Wang Leehom

His father, a pediatrician, and his mother, moved to the United States to further their college studies in the early 1960s.

Influenced by his older brother, Leo Wang, who had been taking violin lessons since he was seven, Wang began to develop a curious interest towards the violin and its musical counterparts when he was three.

He begged his mother to put him in violin lessons with his brother but his mother was against it, reasoning that he was too young.

When Wang turned six, his mother enrolled him in violin classes, performing along with his brother.

As he became a teenager, he began taking piano lessons, also teaching himself the guitar.

He also worked several jobs to earn money to buy a second hand drum kit.

He attended Jefferson Road Elementary School, Pittsford Middle School, and Pittsford Sutherland High School in Pittsford, New York.

He graduated from Pittsford Sutherland.

Passionate for a career in music, he chose to attend Williams College double majoring in music and Asian studies.

He joined an all-male a cappella group, The Springstreeters, and the group recorded several demo tracks.

Wang Leehom (born May 17, 1976), sometimes credited as Leehom Wang, is an American singer-songwriter, actor, producer, and film director.

Formally trained at Eastman School of Music, Williams College and Berklee College of Music, his music is known for fusing hip-hop and R&B, with traditional Chinese music (Beijing opera, Kunqu, Chinese orchestra, and tribal music from Tibet, Yunnan, and Mongolia).

Since his 1995 debut, Wang has released 25 albums, that have sold over 60 million copies.

He is a four-time winner and 19-time nominee of the Golden Melody Awards, the "Grammys" of Chinese music.

In the summer of 1995, while Wang was visiting his grandparents in Taiwan, he was offered a professional recording contract by Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) after he participated in a talent competition hosted by the label.

Not wanting to lose the opportunity, he immediately began preparing for his debut, and released his debut album Love Rival, Beethoven (情敌贝多芬) that December.

The record received little limelight, forcing him to leave the label.

He signed with Decca Records the following year, a label then famous for producing "powerful singers" (實力派歌手) in Taiwan.

Wanting to also have control in the idol market, the label initially planned to market Wang as the mainstream "romantic idol", like with their previous artist Mavis Fan.

However, after discovering Wang's talent in music-making, Decca began promoting him as Taiwan's "quality idol" (優質偶像) instead.

Wang released his second album If You Heard My Song in 1996, which included some of his own compositions.

He co-wrote the album's eponymous title song, which earned positive responses from the audience.

The album drew moderately successful sales, and he became a rising star in the idol market, also finding similar successes with his third and fourth albums.

During this time, Wang was asked to leave his college studies to pursue a full-time singing career, but he insisted on finishing school first.

Wang's contract with Decca Records was terminated after the release of his fourth album White Paper in the summer of 1997.

After graduating with honors at Williams College, he released his first award-winning album Revolution under Sony Music Entertainment in August 1998.

The album became his breakthrough album, immediately selling over 10,000 domestic units in the first week of release.

Wang was one of the first torchbearers for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, and performed in the Olympics' closing ceremony in Beijing.

His sold-out concert at the 90,000 seat Beijing Bird's Nest on April 14, 2012 was the first solo pop concert to be held at the iconic venue.

He was again a torchbearer for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, making him the only person in the Mandarin pop circle to have taken part in the event twice.

He is a longtime ambassador for World Vision Taiwan and Malaysia.

Wang holds honorary doctoral degrees from both Williams College and Berklee College of Music.

Born in Rochester, New York, Wang is the second of three sons of immigrants from Taiwan.

With over 72 million followers on social media, Wang is one of the most followed celebrities in China (peaked as #1 most followed person in China's social media in 2014).

In 2018, CNN dubbed him "King of Chinese Pop" and the LA Times called him "the biggest American star America has never heard of."

Wang was listed as one of Goldsea's "The 100 Most Inspiring Asian Americans of All Time."

In addition to his music, Wang has also acted in over twenty films, including Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, Jackie Chan's Little Big Soldier and Michael Mann's Blackhat.

He won Best Actor at the 2018 Macau Film Festival.

Asia Society presented the 2019 Game Changer Award to Wang Leehom at the U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit.

He is an environmental activist, and his album Change Me was dedicated to raising eco-awareness among Chinese youth.