JJ Lin - Biography

Biography

Lin was born in Singapore and studied at Anglo-Chinese School and Saint Andrew's Junior College before completing his National Service with the Singapore Armed Forces.

He is of overseas Chinese descent. In addition to English, Mandarin and Hokkien, he is also able to speak Cantonese and has released several cover versions of his songs in Cantonese. He came to musical prominence and success in the Greater China region. In Taiwan, he was awarded the "Best New Artist" award in the Taiwan Golden Melody Awards.

Signed to Ocean Butterflies, he has written songs for various artists, notably "Remember" (記得 Jì Dé) for Taiwanese singer A-Mei, fellow label mate A-Do's "Let Go" (放手 Fàng Shǒu), Harlem Yu's "What's Wrong With You?" (幹嘛你看不爽我 Gàn Má Nǐ Kàn Bù Shuǎng Wǒ), Comic Boyz's "Heart of Superman" (超人心 Chāo Rén Xīn) and other songs. He writes all the melodies for all of his albums.

Back in Singapore, he was selected to perform the remixed version of "Home", the theme song of the National Day Parade in 2004. Lin's has sold 1 million copies in less than a week and is extremely successful throughout Asia.

Lin has appeared in various advertisements for companies such as Sprite, Lays and Cornetto Royale.

He is also the tourist ambassador for Singapore. Part of his work schedule involves him traveling around Asia making Singapore known as well as promoting his own works.

He was also involved in an anti-drugs events as an ambassador, in Taiwan 反毒大使 (The Anti-drug Ambassador). The theme song for this event is "Baby Baby", which is from his album, West Side (西界 Xī Jiè).

In July 2007, he broke a Guinness record by signing 3,052 CDs in 2 hours and 30 minutes. During the signing, he was not allowed to drink or eat. The average time for him to sign a CD was 2.7 seconds.

In May 2008, he performed at the CCTV charity event The Giving of Love, dedicated to helping victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Lin also donated a large sum of money to the rescue efforts and composed a song "Love and Hope" (愛與希望 Aì Yǚ Xī Wàng) commemorating the tragedy.

In Oct 2008, his sixth album, Sixology (陸 Liù) was released. 280,000 copies of the album were sold in seven days.

His own fashion line, SMUDGE, was opened in Singapore during 2008 Christmas with an unofficial launch. The store's official launch was on 13 March 2009.

In May 2009, Lin won three awards at the 14th annual Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (Compass) Awards Presentations, a ceremony that honors performers in the music scene. It was held at the Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore. He was honored with the Top Local Artiste of the Year award, which is given out to Singaporean artistes who generated the highest royalty earnings for the year. In that same year, Lin won the Singapore Youth Award.

In May 2010, Lin performed in America for the first time at the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Concert Tour (APAHM).

In June 2010, Lin performed together with the American singer, Sean Kingston at the opening concert of the Marina Bay Sands to thousands of invited VIPs guests. But both were absent at the inaugural YOG Opening Ceremony.

Lin's latest album, Lost N Found (學不會) was confirmed to be released on 31 December 2011, right before the end of the year. A preview of his 9th album was made available on 12 December 2011 on various Chinese internet radio channels.