan’s popularity to new heights, as he continued to deliver a string of critically-acclaimed albums such as 2001’s Marvellous Nan and 2002’s Heaven’s Destiny, which cemented his status as one of China’s biggest pop stars. After signing with Warner Music in the early aughts, Nan returned with the albums Burning Fire (2004), Can’t Forget You (2005) and Happiness (2009). Following the release of the full-length First Nan Protagonist 2011, he became a judge on Dragon Television's Asian Wave in 2012 and unveiled his thirteenth long-player, Journey, that same year. Subsequently, Sun Nan made a series of appearances in several reality shows such as I Am a Singer, Mongolian Song King, and China Star.