Chen Wei Lian
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Kelvin Tan Wei Lian (simplified Chinese: 陈伟联; traditional Chinese: 陳偉聯; pinyin: Chén Wěilián; born 5 October 1981) is a visually impaired professional singer in Singapore. He is better known as Weilian to his fans.

Biography

Introduction

Born with Leber's congenital amaurosis, Kelvin worked as a street busker for a living before he took part in a singing competition in which he was crowned the overall Champion. During his busking days, he performed with his guitar at various locations in Singapore such as the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple at Waterloo Street and areas around Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations, drawing crowds of people who were attracted by his soulful voice.

He is the first visually disabled person in Singapore to be signed on for a product endorsement. This has created a milestone for the advertising industry in Singapore, which frequently engages celebrities and models for product endorsements.

Kelvin is also actively involved in various charity and social events. As one of the ambassadors for the 2005 Singapore Disability Awareness Public Education Campaign, he actively promotes awareness of the abilities and employability of people with disabilities. As a motivational speaker for Young Leaders Foundation, he inspires the young to follow their dreams. In recognition of his achievement, he was awarded The Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) of Singapore Award 2006 (Merit Winner) for the Personal Improvement and/or Accomplishment category.

Start of Singing career

On 1 September 2005 he shot to prominence when he won Project SuperStar, a Mandarin singing competition hosted by Singapore's MediaCorp TV Channel U, after garnering 64% of the 533,000 telephone votes.¹ As the Grand Champion of Project Superstar, Kelvin secured a recording contract with "Play Music", a subsidiary of Warner Music.

His debut album entitled All I want is...Kelvin was released on 11 January 2006 with impressive sales record - hitting platinum status in Singapore within a period of just 5 days. It ranked second, only next to Jay Chou's Still Fantasy, in annual sales on the Top Ten Mandarin Album Sales Chart, compiled by Zaobao. The song '触摸' (pronounced as "Chu Mo" or literally Touch) won 'Best Theme Song' at the 2006 Star Awards held by MediaCorp, Singapore.²

Kelvin is proficient in both piano and the guitar, and sings in a variety of languages and dialects. In his debut concert on 22 April 2006 at the Max Pavilion in Singapore, he sang in Mandarin, English, Thai, Cantonese and Hokkien.

His Other Talents

Kelvin is also one of only two visually disabled competitive bowlers in Singapore who had won in a bowling competition, organized by the visually handicapped associations in Singapore and in Perth, Western Australia between 1996 and 1999.

A Mandarin idol drama, titled Dream Chasers featuring Kelvin and fellow PSS alumni, was aired on Channel U in 2006. Kelvin's participation in this drama marked a milestone in Singapore's Television industry - For the first time, a visually handicapped artiste was involved as a lead role in a television drama.³ He has subsequently made guest appearances in other local dramas (Love Degree 0 C , The Shining Star) and variety shows.

Despite limitations to the number of roles that he can perform as an actor, he has managed to become the first visually handicapped artiste to win the acclaimed "Most Popular Newcomer" and "Top 10 Male Artiste" in Singapore's Star Awards 2006.⁴

His transformation from busker to stardom inspired a short feature named 'Life Story', depicting how he has overcome his disability and become the first blind person in Singapore to attain fame in the regional music scene.

Kelvin also appeared in a highly acclaimed local movie 881 directed by the awards-winning Director Roystan Tan ⁵, released in the cinemas on 9 August 2007. He acted as a street busker (his previous profession) and sang a Hokkien song in the movie. The movie is about the unique 'getai' culture in Singapore.

In his third album, song composing skills was attempted, hence showcased more of his individual personality.

Past Portfolio

On 31 August 2007, Kelvin debuts in Taiwan with his second album 'i. Wei Lian'. He and fellow label artiste Joi Chua, did a new music attempt by singing a rap song "Fan Cuo" which was included in the Singapore edition release. Throughout his promotional activities like guest appearances on popular Taiwan variety shows “Happy Sunday” and “Kang Xi Lai Le”, industry veterans notably passed commendable remarks of Wei Lian’s song delivery. He was invited as guest performing artiste to attend the 7th Global Chinese Music Awards held in Hong Kong on 7 October 2007 where he duetted with Hong Kong songbird Joey Yung and presented awards to the best newcomers in the regional music industry.

In first half of 2008, he embarked on his China 'i. Wei Lian' album promotions from radio airwaves to television shows in numerous cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Wuhan. On top of these, Wei Lian never forgot to contribute to sociey, like performing at events to raise awareness for the local blind community. In the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake, Wei Lian participated in the One Love fund-raising dinner in Chengdu and visited the disaster site to help victims rebuild their homes and lives. When Olympic fever hit in the second half of the year, Wei Lian was also very honoured to be able to deliver a song performance with a Qingdao female counterpart, "Tong Zai Lan Se Xing Qiu Shang" at the opening ceremony of the sailing segment of the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games held at Qingdao.

Latest

In Aug 2009, Wei Lian’s third album 'Moving Notes...Kelvin Tan' was released. For the very first time, seven of his own compositions were included in this album, which reflected a level of maturity and progress made by him in music. It is also an achievement and breakthrough for him to showcase his new found talent of music composition. With a personalised album of such, he hopes he can reach out to even more people (alike to his album concept - mobile live performances). For the past few months, he has performed in different heartland areas and wowed crowds of different ages. His album also gained recognition by winning 'The Courts MV Award' for Yong Yuan De Peng You (Forever Friends) MV at the Singapore Hit Awards 2009 (hosted by Yes 933 radio station). He was also awarded 'The Most Inspirational Award' as he has overcome challenges, despite his disability and hence inspired many others.

From heartland areas in Singapore, he continued to perform in shopping malls and pubs in Malaysia. On 12 September 2009, at Malaysia's Bukit Jalil Stadium, he participated in 'T-Music Festival' (organised by Tiger Beer), whereby joined a strong cast of performers and performed his album songs. Upon his Malaysia promotional trip, he was invited to be 'Speaker for The Voice Academy' where he performed songs and encourage those disabled members. He was chosen to sing the theme song, for 2009 Mediacorp Chinese blockbuster show, titled 'Together'.

Discography

To date and from his debut in 2005, Kelvin Tan has released 1 single, 1 Superstar compilation album, 3 studio albums, 3 repackaged albums, 1 Karaoke VCD (adapted from debut album) and 1 concert DVD.

Song Listing on Music Charts

Achievements/Past Performances/Special Features

References

External links

• WeilianKelvin - Kelvin's Fan Site
• WeilianKelvin - Kelvin's Blog
• WeilianKelvin - Kelvin's Twitter
• WeilianKelvin - Kelvin's 3rd Album Blog
• Kelvin's Facebook Group
• Kelvin's Official YouTube Channel
• Kelvin's Chinese OMY.SG link
• Kelvin's Profile in Warner Music Taiwan Site
• Kelvin's China TOM.com weblink
• Kelvin's Online Photo Gallery
• Disabled World