A-mei

AsiaWorld-Arena

Dec 20, 8.15pm

You can be sure someone warned Sherry Chang Hui-mei when she was starting out in the entertainment industry that life might sometimes be tough if she made it to the top. But the Taiwanese diva could never have expected the tumultuous ride her career has taken.

The singer burst on to the Asian scene in 1996 as an unknown 24-year-old and her debut release, Sisters, took the region by storm, topping the charts at home and establishing a fan base for A-mei (as she is commonly known) on the mainland as well.

And everything went according to plan for the next four years. There were more chart successes with Bad Boy and Holding Hands, sold-out shows at home, on the mainland, in Hong Kong and Japan.

But at Chen Shui-bian's Taiwanese presidential inauguration in 2000, A-mei (above) got up and sang the Republic of China's national anthem. And all hell broke loose.

A-mei was banned by mainland authorities, she was stripped of commercial contracts and she found herself on the front page of the tabloids as she took the news hard. 'I should have been more discreet in my behaviour,' she would say later, 'which impacts on so many people'.