The Competition
On August 8, 2000, HIM International Music held a "Universal 2000 Talent and Beauty Girl Contest" on the "Cruel Stage" segment of Jacky Wu's show, "TV Citizen," in search of new artists to be signed under their label to complement the group "Power Station".During the auditions, Taipei native Jen Chia-Hsüan (Selina) sang Coco Lee's "Before I Fall in Love", Tien Fu-Chen (Hebe), who hailed from Hsinchu, sang Shunza's "Write a Song" (寫一首歌), and Chen Chia-Hwa (Ella), from Pingtung, sang Mayday's "Gentle and Soft" ( 溫柔).
All three were successful and were recommended to be included in the Universal Talent and Beauty Girl Contest. The preliminary rounds of the contest were held on August 20, 2000 in New York City. Entering the final preliminary round, Jen Chia-Hsüan was slated to sing Elva Hsiao's "The Closest Stranger" (最熟悉的陌生人); both Tien and Chen planned on singing Karen Mok's "Cloudy Sky" (陰天).
The contest had about 1000 contestants, and after many tiring rounds, seven contestants remained for the 'Cruel Stage' round and the three were secured garnering three of the spots. Following the competition, the record company gave all seven contestants an audition. Ren Jiaxuan, Tian Fuzhen, and Chen Jiahua stood out among these seven.
For the televised portion of the contest, to be aired on CTV's "TV Citizen", Tien Fu-Chen was scheduled to perform first, followed by Jen Chia-Hsüan. During the television round, each of the five judges would turn a light on if a singing flaw was identified — a total of three lights resulted in elimination. Jen Chia-Hsüan sang Christina Aguilera's "Reflection" with her singing flaws resulting in two lights. Tien Fu-Chen sang Kit Chan's "Loving You" (喜歡你). Despite forgetting the majority of the lyrics, she received only two lights. Chen Chia-Hwa chose Rene Liu's "Afterwards" (後來), but was eliminated after receiving four lights. At the end of the round, only four contestants remained, three of whom were Jen Chia-Hsüan, Tien Fu-Chen, and Chen Chia-Hwa.
Ren Jiaxuan was the actual winner of this contest. Originally, only one person would be given a contract, but because of their incredible performances, all three of them were signed together under HIM International records.
The Name
After recording the songs for their first album, the trio needed a name for the group. The company suggested several names, including H.B.O, Digi Girl, 3C Girls (3C美少女), and S.H.E Girl Friends (S.H.E女朋友). The name Digi Girl would have reflected HIM's endorsement of Digimaster products, whereas H.B.O would have coincided with one of the songs on the girls' first album.
HIM finally decided on S.H.E; as a result, Jen Chia-Hsüan became Selina, Tien Fu-Chen became Hebe, and Chen Chia-Hwa became Ella.
The group's name, S.H.E, was selected for two reasons. With the dots in S.H.E removed, the resulting word would emphasize the fact that S.H.E was a girl group; the dots symbolized individual differences with the three members. In addition, having an English name made the group more accessible to an international audience. However, there were concerns about how audiences would react to such a name; it was sufficiently similar to S.E.S., a then-established Korean girl group, that it was thought S.H.E might be labelled as plagiarists.
As a result, HIM provided local audiences with an alternative Chinese name for their new group: 女朋友 (Nu Peng You [Girl Friends]).
The Debut
Although the CD sold an impressive 150,000 copies for a debut group, the trio gained notoriety for singing off-key during their first live performance. Nevertheless, sales of "Girls Dorm" resulted in a nomination for Best New Artist at the 13th Golden Melody Awards.
"Girls Dorm" was the only studio album in which each member had her own solos: Hebe's solos were "Someone Loves You Instead of Me" and "Too Much", Selina's was "Forgotten to Forget About You", and Ella's was "Don't".
The Parody and Cover
Although, S.H.E.'s fame grew as they release more and more albums, others have criticized the parodies in their album. From one song in their debut album up to six parodies in their 3rd album "Genesis", many have called their album quite predictable. S.H.E's covers have received less critical acclaim than their original works. During the group's career, original compositions have combined for nearly 20 awards, whereas covers have been lauded only twice
Although the number of parodies went down, all of their albums remained having parodies including their latest "Ai Jiu Dui Le" from their album "SHERO".
Complete list of their parodies.
Starting Each Member's Own Career
Their career as a group didn't stopped each member to pursue their own career as well. Selina was the only one who continued her college studies while the other two concentrated on their television and singing career as solos.
Continuing her studies, on June 11, 2004, she eventually graduated from the National Taiwan Normal University with a Bachelor of Education degree, majoring in Civic Education and Leadership.Being a book lover too, she decided to create her own book "愛的小珠珠" (Selina Loves Beading) that tackles and teaches readers how to use beads to make designs.
The book was later on published by September of 2006.
Hebe, on the other hand dealt with solo singing as well as duets with other artists. Her notable songs were "Lai Bu Ji", a soundtrack from her drama "Bull Fighting/Freestyle".Another song was "Only Have Feelings For You" together with the group Fahrenheit which won Taiwan's Best Duet Song at the 2007 Sprite Music Hong Kong Awards. Also, she recently released her solo album "To Hebe".
Ella, chose to focus on her acting career. Starting with her other group members at the dramas "The Rose" and "Reaching for the Stars", producers have seen her powerful, witty and funny personality.An additional to this was her boyish looks that made her famous in her drama "Hana Kimi" partnered with Wu Chun. Lately, she also starred in the drama "Down With Love" together with Jerry Yan.
From Young Maidens to Sexy Vixens
Portrayed as the youth leaders in their album "Youth Society", S.H.E. has created their own image as young, cute and funny teenagers who is achieving their dreams.
But as the years go by, they shocked everyone with their unusual get-up in their album "Superstar". Their song widened into vast types of genres including dance and pop.
Soon enough, they transformed once more yet into little girls playing in the album "Once Upon a Time" which depicts childhood.
Their transformation have made their audience more excited with what next they are up to.
Upon having their own radio station which they called F.M. S.H.E., they released a new album bearing the name of their radio station. Thus, they created another image -- futuristic. Wearing sexier clothes, many have noticed this great transformation.Also, they have started to have photos and videos for album and drama wearing nothing but some bed sheets and other pieces of blankets such as in the cover of their album "3 Spas of Love" and "SHERO".
- Justin -
[ Check out our Part 2 for this special documentary to be released next week ]
Special Thanks to:
Reports:
Chinatown Connection, Wikipedia, HIM Company,
Pictures:
SHE911HIM, MandarinFree, DownloadOST, vb.eqla3.com, aznmusic, she911-albums, Nepkos
It's been 9 years and SHE are still going strong. Hope they'll have more "birthdays". Hahaha.
ReplyDeleteBut, I think that SHE's journey is not "complete" yet. They're still here, their journey is not yet done. Hehe. :]
This was a great write up about S.H.E., however I know that their journey is most defiantly not over and they will continue to make great music! This was a good story though, i learned a lot, I can't wait for part two!
ReplyDeleteIt's been 9 years and SHE are still going strong. Hope they'll have more "birthdays". Hahaha.
ReplyDeleteBut, I think that SHE's journey is not "complete" yet. They're still here, their journey is not yet done. Hehe. :]