Ella Chen - Biography

Biography

See also: S.H.E's musical career, S.H.E's television and film career

On 8 August 2000, HIM International Music held a 'Universal 2000 Talent and Beauty Girl Contest' in search of new artists to sign under their label. When she travelled with her sister to Taipei for a holiday, Ella discovered that her older sister had registered her for a singing competition. Intimidated by the long line of contestants and worried of facing ridicule for her tomboy personality, Ella almost gave up before the first round. Her older sister, however convinced her to stay. Ella's deep voice caught the label's attention, and she reached the final round. Her alto voice is noted for its strong and beautiful nature.

Following the conclusion of the contest, Ella returned to her duties at a local hospital, but received a call from HIM International requesting an additional audition. After test recordings were done, Ella signed on as part of HIM's newest girl group, S.H.E. When Ella first tested out her signature, HIM employees were concerned that the signature would be easily forged due to its simplicity; thus, during S.H.E's early days, Ella signed autographs using the last character of her name, (pinyin: huà). However, as S.H.E's autograph sessions drew larger audiences, Ella reverted to her simpler, English signature.

During her career with S.H.E, Ella has been the most accident-prone member. On July 29, 2003 she was sent to the hospital after jumping from the third story of a building and shattering her hip. She returned three weeks later to promote Super Star. In 2005, during the filming of Reaching for the Stars, Ella burned her ears and hair on a candle, prompting crew members to send her to the National Taiwan University Hospital. In order to recover, Ella stayed away from filming for two days, during which she cut off approximately two centimetres of burnt hair on both sides of her head.

In 2007, Chen was voted by online fans as Taiwan's most down-to-earth (unpretentious) artist. Out of the three members of S.H.E, Ella is the most outspoken. Since the release of S.H.E's first album in 2001, Ella has usually been the one to answer reporter's questions. As the tomboy of S.H.E, Ella is frequently the subject of jokes targeting her gender and sexual orientation, but she usually takes the jabs in stride. Netizens even labelled her one of China's Four Main Tomboys of the past century. Her unusually deep voice earned her a starring role as the voice of Arthur in the Mandarin version of Arthur and the Minimoys.

As a singer and an actress, Ella has also appeared in various music videos such as 愛的重唱曲-覆水難收篇 (2004-04-05), 再一次拥有 (2005) by Kaira Gong and 愛到瘋癲 (2009) by Power Station.

In 2009, along with her band-mate Hebe Tien, Ella composed a song for her seniors Power Station, entitled "Love Crazy/愛到瘋癲". Ella was the composer while Hebe wrote the lyrics. The song was given to them as repayment for Power Station have given S.H.E the song "Freezer". Ella had also composed a station song entitled "Pop Radio 91.7 jingle" for Taiwan Pop Radio station "Pop Radio 91.7" . In 2010 she was also featured in the drama Down with Love.

On 5 May 2012, Chen married Alvin Lai, a Chinese Malaysian. The Western-style wedding held in Taipei with S.H.E member Hebe serving as the bridesmaid.