1. Jay Chou Chieh-lun is a Taiwanese singer-songwriter, actor, director, and businessman.
91 Facts About Jay Chou
1. 2.
One of the best-selling artists of all time in Greater China, Jay Chou has sold over 30 million albums throughout his career.
3.
Jay Chou is the most-awarded singer at the Golden Melody Awards, with 15 accolades, and his music videos are among the most-viewed on YouTube, with six surpassing 100 million views, the most for any Chinese artist.
4.
Jay Chou served as a judge on The Voice of China for four seasons from 2016 to 2020.
5.
Jay Chou became the first Mandopop artist to top IFPI's Global Album Sales Chart, with his Greatest Works of Art being the world's best-selling record in pure sales in 2022.
6.
Jay Chou made his acting debut in the film Initial D, followed by roles in Zhang Yimou's epic Curse of the Golden Flower, Kevin Chu's Kung Fu Dunk and The Treasure Hunter, Hollywood films The Green Hornet and Now You See Me 2.
7.
Jay Chou directed and starred in films Secret, The Rooftop and TV series Pandamen.
8.
Jay Chou hosted the CTI talkshow Mr J Channel and the Netflix reality show J-Style Trip starting in 2020.
9.
Jay Chou was born and raised in Linkou, Taipei County, Taiwan.
10.
Jay Chou's mother noticed his sensitivity to music and took him to piano lessons at the age of four.
11.
Jay Chou was an only child and loved to play piano, imitate TV actors, and perform magic tricks.
12.
Jay Chou's parents divorced when he was 14 and he was teased by his classmates, which caused him to become reclusive and introverted.
13.
Jay Chou had no friends and preferred to be alone, listening to music, contemplating and daydreaming.
14.
Jay Chou showed a talent for improvisation, became fond of pop music, and began to write songs.
15.
Jay Chou was conscripted for mandatory military service after graduating from high school with inadequate grades for university.
16.
Jay Chou played the piano accompaniment for his friend, whose singing was described as "lousy".
17.
Wu then asked who wrote it, discovered Jay Chou and hired him as a contract composer and paired him with the novice lyricist Vincent Fang for his then record company, Alfa Music.
18.
Jay Chou then spent most of his time in Wu's studio learning music producing, sound mixing, recording, and writing songs.
19.
Jay Chou's fame grew quickly in Overseas Chinese communities and Sinophone-speaking regions throughout Southeast Asia.
20.
In 2000, under the recommendation of JR Yang, Jay Chou began to sing his own songs.
21.
Jay Chou arranged the compilation, harmony, and production of all the songs.
22.
Jay Chou himself appeared on a few television programs to promote the album.
23.
Jay Chou was marketed as a talented singer-composer with a unique tune.
24.
In 2001, Jay Chou held his first series of five solo concerts, titled the Fantasy Concert, with the first stop on 11 January 2001, at the Taoyuan Arena, Taiwan.
25.
Fantasy went on receiving ten nominations and won five awards at the 13th Golden Melody Awards in 2002, where Jay Chou notably did not thank Wu.
26.
Jay Chou released the compilation album Partners in April 2002, featuring 12 songs consisting of Jay Chou's musical and Vincent Fang's lyrical compositions.
27.
In 2003, Jay Chou released his fourth album Yeh Hui-Mei named after his own mother.
28.
The album features songs on Mafia and drug lords "In Father's Name" which at first hearing was very unorthodox but displays Jay Chou's creative writing and producing ability.
29.
Jay Chou has performed live duets with Landy Wen, Jolin Tsai, and former girlfriend and news anchor Patty Hou.
30.
Jay Chou started the band Nan Quan Mama in 2004, selecting band members and overseeing their album production.
31.
The group has been noted for sounding too similar to their mentor; as a result, Jay Chou has reduced his involvement in the band, though he continues to increase their exposure by inviting them as guests performers for his concerts and music videos.
