I received a recent e-mail in regards to a J!-ENT interview I did almost a decade ago with Tibetan singer, Alan Dawa Dolma.
Best known for her music in Chinese and Japanese (as the artist alan /note: In Japan, they love to use names in all caps or in all lower case), I was asked of all people I have interviewed, how did I end up interviewing alan. Was it the Chinese or Japanese management that wanted me to interview her or did I actually have interest in interviewing her?
Around 2006, Avex Trax was holding auditions in China and Alan was one of the 40,000 people who came. And she eventually won the audition and became the first signed artist from China and moved to Tokyo that year.
By 2007, I received a press review copy of her debut CD single “Ashita e no Sanka” and I liked the potential of alan’s vocals as it managed to incorporate her Tibetan wail into her music and how its fused with contemporary music was so nice and unique and managed to put her in a unique category different from other current Avex female solo artists.
Because I wrote about popular music not just in Japan but other countries, and also was a big fan of Cantonese and Mandarin pop, I was more interested in the fact that this beautiful singer with an amazing voice, a native from Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province who spoke the native Rgyal rong language was now a pop artist in Japan. That was amazing.
Also, amazing was knowing her name Alan “Dawa Dolma” (Heavenly maiden of the moon) was bestowed upon her by a Buddhist monk. And also that she played the erhu, which her parents made her do fearing she was too much of a tomboy.
So from 2007-2010, I would write about Alan’s music. I was one of the few English writers that her Japanese label would go to for international coverage of her music.
And she would receive a lot of attention for singing the theme songs for the John Woo “Red Cliff” films and even performing the song at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2008.
But she had a pretty good career in Japan.
She would perform at venues throughout Japan, her song “Diamond” was used for the anime series “Inuyasha: The Final Act” and “Over the Clouds” was used for the Sony PSP video game, “God Eater”.
But as alan was gaining popularity in Japan, in early 2010, it was when I asked her Japanese label Avex that I needed to interview her now before it becomes impossible. Especially as major media outlets were now becoming interested in her.
“Let’s make it happen!”, I said. And considering I have been one of few who was writing about her music since her debut, I was granted an exclusive interview with alan before other English news outlets.
While I was thrilled to have interviewed alan. What I didn’t expect was how things would change the following year.
Surprisingly, in August 2011, Alan decided to focus all music activities in China. And wanted to get away from the image of an artist who sung theme songs and wanted to have a brand new start, she auditioned for the 2013 Chinese version of “X-Factor” (which she didn’t make the top 12 because the judges didn’t know whether or not she could sing high notes). But she would eventually transfer to a Chinese music label and for the most part, she has been pursuing her music career in China.
Overall, it was a wonderful interview and grateful to alan for the opportunity. But that is how the interview came about! If you want to check this interview out, you can read it here (PDF Format).
