A Perfect Day
Studio album by
Stefanie Sun
Released7 October 2005 (2005-10-07)
Genre
Length41:02
LanguageChinese
LabelWarner
Producer
Stefanie Sun chronology
Stefanie
(2004)		 A Perfect Day
(2005)		 My Story, Your Song
(2006)

A Perfect Day (Chinese: 完美的一天) is the eighth studio album by Singaporean singer Stefanie Sun (simplified Chinese: 孙燕姿; traditional Chinese: 孫燕姿), released on 7 October 2005 by Warner Music Taiwan. Produced by Jia Minshu, Peter Lee, and Paul Lee, it incorporates genres such as pop, rock, electronic and lounge music.

Though this album did not reach the heights of her previous albums, it still fared well commercially by selling over 1 million copies in Asia.[1] In Taiwan, it sold more than 100,000 copies, becoming the 10th best-selling album of the year. The album earned an IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Award for Top 10 Best Selling Mandarin Albums of the Year in 2005.[2] A Perfect Day ended up being Sun's last original studio album to be released under Warner, since she left the company the following year in 2006.

Background and development

On October 29, 2004, Sun released her seventh studio album, Stefanie, which sold more than 2.2 million copies in Asia.[3] In Taiwan, it sold more than 180,000 copies, becoming the year's sixth highest-selling album overall.The album also earned two Golden Melody Award nominations for Best Mandarin Album and Best Female Mandarin Singer in 2005, and she finally won Best Mandarin Female Singer.[4][5]

Stefanie Sun can be regarded as the music director of A Perfect Day. The entire plan for the production of this record was personally discussed and decided by Sun, and the songs were all selected only if she was fond of them. The entire album represents Stefanie Sun's own views and attitudes. In an interview, Sun stated that the concept of the album is defined as: "You like it, you don't like it, it's all very intuitive. The most direct things are the most touching. The music doesn't need to be fancy. If it's already like that, you just need to add the icing on the cake without blurring the focus."[6]

Writing and recording

Mayday (left) and F.I.R. (right), two of Sun's collaborators on the album

A Perfect Day presents new musical and sonic elements. The piano, erhu and strings overlap to concoct the torch song "Poems & Tears", which was composed by Liu Bao-Long while the lyrics were written by the well-known lyricist Albert Leung. Chet Lam, the composer for Sun's 2003 smash hit "Encounter", composed "Honey Honey" for Sun, while Peter Lee and Sun followed "Green Light" and developed the fast-paced song "Flying With Dreams" with the instrumental sounding reminiscent of a marching band. One of the most popular songs on the album, "First Day", is co-produced by Stefanie Sun and the groups Mayday and F.I.R.. The artists' names also cleverly matches the song title (First Day, F.I.R. Stefanie May Day). The album's title track is composed by Chinese musician Yu Yang, marking the first time that a composition made by someone from the mainland appears on a Stefanie Sun album. "Wandermap" is a mid-tempo ballad composed and written by Shuo Hsiao. "Invisible" is a touching slow song written by Xiao Han and composed by Jim Lim and Eric Ng.

"Honey Honey" was tailor-made by Chet Lam and is coupled with Sun's narration, children's harmonies and laughter, ukuleles, triangles, castanets and has a child-like sound. "Wish" is a richly produced pop rock ballad composed by Sommerdahl Harry, Hamid Kinda and Hortlund Rebecca while lyrics were helmed by Shih Chen Hsu. "Another Face" is a jazzy sounding song composed by Peter Lee and written by Poly Lin. The closing track "Sunny Day Tomorrow" was composed by Sun herself with lyrics written by Jennifer Hsu.

Title and artwork

Warner Records also invested a lot of manpower in the shooting of the album's cover and inner page photos. Stefanie and the crew made a special trip to Hualien County for filming, and the filming lasted for three full days.[7] The album cover was shot in Qixingtan Beach in Xincheng Township. On the cover Sun is standing on the seashore while smiling ear to ear. Sun herself showed off her explosive red hair for the first time, and her look was really eye-catching.

