When it comes to Karen Mok, looks could be deceiving! Take one glance at her petite frame and listen to her soft spoken manner and you will be immediately misled to think she is frail and delicate, when the truth of the matter is she may be that… and so much more.
This singer, actress, composer, producer, and designer is a whirlwind that has been conquering Asian audiences for 20 years now, and is ready to take on the rest of the world by storm with her latest album, Somewhere I Belong, her first, and not at all timid, attempt to Jazz after 15 records of top selling pop mandarin music.
A household name in her native Hong Kong and China, where she has 36 million followers on Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo tracking her every move, Karen Mok (born Karen Joy Morris) can fall into the categories of action movie heroine, celebrity lingerie designer and a stadium-filling pop singer. Still, her rebellious and ever changing nature is always forcing her to push boundaries. The most recent one: recording her first English-language album, a collection of beautiful jazz covers with a Chinese flavour to them.
Recorded in fast paced and ever buzzing Shanghai, the album features versions of Love for Sale and While My Guitar Gently Weeps, amongst others, which have the unique sound of Chinese instruments, that seem to blend perfectly with each of the songs. Add to that Mok’s sultry voice and enticing theatrical flare and you’ve got your jazz fix for the day.
The porcelain skin 42 year old is excited about her latest project, claiming she fell head over heals for jazz 20 years ago as a student in London. Born to a half-Chinese, half-Welsh father, with Iranian and Germanic blood on her mother’s side, the multilingual (she speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Italian, and French) performer loves the fact that she has no substantial roots anywhere. Her diverse background has always made her feel different and sort of an outsider, which led to the realization that that “somewhere she belongs” to is the stage, and she can only be defined by what she does… which is a lot.
Not content with the different aspects to her artistic career, she is also a passionate social activist who fights against human trafficking and environmental damage, an expert on Italian literature and a wife to her first boyfriend. A restless entrepreneur, she was chosen to carry the Olympic torch at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
As she continues to wow her millions of fans across Asia, the outspoken star now hopes to spearhead an Asian musical invasion of the West, exporting her je ne sais quoi (actually we do know: hard work, persistence and talent) to Australia and the rest of the world. We wonder when we will be able to see Karen down under in person, and not just in her action packed movies. Karen, what do we have to do to bring you here?
