Will Jolin Tsai release a new album?20230211
The Taiwanese pop star Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) has recently concluded her Ugly Beauty tour named after her last album. It had been scaled down mostly because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the last tour phase "Finale in Taipei" was quite intimate, looking more like a summary of the pop star's career, not like another big event in her continuing career. So many are in doubt now what comes next.
She has got a great team that has produced a great show, of course. But the singing performance was not perfect. During her shows she is doing a lot of artistic moves and they influence the ability to sing. So playback is often used and is combined with real singing when she is able to do so.
The playback is usually well synchronized with the real singing and the audience mostly does not even notice the transition between playback and the real thing. But this time the performance was different.
It seemed that Jolin Tsai even did not try to hide that her voice is not perfect and was performing like someone rembering her past career and not like someone who wants to attract the audience with seamless performance. The intimate atmosphere when she was singing her past hits like Pirate (海盜) or Love, Love, Love was really like "let's sing together although our voice is not perfect".
There were rumours that Jolin Tsai is tired of these avant-garde shows and wants to return to her melodic singing that sky rocketed her career when she entered the show business with songs like "Living with the World" 和世界做鄰居(我可以).
Although Jolin Tsai's voice is not perfect, she is still a great singer and the digital technologies can fine tune the sound to a perfect level. But the big doubt is if she really wants to go this way or rather retire early like for example her Japanese friend Namie Amuro (安室奈美恵)?
Many singers have switched from singing to acting. But although Jolin Tsai performs well also as an actor in her many video clips and commercials, she refuses proposals for real film acting roles. Maybe she wants to slow down her career and finally find a life partner to have a family with in her 40's. Or maybe she is preparing a new big thing and the current phase is just the calm before the storm. Who knows?