Joanna Wang

Joanna Wang (王若琳) is a Taiwanese singer/songwriter, daughter of famous Taiwanese music producer Ji-ping "Bing" Wang (王治平). Her debut album, Start From Here, was released in January 2008 as a double-disc set, one in English and the other in Chinese. Aside Joanna herself, multi-platinum writers such as Canadian icon Randy Bachman, Luke McMaster (Nick Lachey, Rihanna), Damhnait Doyle of "Shaye" fame, Sweden's Peter Kvint (Robyn, Play), Rob Wells (Backstreet Boys, Mika), Dave Pickell (Lara Fabien, Trademark), Bryan Potvin (Northern Pikes, Velvet Empire) and Vincent Degiorgio, who has written songs for Asian artists from Tomomi Kahala to Britain's Atomic Kitten, contributed to this release. Recorded in Los Angeles and mixed by Craig Burridge (David Tsao amongst others), it features session players such as Michael Thompson and a host of America's key studio musicians. "Start From Here" reached # 1 in Taiwan and has been popular throughout the Southeast Asian region, and was released in Japan in June of 2008. Creatively, Joanna has occasionally been at odds in public interviews with her feelings on "Start From Here", clashing with opinions of it being a jazz album rather than pop, and expressing her desire to be a more self-contained artist rather than to be thought of as a "product". In support of that, it is rumored that her sophomore album will feature more self-penned songs, possibly once again a double album to show interpretations of outside songs and the growth of her own material since her debut outing. Raised in both Taiwan and the USA, she was exposed to many classic pop music acts, among them The Beatles, Queen, and Oingo Boingo. She lists Oscar the winning composer Danny Elfman as a big influence, along with 倉橋ヨエコ and Paul McCartney. She is also known to be a fan of animation soundtracks. She is also a left-handed guitarist. Amongst the personnel rumoured on her new album includes, Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Freddy Koella, Paul Bushnell, and Brian MacLeod. She has performed some of her own work and has covered various popular songs in English and in Chinese on Taiwanese television programs. http://www.sonybmg.com.tw/pop/joanna/web