Release and promotion

On September 29, 2005, Sun announced that the album would be released on October 7, 2005, which, in turn, sparked a pre-order frenzy. What was particularly special is that the pre-order included not only CDs but also cassette tapes for the first time. The CD and cassette pre-orders were limited to 200,000 copies and 50,000 boxes respectively. Starting from September 25, mainland fans could go to video stores across the country and pay the full price in advance to order an album CD and receive an exclusive Stefanie Sun "Perfect Day Private Photo Album" on the spot, including more than a hundred highlights. The photos allowed fans to peek into Sun's day. In addition, there was also a sticker sheet. Fans who pre-ordered the cassette received a set of Sun's "Perfect Day" photo postcards. In Taiwan, the high volume of pre-orders also stunned the Warner Music staff. In just 10 days, the number of pre-orders for Sun's ring tones exceeded 200,000.[8]

At one o'clock noon on October 8, 2005, to promote A Perfect Day, Sun moved into a temporary transparent glasshouse in the plaza of Taipei 101 for 24 hours, allowing fans to witness her daily life. For fans, "Perfect Day" turned into a "sad day" because not long after Sun moved into the glasshouse, it started to rain heavily, and it rained buckets almost the entire day. Seeing that her fans were still supporting her outside in the rain, Stefanie admitted that she was very heartbroken. She said: "It was really sad to see the fans outside in the rain. I was almost moved to tears." On October 10, 2005, at one o'clock at noon, she walked out of the glasshouse bleary-eyed and immediately held a signing ceremony for her new album at the scene. It was reported that the glasshouse and the furniture inside was auctioned afterwards, and the money was used to fund the construction of shelters in India.[9] When she slept inside the glasshouse, one hundred and fifty fans slept outside with her, but she only slept for more than six hours before being woken up by her dog. Due to the live broadcast of her whole day's schedule on the internet, 300,000 people went online to browse her life in the glasshouse the night before.[10] On October 28, 2005, Sun held an album celebration event in Taipei, Taiwan, and she announced that the total sales for A Perfect Day in Asia exceeded 1 million copies.[11] The album reached number eleven and number fourteen on the year-end album sales charts of G-Music and Five Music of 2005, respectively.[12][13]

Singles and music videos

The first music videos from the album to be released were "Perfect Day" and "First Day". In the "First Day" music video, in order to capture the relaxed and happy atmosphere that suits the song, the director Xu Yunxuan specially went to Tamsui Beach and invited a group of student bands to join the shot with Sun. The music video for "Perfect Day" was directed by prolific music video director Shockley Huang. The music video of "Poems & Tears" was directed by Jinhe Lin. The music video portrays a flashback of the heroine tearing up all the "lyrics" on the room after breaking up with her beau. The shooting location was in a dark room with only a sofa and a chair. Sun mainly sang the song sadly on the sofa. The music video of "Invisible" was directed by Jinhe Lin as well and starred Kuo Bea-ting and Ladder Yu. The story tells that the heroine deeply loves the male protagonist, but the male protagonist has to choose to leave because of his personal ideals. Although she was scolded by her friends, the heroine is still waiting for the hero to come back to her, and even hopes to become invisible and stay by the hero's side when the hero needs her.

The music video for "Honey Honey" was directed by Leste Chen, the music video for "Wish" was directed by Chen Zhaoliang, and the music video for "Flying With Dreams" was directed by Lai Weikang. The tracks, "First Day", "Poems & Tears", and "Honey Honey", are listed at number 10, number 22, and number 53 respectively on the 2005 Hit FM Top 100 Singles of the Year chart.[14][15]