32.
Jay Chou portrayed Prince Jai, the ambitious second eldest prince and general of the Imperial army whose personality epitomizes Xiao, the Chinese virtue of filial piety.
33.
Jay Chou continued to make one album per year; the singer's seventh studio album, Still Fantasy, was released on 5 September 2006.
34.
Jay Chou embarked on The World Tour in support of the release, visiting numerous countries including Taiwan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Canada and the United States from November 2007 to August 2009.
35.
In October 2009, Jay Chou was featured on Cindy Yen's song "Sand Painting".
36.
In 2010, to celebrate his 10-year career in the entertainment industry, Jay Chou embarked on his fifth concert tour, The Era World Tour.
37.
Jay Chou portrayed Kato in The Green Hornet, directed by Michel Gondry and released in January 2011, after Hong Kong actor Stephen Chow withdrew from the project; the film grossed over $228 million worldwide.
38.
In May 2011, Jay Chou started filming for a new movie, The Viral Factor directed by Dante Lam and starred various well known artistes such as Nicholas Tse.
39.
Jay Chou co-starred with English actor and former Harry Potter superstar Daniel Radcliffe in Now You See Me 2, which was released in June 2016.
40.
In 2021, Jay Chou was briefly starred in Nezha, where he was the executive producer for the film.
41.
On 18 January 2018, Jay Chou released the duet "Waiting for You" with Gary Yang.
42.
Jay Chou regretted that he didn't study well and couldn't enter the same university with her.
43.
Jay Chou just wanted to convey his mind to her, but he couldn't find the time and way.
44.
Jay Chou had to wait for the girl to finish class every day.
45.
Jay Chou made his chart comeback after a three-year hiatus with his long-awaited new single "Won't Cry".
46.
On 15 July 2022, Jay Chou released his fifteenth studio album titled Greatest Works of Art.
47.
Jay Chou performed in mainland China for the first time since the pandemic in June 2023, playing a four-day concert in Haikou, Hainan, for a total of 154,600 people.
48.
Jay Chou's music has been the center of much discussion across Chinese and other Sinophone-speaking regions around the world.
49.
Jay Chou defended this as his signature style to infuse the vocals with the music and "make it blend" well together.
50.
Jay Chou stated that he wants the listeners to look at the lyrics stating the lyrics written by Vincent Fang are very deep.
51.
Jay Chou is considered more of a singer-composer than a lyricist.
52.
Jay Chou himself has written lyrics for many ballads, but has discussed societal ills such as drug addiction in "Coward" and loss of the rural countryside to urbanization in "Terrace Fields".
53.
Jay Chou describes the phenomenon of domestic violence in society, and wants to appeal the public pay more attention to domestic violence.
54.
Jay Chou leads a new trend of music which combines western musical elements and Chinese literature terminology.
55.
Jay Chou has successfully generated airtime on CCTV by fitting in with the mainland China's political and cultural agenda by celebrating traditional Chinese cultural values.
56.
Elements of traditional Chinese culture incorporated into Jay Chou's music have contributed and galvanized his status within the realm of modern East Asian popular music.
57.
Jay Chou uses traditional Chinese musical instruments, combining traditional Chinese musical elements with Western popular musical forms.
58.
Jay Chou acquired his first directing experience in 2004 through music videos.
59.
Jay Chou initially experimented with a song by the group Nan Quan Mama titled "Home" where he was involved throughout the entire process from research to editing.
60.
In February 2007, Jay Chou began directing his first film Secret.
61.
The script written by Jay Chou was inspired by his relationship with a high school girlfriend, with a plot focused on music, love, and family.
62.
In 2013, Jay Chou released his second directorial film, a musical drama titled The Rooftop.
63.
Jay Chou published his first book titled Grandeur de D Major on 25 November 2004.
64.
Jay Chou demonstrated a strong appreciation of family values with an especially deep connection with his mother and maternal grandmother.
