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Born and raised in Singapore, 27-year-old singer-composer Lin Jun Jie is your typical Anglo-Chinese School boy – he speaks and writes fluent English as a first language but grapples a little with his Mother Tongue language, Chinese.
These days, however, he's making a living singing, writing and acting in Mandarin.
But why stray from his comfort zone?
The singer, better known as JJ (short for Jun Jie), said he has always loved listening to Mandarin songs, and had decided to venture into the Mandarin music industry after his National Service as it has always been his passion.
But the decision had been challenging, according to the pop artiste.
"I had to go through the process of getting to know the language better, going to Taiwan and actually getting used to the whole lifestyle," he said.
And even with five best-selling albums under his belt, and commendable improvement in the Chinese language, the singer still reckons he needs more lessons before penning lyrics professionally.
But he's comfortable with belting out tunes for now because he feels the input of more talents can enrich his music.
"I don't want to write all my songs myself," JJ explained. "That'd be like... trapped in my own world. I like the idea of collaborating and getting more people involved in my music."
His latest work 'Love and Hope', is such an example, with the lyrics written by a close friend to his melody.
The song, which took a rushed two days and two nights to complete, was composed specially for the victims of the recent Sichuan earthquake.
It was sung at CCTV's charity event 'The Giving of Love' and MediaCorp's 'Sichuan Earthquake Charity Show', and JJ hopes the song will "encourage and comfort the victims and encourage all of us to help in any way we can."
In July 2007, the singer broke a Guinness record by signing 3,052 CDs in 2.5 hours. With such a fan base, JJ said he has had his share of fervent fans, one of whom almost jumped off a bridge in China in order to profess her love for him.
"When I heard about the news I was pretty upset as that was a little extreme, to show that kind of... loyalty for me... I don't really like the feeling of having (celebrity) power over people. I just want to focus on my music and to be able to affect people and help them out with the music that I do."
The singer, who on Sunday won the COMPASS (Composers and Authors Society of Singapore) award for Top Local Composer of the Year, is currently working on his sixth studio album, which fans can look forward to in September.
JJ hinted that the new album will offer a "brighter feel" and "simpler tone" as compared to his current album 'Westside', which hit single 'Killer' had such a dark underlying meaning that its music video was banned in several countries.
"Every of my album sound a little different consecutively," he said.
"For example, I played with a darker idea in my current album so the album I'm working on will be in contrast to that. This will give my listeners a more refreshing yet consistent tone."
But even before the new record hits the stands, fans can cheer JJ along on August 8 as he participates in the final leg of the Olympic torch relay in Beijing.
- CNA/yb
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