IT WAS A RISKY MOVE. Taking a year-long hiatus while you're riding high as the hottest Chinese female singer around may well rob your career of its momentum. But Stefanie Sun Yan Zi has no regrets.
The Singaporean singer emerged refreshed after her 2003-04 break, produced two best-selling albums and set up a music and management company, Make Music, to identify new talent. And she struck a deal with Warner Music to put a cap on her workload.
In town for two concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum which end tonight, Sun says she's enjoying working at a more leisurely pace. Her previous schedule involved back-to-back concerts, promotional tours, and churning out seven albums in four years.
'In the beginning, I had no clue [about the music business],' she says. 'If promoters wanted me to smile, I smiled. You kind of wondered what fans liked about me. Now I have to think about what I want to do. I have to find room to grow.'
Sun, 27, persuaded Warner Music to let her work a set number of days per week and limit her output to one album a year. 'We built a good foundation of trust. If you're not going to exploit it, they will trust you,' she says. Warner's faith has been repaid: her two post-hiatus albums, Stefanie and A Perfect Day, have notched up sales of five million.
For her upcoming trips to Shanghai and Nanjing - as well as Malaysia in April - Sun has limited herself to two shows per city. 'With my physical condition, I'm not sure I can take [more than two concerts in a row],' Sun says. 'I'm skinnier than most people and have less energy. I want to go for quality.'