Accolades

On October 28, 2005, the album won the Best Album Award in the 6th Global Chinese Songs Ranking. At the 17th Golden Melody Awards the album was nominated twice; Sun was nominated for Best Female Mandarin Singer while Yu Yang was nominated for Best Composer Award. The album's title track was nominated for Top 10 Gold Songs at the Hong Kong TVB8 Awards, presented by television station TVB8, in 2005.[16] The album was awarded one of the Top 10 Selling Mandarin Albums of the Year at the 2005 IFPI Hong Kong Album Sales Awards, presented by the Hong Kong branch of IFPI.[17]

Track listing

No.TitleLyricsMusicArrangementLength
1."完美的一天" (A Perfect Day)Yu YangYu YangYu Yang4:05
2."眼淚成詩" (Poems & Tears)Albert LeungLiu Bao-LongTerence Teo3:41
3."隱形人" (Invisible)Xiao HanJim Lim, Eric NgEric Ng4:36
4."流浪地圖" (Wandermap)Shuo HsiaoShuo HsiaoEric Ng4:05
5."第一天" (First Day)AshinStefanie Sun, F.I.R., MaydayStefanie Sun, F.I.R., Mayday4:13
6."Honey Honey"Chet LamChet LamTiger Chung, Jiang Liping, Ren Baizhang4:23
7."心願" (Wish)Jennifer HsuSommerdahl Harry, Hamid Kinda, Hortlund RebeccaAndong4:33
8."另一張臉" (Another Face)Poly LinPeter LeeAdam Lee3:43
9."夢不落" (Flying With Dreams)Wei En LiuPeter LeeKenn C.3:46
10."明天晴天" (Sunny Day Tomorrow)Jennifer HsuStefanie SunAndong3:52
Total length:41:02


References

  1. ↑ "台灣專輯銷量盤點之2005，王力宏蔡依林第二第三，周杰倫四連冠!" (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2023-09-14.
  2. ↑ (in Chinese) IFPI Hong Kong 2005 IFPI Hong Kong Album Sales Awards winners list Archived 2012-07-02 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2011-04-19
  3. ↑ "孙燕姿西门町活动轻松募得万颗爱心糖果(图)". ent.sina.com.cn (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 2004-12-03. Retrieved 2023-09-14.
  4. ↑ (in Chinese) GIO, Taiwan 16th Golden Melody Awards nomination list Archived 2012-07-09 at archive.today 15 April 2005. Retrieved 2011-07-01
  5. ↑ (in Chinese) GIO, Taiwan 16th Golden Melody Awards winners list Archived 2012-07-08 at archive.today 20 March 2006. Retrieved 2011-07-01
  6. ↑ "《完美的一天》全亚洲发行 孙燕姿挑战音乐总监". ent.sina.com.cn (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 2005-10-13. Retrieved 2023-09-14.
  7. ↑ "孙燕姿新专辑《完美的一天》今日上市(附图)" (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  8. ↑ "孙燕姿10月7日发片 《完美的一天》掀预购狂潮" (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  9. ↑ "孙燕姿住进透明玻璃屋 让人"看光光"(组图)" (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  10. ↑ "孙燕姿上床150名歌迷陪 网络30万人次争睹(图)" (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  11. ↑ "组图：孙燕姿新专辑销量破百万 大摆庆功宴" (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  12. ↑ ":::::g-music 玫瑰大眾風雲榜 2005 年度銷售排行榜 綜合榜:::::". 2006-02-24. Archived from the original on 2006-02-24. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  13. ↑ "Five Music - 五大唱片(5大唱片) -五大金榜". 2006-02-10. Archived from the original on 2006-02-10. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  14. ↑ "Hitoradio‧Hit Fm --華人音樂入口指標". www.hitoradio.com. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
  15. ↑ "Hitoradio‧Hit Fm --華人音樂入口指標". www.hitoradio.com. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
  16. ↑ (in Chinese) Sina.com 2005 TVB8 Awards Gold Songs nomination list 2 December 2005. Retrieved 2011-07-01
  17. ↑ (in Chinese) IFPI Hong Kong 2005 IFPI Hong Kong Album Sales Awards winners list Archived 2012-07-02 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2011-04-19


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