Close to You

Biography

Susan Wong was born in Hong Kong and emigrated to Sydney, Australia with her family at the age of seven. Musically inclined from a young age, she learned to play the piano from five and later also learned the violin. At school in Sydney she sang alto in the choir and appeared in the school dramas (Gilbert & Sullivan & the like) and entered a number of piano competitions. She received an associate degree, ATCL, in piano at Trinity College. Her first break in the music world was at the age of six...

Susan Wong was born in Hong Kong and emigrated to Sydney, Australia with her family at the age of seven. Musically inclined from a young age, she learned to play the piano from five and later also learned the violin. At school in Sydney she sang alto in the choir and appeared in the school dramas (Gilbert & Sullivan & the like) and entered a number of piano competitions. She received an associate degree, ATCL, in piano at Trinity College.

Her first break in the music world was at the age of sixteen when her parents (with mixed feelings) entered her for a singing contest in Sydney. It was organized by TVB with the winner to be offered a recording contract with one of the big music companies in Hong Kong. She won the competition and was sent back to Hong Kong and met with the TVB producers who wanted her to sign with one of the music labels. After much deliberation she finally decided that it wasn’t right for her at that time and instead returned to Australia to study at University. She pretty much just settled back into life at Uni and put aside any dreams of a music career.

After graduating from University she returned to Hong Kong in 1997 to help run her family’s accounting business and gained CPA certification. Despite her relatively settled career Susan was thinking, “is that all there is in life”. One of the students who she was teaching piano was working for a Hong Kong independent label, and she asked the boss if they wanted a singer. Susan says “I really wanted to record the English songs that I loved. We agreed to make an album and I just went into the studio feeling really relaxed with no stress or pressure and had a fun time recording my ‘Close To You’ album.” When the album came out it in 2002 it was widely acclaimed and quickly became a favourite of music stores to play and the album was soon climbing up the sales charts in countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. The four album release’s since, ‘Close To You’ have also enjoyed wide critical and commercial success establishing Susan as probably the No.1 selling English language female singer of her genre throughout S.E.Asia.

In early 2007 Susan Wong signed a new recording agreement with Hong Kong based Evolution Limited and pre-production is currently underway for her new album that will be recorded in the USA in May. As Susan explains her motivation behind the new album, “Musically I wanted a new challenge and new musical chemistry to give me a different lift and to move on to another stage. Not everyone has opportunity to work with such high calibre musicians and producers like those I’m working with on the new album”.

Someone Like You (2007)
In early 2007, Susan Wong signed a new recording agreement with Hong Kong based Evolution Limited and released her first album under Evolution in August 2007.

The first release under this agreement, Someone Like You, was recorded in Nashville, USA and was quick to win critical and commercial success throughout S. E. Asia. The success of the SACD version in particular bore testament to the fine production, vocal performance and mastering by Grammy award winning engineer Doug Sax. The album was domestically released in Japan in September 2008.

511 (2008)

In Summer 2008 a newly invigorated Susan, began working on fresh ideas for her follow-up album. In September 2008 Susan travelled to Geneva, Switzerland to work on demos with producer Adrien Z. As Susan explained “He brought my music ideas to life. He was able to transform the songs I want to sing into the styling which I dare tried.” The album recording was completed in February/March 2009.

In her blog Susan said of the album; “I guess I took a "more hands on" approach with this album, more than any of the previous ones, as I felt the need to voice out my persona, be more individualistic and independent for my work.” Susan’s bossa nova inspired version of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean received a lot of attention and radio play and the album sold widely across the region.

Step Into My Dreams (2009)

Inspired by the positive feedback to 511, Susan was anxious to start working on her next album and within months of the release of 511 she was forming ideas for new recordings, choosing to again work with producer Adrien Zerbini and arranger Ignacio Lamas. With songs for the albums mostly coming from the late 1960’s/early 1970’s Susan and her band worked on a relaxed, natural acoustic pop feel lead by Ignacio’s skilled guitar style. With some fine performances and some radically rearranged interpretations of well known classics the new album, Step Into My Dreams soon became Susan Wong’s bestselling title and a fan’s favorite.

‘Best Recording Yet’: My LIVE Stories (2013)

After 5 years, Susan Wong returned to Nashville in June 2012 to record her next masterpiece. This masterpiece called My LIVE Stories was recorded live over two days in the world famous Ocean Way Studios in Nashville, USA which Susan described was her ‘best recording yet’. With an ensemble of top notch session musicians and a first class recording environment inside a 100 year old converted church Susan performed a selection of her favourite songs from her previous albums along with new songs.

Highlights include the bossa nova influenced Billie Jean, the blues tinged Cry Me A River, an up tempo Perfect and a spine tingling performance of Desperado. The studio recording was filmed in full HD and released in DVD and Blu-ray formats in December 2012.

Tribute to Female Vocal: Woman In Love (2014) & SusanWongVEVO

From the time when My LIVE Stories was being recorded, the idea for Woman In Love was already in conception. 2 ½ years in the making, recorded over 8 studios in 3 continents – Woman In Love was released worldwide December 1st, 2014. Woman In Love is Susan’s tribute to great women singers before her who made their fame with sensuous and endearing love songs. The album features romantic love songs old and new from Olivia Newton-John’s I Honestly Love You, Barbra Streisand’s classic Woman in Love to Rihanna’s hit Stay and Adele’s Make You Feel My Love.

For Woman In Love, Susan crafted a rare original song Can’t You See (I’m Falling In Love) to be included in the album.

Susan took her rendition of Mary Macgregor’s Torn Between Two Lovers to the big screen where the music video was released in full HD live on SusanWongVEVO. Susan Wong’s VEVO channel now holds a dear collection of Susan Wong’s best and most popular music.
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