Better late than never

From left: English engineer Haydn Bendall, Chinese singer-songwriter Ding Wei, American singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega and producer Lin Chaoyang at Metropolis Studios in London. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Stardom

Ding, who was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, found stardom at the age of 20, when she was still a student at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music majoring in composition. She became one of the best known pop stars of the 1990s, producing chart-topping songs and performing sellout shows.

As well as many hits of her own, including The Butterfly With Broken Wings, she also wrote compositions for big-named stars, including Beijing-based pop diva Na Ying and Hong Kong singer-actor Andy Lau.

The most remarkable things about the music scene two decades ago, Ding says, are the singer-songwriters' loyalty to their music and how healthy the music environment was. However, with the rampant piracy in China during the 2000s, she said the market became unfriendly to original singer-songwriters like her.

"I didn't think it was the right time to release the album due to the bad market. I was also not satisfied with the production we did," recalls Ding, who with the support of the album's producer, Lin Chaoyang, a schoolmate at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, put the album aside.

Lin, who is also known as Salt, graduated from the Moscow P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory and is a classically trained violinist.

In 1996, Lin was invited to teach at the Beijing-based Central Conservatory of Music, which enabled him to reconnect with Ding in the capital.

Besides Ding's new album, the two have also collaborated on music compositions for more than 40 movies and TV dramas since 2007, such as the series Dwelling Narrowness in 2009, and a 2011 Chinese romantic comedy, Love is Not Blind.

"We've known each other for decades and she is a singer-songwriter with a distinctive style, which is rare in China," says Lin. "I am confident about this new album, even though we've waited for such a long time to release it. Like Ding's early music, this album proves that she has always been ahead of the curve."