music.wikisort.org - Composition

1019 is the debut studio album by Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai. It was released on September 10, 1999, by Universal and D Sound.[1] Produced by David Wu, Peter Lee, and Paul Lee, it incorporated genres of pop, hip-hop, R&B, and world music to showcase her musical talent and versatility.[2][3]

1019
Studio album by Jolin Tsai
Released	September 10, 1999 (1999-09-10)
Genre	Pop
Length	42:59
Label	Universal D Sound
Producer	David Wu Peter Lee Paul Lee
Jolin Tsai chronology
1019 (1999) 1019 I Can Concert (2000)
Singles from 1019
"The Rose" Released: September 1999 (1999-09) "I Know You're Feeling Blue" Released: September 1999 (1999-09)

It was well received by music critics, who commented that the girlish sentiment exuded from the album filled the vacancy of the girl-next-door singer in the Taiwan music scene at the time, her idol vibe and strength combined with the excellent production made her become an instant hit.[2] It sold more than 450,000 copies in Taiwan.[4]

Background and development

In May 1998, Tsai participated in a television singing competition show produced by MTV Mandarin and eventually won the competition.[5] The judge Wawa Chen commented: "She is really a born singer, she is singing with her talent." Another judge Lee Cheng-fan commented: "I think it would be exciting to help her make a record."[6] Universal Music Taiwan's music director Sam Chen also described that Tsai looks totally different on stage and off stage during the competition. She looked like a quiet student in uniform when she was off stage, but she looked like that she had much potential to be a superstar when she was on stage.[7]

In March 1999, Tsai signed a recording contract with Universal Music Taiwan, and then she became the record label's key new artist of the year.[8] Later, Universal arranged a series of training courses for Tsai, including twice-weekly dance classes to help her improve stage performance, twice-weekly makeup classes to help her do makeup when she was pressed for schedules, and speech classes to help her face the journalists. In addition, the record label arranged for her to fly to Ireland, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom to watch foreign singers' performances.[9]

On July 16, 1999, Tsai released her debut single, "Living with the World", and she announced the release of her debut album in the year's September. It was the promotional song for 7-Eleven in Taiwan and was only available for sale in 7-Eleven stores.[10] It sold more than 20,000 copies in Taiwan within the first two weeks of release.[8]

Writing and recording

"The Rose" and "Good-Bye" were both recorded at the Quad Studios in New York, and eight black backing vocalists were invited to provide the vocal harmony of the two tracks, showing the majestic momentum like a choir. "I Know You're Feeling Blue", "Blame It on the Age", and "Emptiness" are all marketable ballads, and the young Tsai showed rare mastery in interpreting such songs. "Out on the Street" is a Chinese version of Korean duo Idol's song "A Song Story", and it is a hip-hop dance music. "Who Are You" and "Living with the World" also showed her versatility in song's interpretation.[3]

Title and artwork

The "10" in the album's title pronounced exactly the same as Tsai's first name "I-lin" in Mandarin, which refers to the singer herself, while the "19" refers to her age at the time.[11] The fresh and shy girl-next-door image is the dominant temperament of the album, so the cover of the album's standard edition is a picture of Tsai's melancholy side face. The cover of the album's third edition features Tsai wearing a midriff-baring outfit.[2] Universal labeled her as an "idol singer", so to play up her 19-year-old, study-well, and love-singing image, the album's first visual image is a quiet look of her in a small white dress, followed by a healthy, sexy look showing her midriff. Universal said: "When we first met Jolin Tsai, we noticed her 'dual personality'—she looks shy, quiet, and studious seen from the outside, but has tattoos which belong to the young people, and she is very expressive on stage. She's got both the shyness of good girl and the aggressiveness of young people simultaneously, which is very special."[9]

Release and promotion

The standard edition features two CDs which contains ten songs and instrumentals of two songs. On October 15, 1999, Universal released the second edition of the album to celebrate the album's sales of over 200,000 copies in Taiwan. This edition integrated the ten songs into one CD and included a photo book, but it removed the two instrumentals. On December 4, 1999, Tsai held the 1019 I Can Concert in Taipei, Taiwan. On December 13, 1999, Universal released the third edition to celebrate the sales of over 350,000 copies in Taiwan, which additionally includes six music videos and a short documentary film. On January 15, 2000, Universal celebrated the sales of over 400,000 copies in Taiwan by releasing the fourth edition, which incorporated all the content of the previous two editions.

Singles and music videos

Tsai released two singles for the album, "The Rose" and "I Know You're Feeling Blue". The music videos of these two songs were directed by Chou Ko-tai,[12][13] and the song "I Know You're Feeling Blue" reached number 30 on the Hit FM Top 100 Singles of the Year chart.[14] In addition, the music video of "Blame It on the Age" was directed by Marlboro Lai and features Taiwanese actor Lin Yo-wei.[15] The music videos of "Good-Bye" and "Emptiness" were both directed by Tony Lin.[16][17]

Critical reception

Tencent Entertainment's Shuwa commented: "Although the ten songs on her first record sounds a little bit normal when comparing to her later works, but as the first piece to make her become an instant hit, as long as there's a song that can touch people's hearts then it's half the battle, and the Jimmy Ye-composed "I Know You're Feeling Blue" just showed Tsai's girly side in front of everyone. In terms of the integrity of the whole album, the girlish sentiment exuded from both fast songs and slow songs on the album just filled the vacancy of the girl-next-door singer in the Taiwan music scene at the time. Thus, the right time, place, and people made her an instant hit. Of course, the success of the album was due to the excellent production of famous producers David Wu, Peter Lee, and Paul Lee, especially the two Lee, who made great contributions to Tsai's later works."[2]

Sina Entertainment commented: "[Tsai] released her first album 1019 as the year's key new artist in September of last year, In the battle of new artists at the time, her own advantages of combination of idol vibe and strength, in addition to the record label's overall strategy, with over 400,000 copies sold, set off high sales that others were hard to beat, the popularity of the "Teenage Boy Killer" in Taiwan drew more than 5,000 fans to attend her first 101 I Can Concert, which set a rare record among new artists and let the press see a new diva was coming."[18]

Sina Hong Kong commented: "Jolin Tsai, the 19-year-old rising star from Taiwan, broke into the music scene by winning a singing competition, her appearance is described as a bit like Ruby Lin, her singing skills are closer to those who have strength, with her R&B style, she must have a solid groundwork. The songs on the album are also mostly R&B, sound a little bit mainstream, not very special, but every song has a certain quality, with her appearance and singing skills, the album is still a competitive album among Taiwanese new artists in the last year."

Accolades

Tsai won an UFO People's Choice Award for Favorite New Artist (copper),[19] a China Music Award for Favorite Female New Artist,[20] a Singapore Hit Award for Best New Artist (gold),[21] a Top Music Chart Award for Best New Artist,[22] and a TVB8 Mandarin Music On Demand Award for Best New Artist (silver).[23] The track "I Know You're Feeling Blue" won an UFO People's Choice Award for Top Songs.[19]

Track listing

Release history

Region	Date	Format(s)	Edition	Distributor
China	September 10, 1999	CD cassette	Standard	Meika
Indonesia		Cassette		Universal
Malaysia		CD cassette
Taiwan		2CD 2 cassette
	September 11, 1999	2CD	Limited
	October 15, 1999	CD	Second
	December 13, 1999	CD+VCD	Third
	January 15, 2000		Fourth
	March 25, 2005	CD	Reissued

References

External links

• 1019 at Discogs (list of releases)
• 1019 playlist on YouTube

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