Ella Chen

Chen Chia-Hwa (traditional Chinese: 陳嘉樺; simplified Chinese: 陈嘉桦; pinyin: Chén Jiāhuà), mononymouly credited as Ella, (6/18/1981- ), is a Taiwanese singer, actress, and TV host. She is the oldest member of Taiwanese girl group S.H.E. Her name 'Ella', which means courage, was given after the personality test given by HIM Management Co. Her English name before entering the industry was Water.^[1]

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 traveled 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 was noted for its strong and beautiful nature.^[2]

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.^[3]

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 injuring her spine while filming a variety program as the two other members refused to jump. 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.^[4] In order to recover, Ella stayed away from filming for two days, during which she cut off approximately two centimeters of burnt hair on both sides of her head.^[4]

In 2007, Chen was voted by online fans as Taiwan's most down-to-earth (unpretentious) artist.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[7] Netizens even labelled her one of China's Four Main Tomboys of the past century.^[8] Her unusually deep voice earned her a starring role as the voice of Arthur in the Mandarin version of Arthur and the Minimoys.

In 2003, Ella starred in a drama series The Rose (蔷薇之恋) with Joe Cheng (郑元畅) and Jerry Huang (黄志玮) and gave her the title of one of the best and most popular drama actress after the mediocre success of Magical Love (爱情大魔咒) with Blue Lan (藍正龍). The drama was voted the Most Popular Drama in Golden Bell Awards.

In 2005, Ella did a drama series with her S.H.E group mates Reaching For The Stars (真命天女) and once again, she proved that she can act very well as she was the only member nominated as Best Lead Actress in 41st Golden Bell Awards considering the fact that the three of them were the leads of the said drama.

In 2006, Ella accepted a drama series that sealed the deal that she was indeed one of the idol drama queens in Taiwan. Hanazakarino Kimitachihe (花样少年少女) gained extraordinary fame and made her team-up with Wu Chun (吳尊) a loveteam to beat. The popularity reached other Asian countries such as China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and even in the non-Chinese speaking countries like Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, USA and some European countries.

2010 marked Ella's return to the drama series arena when with Jerry Yan (言承旭), she led the cast of Down With Love (就想賴著妳). Again, she showed an undeniable strength to draw a large number of audience because of its success despite of being leaked before the 3rd episode was aired.

In 2012, Ella started to venture into the big screen in her first full-length film New Perfect Two (新天生一對) alongside Vic Zhou (周渝民) and was immediately followed by another equally successful movie Bad Girls (女孩坏坏) with Mike He (賀軍翔). Bad Girls theme song was interpreted by Ella herself and became the carrier single of her first commercial mini album entitled To Be Ella/I am Chen Jia Hua which topped the charts all over Asia and gained various praises from the critics and nominations from different award giving bodies on the same year.

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, Ella composed a song for her seniors Power Station, entitled "Love Crazy/愛到瘋癲" (originally titled Shi Mian/Insomnia (失眠), written after her failed heartbreaking relationship). 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," 再这里 for Huang Yi Da (黄义达), 鸟 for Yao Yao.

In 2013, Ella filmed a Chinese New Year Drama in Shanghai entitled 極品大作戰 which required her to film one month straight as she went back and forth from Taiwan to Shanghai, from Shanghai to Taiwan to fulfill her group activities in her home country.

It was recently announced that Ella will be hosting a dating show Take Me Out Taiwan with Harlem Yu (庾澄慶) and will begin airing on April 13, 2013. She was nominated for Best Entertainment TV Show Host along with her partner Harlem Yu in the 49th Golden Bell Award.

Ella became a judge in Season 2 of the Chinese reality singing TV show, Masked Singer. In October 2016, Ella also announced that she was 6 months pregnant with her first child with her husband, Alvin Lai who is a Malaysian.

Ella endorsed a number of enormously famous products like Nike, Baileys, Minute Maid, Caltrate, Biotherm, Super Supau, My Scheming Facial Mask from Taiwan and attended events for Mercedes Benz, Chaumet Paris, Elle, Marie Claire, Sony and Loewe.

Discography

EP

• 蔷蔷 (Qiáng Qiáng) - released August 27, 2007.
• I Am... Ella Chen Jia Hua - released March 30, 2012.
• WHY NOT - released April 2015

Solo / Duet

• 单手超人 (Dān Shǒu Chāorén / Single-handed Superman) - A Solo in The 3 Spas of Love
• 我就是我 (Wǒ Jiù Shì Wǒ / I Am Just Me) - A self-penned and self-composed song she made for her Solo Performance in the S.H.E Is The One Concert Tour.^[9]
• 跟月亮Say Goodbye (Gēn Yuèliàng Say Goodbye / Say Goodbye With The Moon) - Solo - unreleased but leaked around April 2010.^[10]
• 你被寫在我的歌裡 (Nǐ Bèi Xiě Zài Wǒ De Gē Li / You're To Write In My Songs) - Duet with Qing Feng - was the featured artist in What Is Troubling You (你在煩惱什麼) Album by Sodagreen, released November 11, 2011.
• 別 (Bie / Don't) - A solo in Girl's Dorm (女生宿舍)

Filmography

Dramas Series

Movies Series

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ella Chen.

External links

• (Chinese) Official Profile @ HIM International
• (Chinese) 嘉桦Ella的新浪微博