Background
Born in Inner Mongolia, Sa is of Han Chinese ancestry from her father"s side and Mongolian ancestry from her mother side and she was influenced by Mongol music while living with her grandmother in Inner Mongolia until age six.
萨顶顶, 薩頂頂, 周鹏
Born in Inner Mongolia, Sa is of Han Chinese ancestry from her father"s side and Mongolian ancestry from her mother side and she was influenced by Mongol music while living with her grandmother in Inner Mongolia until age six.
She is of mixed Han Chinese and Mongol ancestry, and sings in languages including Mandarin Chinese, Sanskrit, Standard Tibetan, as well an imaginary self-created language to evoke the emotions in her songs. She also plays traditional instruments such as the guzheng and morin khuur. Later on, she moved to Beijing to study music at the People"s Liberation Army Academy of Artist
At age 18, she released her first album entitled Dong Ba Louisiana under her birth name Zhou Peng, awarding her with the title of China’s Best Dance Music Singer.
In 2006, "Holy Incense" was used as the theme song for the movie Prince of the Himalayas, directed by Sherwood Hu. In mid-2007, she released Alive, now available physically and as a download in many countries.
The Hong Kong release of the album features a Digital Video Disc containing music videos, a remix of "Alive", making of footage and a Chinese version of "Mama Tian Na", not featured on the album. In the same year, she also released a two track single called "Qin Shang".
Dingding composed a song with Éric Mouquet of Deep Forest called "Won"t Be Long" to raise funds for disaster relief after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
The song was made available on Mouquet"s Deep-Projects website. Mouquet and Dingding have collaborated on a forthcoming album Deep China. Most recently, Dingding has appeared at World of Music, Arts and Dance and the Harrogate International Festivals in the United Kingdom. On October 6, her official English website was updated with information about a European tour, going from November 7 to 17, making stops in Germany, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Las Palmas, Australia and New Zealand.
Foreign Chinese composer He Xuntian"s 2008 album, Tathāgata, Dingding contributed the vocals for the second track, entitled "Dátǎjiādá" (达塔伽达).
Her latest album, released in January 2010 is Harmony (天地合), with nine songs in Chinese. The album also contains three remixes of the title track, one by Paul Oakenfold.
There has also been news of Dingding singing the theme song for the film Gasp (气喘吁吁), called "Gēchàng De Lìliàng" (歌唱的力量), in working with Howie B.
"Freedom is the first thing I learnt from Music" Laptoprockers, December 2008
Sa Dingding interview from Global Rhythm magazine, August 2008
News articles
"Made in China: the singer poised to sweep the globe" The Independent
Sa Ding Ding, the Asian Bjork. The Times
The Guardian, Friday March 28, 2008
from Universal Music
at Livedoor.com (Japanese)
"Why Sa Dingding has China in her hand" The Daily Telegraph, 18 July 2008.
