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SINGAPORE : There's no arguing with success — and few artistes in Singapore have enjoyed more of it than Stefanie Sun.
Already unrivalled as the nation's most popular musical export, Stefanie reinforced her claim to superstardom last week by selling a record 500,000 copies of her latest album in China in just seven days.
Against the Light — which has reached gold status (6,000 copies) in Singapore on pre-orders alone — is album No 10 for Stefanie since the singer launched her career in 2000, but fans can rest assured that their idol has no plans to slow down anytime soon.
"Music is a vast and infinite thing," Stefanie told TODAY in an interview at The National Museum's Muse bar on Saturday. "There are still many kinds of music I would like to experiment with."
While her commercial success is especially impressive at a time when the industry is under siege by pirates and sound-alike artists, Stefanie made clear she isn't one to measure success by quantity alone.
Above all, it's about pleasing her fans, she said, something the singer has done consistently with the help of Singapore producers Li Sisong and Li Weisong.
"I look up to them, as always," Stefanie said of the brothers credited with engineering her meteoric rise to stardom. "I guess I'm more familiar with them after all these years and, having done so many albums, I think when it comes to expressing my ideas it's better to strike while the iron's hot."
Sun also made no secret of her admiration for Beijing-born pop diva Faye Wong — whose influences range from electronica to Buddhism to the music of Scottish post-punk outfit The Cocteau Twins — citing in particular Wong's gift for reinventing herself constantly and keeping her sound fresh through experimentation.
"I attended one of her concerts and I was completely bowled over," Stefanie said. "To me, she represents the peak of how spontaneous and natural a singer can be."
And while Stefanie said she found the recording process more relaxed and enjoyable this time than it had been in previous years, she looked visibly tired from her ongoing promotional work for Against the Light.
Still, the singer wasn't about to let a tight schedule dampen her enthusiasm or allow herself to become complacent in the face of seven years of uninterrupted success.
"When you like something you naturally want it to be the best," she said. "The same goes for my album — where every song is still produced with the sense that we're striving for perfection." - TODAY/sh
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