Jason Zhang

Zhang Jie (Chinese: 張杰; born 20 December 1982), also known as Jason Zhang, is a Chinese singer. He made his television series debut in the reality singing competition My Show in 2004, which he won and signed with Universal Music China. In 2007, he joined Super Boy and came in fourth. By the end of 2023, Zhang had recorded 15 albums and held 87 concerts.

1982–2003: Early life
Zhang was born on 20 December 1982, in Chengdu, Sichuan. In 2000, he studied at Sichuan Normal University. In 2003, he took part in the MTV-Samsung Anycall National Singing Competition and won second place.

2004–2006: Shang Teng Universal
In 2004, Zhang took part in the first season of My Show and won the championship in the finals. Then he signed with Shang Teng Universal. In 2005, Zhang released his debut album, The First Album. This earned him the Global Chinese Music Chart Most Popular Male Newcomer award. In 2006, after the release of his second album, Love Me Again, Zhang's music career was at stake due to changes at the top management of his record company.

2007–2015: EE-Media
In 2007, he took part in Hunan TV's show Super Boy and came in 4th place. However, his participation violated his contract with Shang Teng Universal and he was ordered to pay a fine of 500,000 yuan. Zhang later signed a deal with EE-Media and released an EP, The Most Beautiful Sun, which marked a fresh restart of his career. In May 2008, Zhang held his first concert at Beijing Exhibition Center. In October, he released the album The Day After Tomorrow and won his first "Most Popular Male Singer (Mainland)" award. In 2009, for the album The Day After Tomorrow, Zhang gained 11 nominations in Beijing pop music ceremony. In November, he released the album Through Trilogy. On 19 December, he held a theme concert for Through Trilogy at Beijing Workers' Gymnasium.

In April 2010, Zhang attended the Boao Forum for Asia as an invited guest to perform two songs of Michael Jackson: "Billie Jean" and "Beat it". In November, he released his 6th album, It's Love and held a theme concert as It's Love at Beijing Workers' Gymnasium. On 28 November, he won the "Best Asian Artist" award in the Mnet Asian Music Awards. In December, he was invited as the only male singer from mainland China to the TVB Golden Melody Awards Ceremony in Hong Kong, and received an award for top ten golden songs of the year and Most Popular Male Singer (Mainland).

In 2011, Zhang released the album Stand Up. In December, he held the theme concert It's Love in his hometown Chengdu. On 1 March 2012, as an invited guest, Zhang performed in a collaborative staging of the song "My Love" at the concert of Westlife. He started his new touring concerts at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on 5 May and Shanghai Grand Stage on 30 June. On 29 September, he released an album called One Chance, and on 19 November he released a cover album called Love That We Once Encountered. Also in this year, he set up his own studio: Zhang Jie Studio.

In February 2013, for the first time, he was invited to perform at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. In June, he went to Berklee College of Music for further studies. In September, he was invited to the China Tennis Open with tennis players Li Na and Novak Djokovic to promote public welfare work. In November, Zhang released his 10th album, Just Love, and held his 10th concert in Guangzhou.

In January 2014, Zhang joined Season 2 of Hunan Television's I Am a Singer and came in third. From September to December, he held his first live tour, Fight Back For Love. In August, he was invited to perform the theme song, "Light the Future", at the Opening Ceremony of the Nanjing Youth Olympics 2014. In November, he was presented with the International Artist Award at the 2014 American Music Awards, as the first Chinese singer to win this award; however, there was controversy surrounding the award as the presentation was not televised, ceremony footage was not available online, and the award itself missing from the official website. In April 2015, he released his collection with Xiaomi. In May, Zhang ended his eight-year contract with EE-Media, and made his own independent studio.

2016–present: Planet Culture
On 7 February 2016, Zhang performed at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. On 21 February, the Just For Star concert was held in United Artists Theater, Los Angeles. Zhang invited David Foster and violinist Lindsey Stirling to perform together. On 26 April, Zhang set up his personal label, Planet Culture, and cooperated with Linfair Records. On 16 July, Zhang began his first world tour at Beijing Worker's Stadium. On 21 July 2016, he performed Star Trek Beyond's Chinese theme song "Lost in the Stars", and attended the film's premiere at Embarcadero Marina Park South. He recorded the promotional song "Give You My World" for the film Allied in November. From July to December, Zhang's tour travelled to Beijing, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi'an, Wuhan, Hefei, Dalian, and Kunming.

In February 2017, Zhang joined Hunan Television's Singer 2017 as the first previous season contestant to join the competition this season, and finished in the eighth place after accusations of lip-syncing. In May and June, he brought his world tour in the US, Canada, Malaysia and Australia. In June, Zhang sang China's theme song, "Torches", for Transformers: The Last Knight. In 2018, he and his wife welcomed twin daughters.

In 2020, he ranked 86th on Forbes China Celebrity 100 list. In 2021, he released Deserve Better and began the Future Live: Yao Beidou concert tour. The tour ended with 3 concerts at the Beijing National Stadium. In 2023, he released album Wainan Street 1982 on January 11; in March, he said in a magazine interview that his hope is to perform at all the stadiums in China; on December 27, he released EP The Seventh Day of Winter and held 3 concerts from December 29-31 at Chengdu Dong'an Lake Sports Park Multifunctional Arena.

In January 2024, he posted on his official Weibo that he will perform at all stadiums across China; in March, he began Future Live: To 1982 concert tour. As of June, he has performed 17 shows at 5 cities out of China's 34 province-level divisions.

Discography

 * The First Album (2005-03-18)
 * Love Me Again (2006-09-20)
 * Most Beautiful Sun (2007-12-24)
 * The Day After Tomorrow (2008-08-27)
 * Through Trilogy (2009-11-01)
 * It's Love (2010-11-21)
 * Stand Up (2011-11-03)
 * One Chance (2012-09-29)
 * The Love Songs We Once Encountered (2012-11-26)
 * Just Love (2013-12-20)
 * Ten (2015-04-15)
 * Sound of My Heart (2016-08-12)
 * Love, and Courage (2016-08-20)
 * Future Live (2018-05-20)
 * Songs of youth (2020-07-23)

Headlining act

 * Begin With Star (2008)
 * It's Love (2010–2013)
 * Fight Back The Love (2014)
 * Sound Of My Heart (2016–2017)
 * Future Live (2018–)

Variety shows
Zhang participated in Hunan Television's long-running singing reality competition I Am a Singer, and made it to the finals on both attempts.

I Am a Singer
Zhang debuted on Week three as a substitute singer as a replacement of the first eliminated singer Gary Chaw. He made it to the finals, but did not finish in the top two to qualify for the "Ultimate Winner Candidate" (the candidates were G.E.M. and Han Lei, with the latter winning the season).

Singer 2017
In February 2017, Zhang later returned again in the fifth season as the one of four returning singers to participate in the competition. He finished in eighth place after narrowly avoiding eliminations on six of 11 performances. Unlike his first season appearance, Zhang was not selected to participate in the Biennial Concert.

Personal life
Zhang is married to Xie Na, who holds the Guinness World Records as the first person to accumulate 100 million followers on Weibo. On 5 May 2011, Zhang and Xie registered their marriage in Chengdu, China. On 26 September 2011, they married at Shangri-La, China. On 26 September 2017, Zhang revealed on his Weibo that his wife was expecting. On 1 February 2018, they welcomed twin daughters.