| Jocie Kwok 郭美美 |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Jocie Guo Guo Mei Mei |
| Born | March 21, 1982 |
| Origin | Singapore |
| Genres | Mandarin pop |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Labels | Play Music Warner Music |
Jocie Kwok (Chinese: 郭美美; pinyin: Guō Měiměi; born March 21, 1982[1]), also known as Guo Mei Mei, is a Chinese-Singaporean female singer who made her first appearance on the entertainment scene in the middle of 2005. She is signed under Singapore record company Play Music which practises packaging and marketing their new artistes as cartoon caricatures on album covers and music videos. Jocie was depicted as a sweet innocent cartoon girl and became famous within weeks of her debut single release.
The former Singapore Polytechnic student has been an instant success, with her two singles selling a combined 55,000 copies. Jocie is viewed as Warner Music Taiwan's priority artiste with an extensive multi-million dollar marketing campaign planned for her regional debut and poised to follow in the footsteps of Warner's top Singaporean artiste, Stefanie Sun Yanzi. Her two music videos alone cost a staggering $250,000 to shoot, with top director Lai Wei-kang at the helm.
Jocie was the first artiste to be granted legal copyrights to sing “Lao Shu Ai Da Mi” outside of China; the resulting hit single was the first to make it to the top of Singapore’s RIAS sales chart in 2005. Her first album in 2006, 不怕不怕 (No More Panic), out-competed its competitors and became number one on the RIAS sales chart only 10 days after its release. When released in Taiwan, it would sell more than 60,000 copies and attained Platinum status. For Singapore’s 2006 May-Day concert, she was invited to perform alongside other big Singaporean stars such as Stefanie Sun in front of a crowd of 20,000. Jocie won many “best newcomer” type awards in 2006 such as the “Best Female Newcomer” award from both the 3rd Annual Hit King Awards event that was held in Guangzhou, China[2] and the 6th Annual Global Chinese Music Award Ceremony; she would also win “Best Newcomer” during the Guangdong Radio Station’s 9+2 Billboard Music Pioneer Awards Ceremony along with “2006’s Most Popular Song” award for her “Bu Pa Bu Pa” single.
In April of 2007, she performed at Ray Media’s 7th Annual Music Awards Ceremony. Also in 2007, Jocie received her first six-figure deal to advertise for the Hong Bao Lai ice-cream company in China.[3] Previously, she had also endorsed for Sa Sa Cosmetics and Aji Tei Kyoto Sabo.[4]
During 2008, Jocie's second album 我的答铃 My Darling reached number 2 on Hong Kong's TVB8 Chart and was awarded "Best Newcomer". Later during October 3rd, she performed at the 2008 Asian Song Festival at Seoul's World Cup Stadium in South Korea as part of the Eve Concert Performers event.[5]
On March 7, 2009, she was seen performing the song 放了爱 at Media Fiesta 2009 at Singapore’s Marina Square Atrium where a promotion of 一切完美2 (Perfect Cut 2) took place.[6] Later in March, she appeared in episode 11 and 12 of the third season of Singapore’s popular singing competition series Campus SuperStar, where XiaoHan was also a judge of the show, and performed 放了爱 and 许愿树 respectively.[7]
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Jocie's debut single includes the cover of the song, 老鼠爱大米 [8] (Pinyin: Lǎoshǔ Ài Dà Mǐ; translated "The Mouse So Loves The Rice"), with various remixes. Her version of 老鼠爱大米 is more of a techno and hip style when compared to Xiang Xiang (香香 pinyin: xiāng xiāng ), the original singer for the female version.
Her second single, 不怕不怕 [9](Pinyin: Bu Pa Bu Pa; translated "Not afraid, not afraid"), a Chinese-language cover version of the Moldovan-Romanian pop song "Dragostea Din Tei" by O-Zone, was released in early November 2005.
That song was also the title track of Jocie's debut album, known as "不怕不怕" or "No More Panic", [10] which was released in January 2006. The album has her previous hit single "Bu Pa Bu Pa" as well as new songs and covers that range from catchy mid-tempo tunes to acoustic folk and sentimental numbers. Among the songs of the album was one titled 勾勾手 (Pinyin: gōu gōu shǒu) which was used as the ending theme of the Singaporean drama 爱的掌门人 (Love Concierge).[11]
Jocie also published two more albums for Christmas (2006) and Chinese New Year (2007).[12] She had released her newest album titled 我的答铃 My Darling (pinyin:Wo De Da Ling) on October 22, 2007.[13] The album included a cover of Ann Winsborn's La La Love On My Mind. In the following year towards the end of May, a CD+DVD version of 我的答铃 My Darling was released and made available worldwide; it would contain 2 bonus tracks and a DVD with 5 of her music videos for 我的答铃 My Darling.[14]
About a year later, Jocie would become the singer for the opening theme song of the 2009 Singaporean drama 一切完美2 (Perfect Cut 2), 放了爱 (Pinyin: fang le ài; roughly translated “to have released love”), whose lyrics were written by award winning lyricist XiaoHan[15], and the ending theme for the show titled 许愿树 (Pinyin: xǔ yuàn shù; roughly translated “wishing tree”).[16]
| Album # | Album Information |
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| 1st | 不怕不怕
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| 2nd | 我的答铃 (My Darling)
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