Yan Zi (album)

Yan Zi (Chinese: 燕姿) is the debut album by Singaporean singer Stefanie Sun, released on 9 June 2000 by Warner Music Taiwan. The songs, "Love Document" and "Cloudy Day", reached number 4 and 33 respectively on the Hit FM Annual Top 100 Singles in 2000. The album earned Sun a Golden Melody Award for Best New Artist.

Background and development
In 1998, the soon-to-be chairman of Warner Music Taiwan, Chou Chien-hui, visited Singapore to visit Sammi Cheng at the Lee Wei Song Music Academy, and it was at this time that he discovered Stefanie Sun; she had a unique voice and a solid background in music. The Warner producer immediately offered to sign her. However, Sun's father demanded that if she wanted to concentrate on singing, she had to finish college first. For this reason, Warner Music waited for her for two years. It was not until 2000 that Stefanie Sun successfully signed a contract with Warner Music and officially began her music career.

Sun's first album was co-produced by two pairs of twin brothers: Taiwan's Anthony Bao and Tino Bao, and Singapore's Peter Lee and Paul Lee, each of these two sets of producers had their own lyricist and songwriters who worked together to create the album. Sun recorded the album in the studio by the two groups of musicians double grinding, every time in the studio to record to exhaustion.

Writing and recording
"Turbo" expresses the new human, new power, and new view of love. "Finally" was composed by Peter Lee and written by Kevin Yi; it is an ethereal picturesque love song of the new century. Sun's performance of “Love Certificate” and “Cloudy Day” honestly sings to the depths of simplicity, unlike the kind of gibberish that purposely pretends to be playful, which is a gesture of a singer's maturity. "Love Certificate” is a mellow song, with Paul Lee calmly writing a melodious melody, and Sun stretching out her "lightly made-up" vocals in a calm tone.

The song "Cloudy Day" expresses childhood memories with choked up words that seem to come from the heart. The undecorated voice whispers in the ear, and the yellowed fragments, the wrinkles of the grandmother, the pain of falling, all flow out with the song and piano accompaniment. "E-Lover" is a guitar-driven pop ballad. "Scultpted Eyebrow" is an upbeat chamber pop song. "Make Peace" is a slow tempo guitar-based song. "Natural" combines power pop and pop-punk elements. "Fine" is a pop ballad that relies heavily on the Spanish guitar. "Leave Me Alone" is a rock song.

Release and promotion
Warner Music promoted Yan Zi with a variety of advertising campaigns across Asia. In the start, they wanted Sun to be familiar to the public by getting her to shoot the "Chunghwa Telecom Pocket Code" advertisement, then they asked her to frequently endorse various activities before the release of the album. She then promoted other products such as sanitary pads, sports cars and green tea. On July 14, 2000, Sun held a signing event at SOGO in Zhongli, Taoyuan County, when a man started a disturbance with a gun; fortunately, the man fired a fake gun and no one was injured. In August 2000, Sun went to Hong Kong to help promote her album, where she was interviewed by RTHK. On September 2, 2000, Sun traveled to Beijing to sign albums. On July 11, 2000, Warner Music released the All-round certified version of the album. It was limited to 30,000 copies and additionally included Stefanie Sun's E-Lover super secretary software and a mouse pad.

Track listing

 * 1) "超快感" (Turbo) – 3:39
 * 2) "愛情證書" (Love Document) – 4:14
 * 3) "天黑黑" (Cloudy Day) – 3:56
 * 4) "E-Lover" – 4:59
 * 5) "濃眉毛" (Sculpted Eyebrow) – 3:47
 * 6) "和平" (Make Peace) – 4:08
 * 7) "自然" (Natural) – 3:24
 * 8) "終於" (Finally) – 3:56
 * 9) "很好" (Fine) – 4:27
 * 10) "Leave Me Alone" – 4:26