65.
Jay Chou acted as the tourism ambassador for Malaysia in 2003.
66.
Jay Chou did a Sprite commercial with NBA player Kobe Bryant and specially wrote a song named "Battle of the Incomparable" that featured Bryant for the commercial.
67.
Outside of his traditional ventures in business and entertainment, Jay Chou is an ardent philanthropist.
68.
Jay Chou has been the spokesperson for "Angel Heart Foundation" since 2012, a non-profit charity for children with intellectual disability.
69.
In 2014, Jay Chou accepted the Ice Bucket Challenge from Andy Lau, and donated NT$100,000 to Taiwanese ALS Foundation, and donated NT$2 million in the aftermath of 2014 Kaohsiung gas explosions.
70.
Jay Chou attended the charity event from Fubon Charity Foundation, and has been the ambassador for the charity, which helps school children with disabilities, hardship or giving children living in poverty a scholarship for their education.
71.
Jay Chou had already donated NT$970 million in the last 5 years, sponsoring over 300 of the thousand benefactors, and would extend the offer by 5 years, and opened 300 more scholarships, and donated a lump sum of NT$10.8 million in the next 5 years worth NT$2.16 million each year.
72.
In 2017, Chou spent about 18 million RMB to construct a Jay eSports building in Shenzhen, which provided updated computer devices and the streaming areas for eSports players in China.
73.
Outside of music, Jay Chou is reported as shy, quiet, modest, and views filial piety as "the most important thing".
74.
In November 2007, Jay Chou was criticized by some for attending the funeral of Taiwanese gang leader Chen Chi-li to console Chen's son Baron Chen, whom Jay Chou met while filming Kung Fu Dunk.
75.
Jay Chou has been known for his tense relationship with and strong dislike of paparazzi.
76.
Jay Chou's fanbase originated from Taiwan and grew extensively to other Mandarin-speaking regions.
77.
In 2006, Jay Chou composed and sang the theme song for Fearless, a movie released in major theatres in most English-speaking countries, though the impact to his fame has been minimal.
78.
Jay Chou gained further exposure to Western audiences in his starring role as crimefighter Kato in January 2011's The Green Hornet.
79.
From 1998, Jay Chou dated singer Devin Wu, his labelmate at Jacky Wu's Alfa Music, for over a year until a third party intervened.
80.
Jay Chou was romantically linked to Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai, for whom he composed hit songs such as "Can't Speak Clearly" and "The Prague Square".
81.
In December 2001, Tsai and Jay Chou were first spotted dining at an izakaya in Shinjuku, Japan.
82.
In February 2005, Jay Chou was spotted shopping with Taiwanese news presenter Patty Hou in Shibuya, Japan.
83.
In June 2010, Tsai and Jay Chou made amends, and Tsai appeared as a special guest at Jay Chou's concert in Taipei to much public fanfare.
84.
In July 2013, when being interviewed by Taiwanese host Matilda Tao, Tsai admitted for the first time that she had been in a relationship with Jay Chou, revealing that she ended it after discovering his affair with Hou through the news.
85.
In November 2014, Jay Chou confirmed his relationship with model Hannah Quinlivan, who first met Jay Chou when she was 14 and had been working for him as a clothing shop assistant since 2007.
86.
Jay Chou became an Evangelical Protestant Christian as his wife, his mother and some of his friends, including Will Liu and Vanness Wu, are Protestants.
87.
Jay Chou suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, which exempted him from Taiwan's military service in 1999.
88.
Jay Chou scored strong radio and video airplay in Italy with his track "Nunchucks", in 2002.
89.
Jay Chou dominated the 12th annual Channel V Music Awards ceremony, which was held 11 January 2006, at Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Hong Kong.
90.
Jay Chou won the Favorite Male Artist of the 20th Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan.
91.
Jay Chou did not attend the event to collect the award as he was on tour in Mainland China at the time.