Biography

Janice Vidal (Chinese Simplified: 卫兰; Chinese Traditional: 衛蘭), born April 13, 1982, is a female singer in Hong Kong. She is of mixed parentage with a Filipino father and a mixed Chinese and Korean mother. As a Chinese singer she had chosen the Chinese name Wei Lan (衛蘭), although most of her fans refer to her simply as Janice. In the past she went under the name Renee in her musical work prior to her debut album in 2005 and “Ming Lok Tai” (明樂蒂) in a EEG singing competition in 2000.

Janice is emerging as one of the new singers in Hong Kong and Asia. Her music style is a mixture of Cantopop, Jazz and R&B. She performs her songs in English, Cantonese and Mandarin and will be performing songs in Korean in the near future.

Before becoming an artist herself, Janice had always enjoyed singing. Her voice came to the attention of renowned producer Mark Lui by chance when she recorded the backing vocals for one of mega star Leon Lai’s songs in 2004. Janice obviously left a favourable impression on Lui, as upon Lui’s stumbling across her voice he informed Leon, who in turn decided to offer Janice a contract with AMusic (東亞唱片), a newly-formed record label where both Leon Lai and Mark Lui were major investors (Leon transferred himself to Amusic as well). As a result Janice became the first newcomer to sign for AMusic in 2004.

Belonging to the same music label as Leon Lai, Janice first caught the media’s attention days after Christmas of 2004 by covering in English one of Leon’s essential tunes “Unspoken Words of Deep Feelings” (情深說話未曾講) on radio. The cover song quickly become a hit. Some fans initially thought it was an overseas singer who was covering one of Leon’s classic hits, but were surprised to find out the singer was an unknown Hong Kong rookie. Since it was Christmas in Hong Kong at the time, Janice’s first song was swiftly followed by a Christmas version of another Leon Lai cover “不可一世” (this time in Cantonese). The Cantonese cover of “Unspoken Words of Deep Feelings” (情深說話未曾講) was aired on radio in Spring 2005 for the first time. She learned English when she was in the United States.

By April 2005, Janice had become known as a mysterious singer who sung several cover versions of Leon Lai’s songs, but whose face has never been shown in public. After roughly six months of radio publicity and building public anticipation, her face was finally unveiled when her debut album “Day & Night” was released on 13 April 2005.

On 25 November of the same year, Janice released her second album “My Love”, a rarity for a newcomer in Hong Hong’s music industry.

In mid-December of 2005 Janice was nominated by Commercial Radio 2 for the 2005 Hong Kong Music Awards Best Female Singer, which results are due out on Jan 1, 2006. On 1 January 2006, Janice was awarded by Commercial Radio Hong Kong (CRHK) the Gold prize for 2005 Best Female Newcomer., to the delight of her fans and family.