Industry outsider Penny Tai to hold first Shanghai gig

Industry outsider Penny Tai to hold first Shanghai gig
By Yao Minji | Shanghai Daily

MALAYSIAN singer and songwriter Penny Tai will hold her first Shanghai concert at Shanghai Oriental Art Center on December 14.

The 30-year-old singer, known for expressing the feelings of modern women, writes and composes all her own songs. She hasn't released an album for the past two years, instead choosing to upload her songs online.

"I don't want to write songs to accommodate other people," she says. "I'm not looking for more fans, either. I'm not used to the traditional music-industry life, whereby a singer has to spend so much time and energy on marketing."

She plans to go on using the Internet to market her songs and has been working with a new band for the past two years.

For her first concert in Shanghai, Tai has prepared a lot of costumes and learned some Shanghai dialect. She also released the full line-up of songs for the concert online this week, two weeks before the performances so that "it's fair for fans to choose whether they want to come according to the repertoire."