S.H.E

Searching for new talent to complement Power Station, HIM International held open auditions on August 12, 2000. During the auditions, Taipei native Ren Jiaxuan sang Coco Lee's "Before I Fall In Love." Tian Fuzhen, who hailed from Hsinchu, sang Shunza's "Write a Song."Chen Jiahua, from Pingtung, sang Mayday's "Gentle and Soft."All three passed, and were recommended to the Universal Talent and Beauty Girl Contest. The preliminary rounds of the Universal Talent and Beauty Girl Contest were held on August 20, 2000 in New York City, New York. Entering the final preliminary round of the contest, Ren Jiaxuan was slated to sing Elva Hsiao's "The Closest Stranger"; both Tian and Chen planned on singing Karen Mok's "Cloudy Sky." All three girls passed, and secured three of seven spots in the TV round.

Once the contestants reached the TV portion of the contest, Tian Fuzhen was slated to perform first, followed by Ren Jiaxuan. However, Jacky Wu, then host of "TV Citizen," forgot the order of contestants, so he called on Ren first.During the television round, each of the five judges would turn on lights when flaws in singing were identified; a combined total of three lights would result in elimination. Ren Jiaxuan sang Christina Aguilera's "Reflection," but her singing flaws earned her two lights. Tian Fuzhen sang Kit Chan's "Loving You"; despite forgetting the majority of the lyrics, she was given only two lights. Chen Jiahua chose Rene Liu's "Afterwards," but was eliminated after receiving four lights.At the end of the round, only four contestants remained, two of whom were Ren Jiaxuan and Tian Fuzhen. Among the four, the judges selected Ren as the winner, and awarded her a record contract with HIM International. Later that summer, HIM International contacted Chen and Tian, and asked both girls to audition once again.After a few test recordings, HIM signed both Chen Jiahua and Tian Fuzhen to record contracts.

After recording the songs for their first album, Ren Jiaxuan, Tian Fuzhen and Chen Jiahua needed a group name. The company suggested several names, including H.B.O, Digi Girl, 3C Girls (3C 美少女), and S.H.E Girl Friends (S.H.E 女朋友). The name Digi Girl would have reflected HIM's endorsement of Digimaster products, whereas H.B.O would have coincided with one of the songs on the girls' first album.[5] HIM finally decided on S.H.E; as a result, Ren Jiaxuan became Selina, Tian Fuzhen became Hebe, and Chen Jiahua became Ella. The name "Selina" initially had two possible spellings: Selina and Selena. Ren Jiaxuan eventually chose "Selina" simply because she would be able to dot the i.When Ella tested out her signature, HIM employees were concerned that the signature would be easily forged due to its simplicity; thus, during S.H.E's early days, Ella signed autographs using the last character of her name, "樺" (Pinyin: huà). However, as S.H.E's autograph sessions drew larger audiences, Ella reverted to her simpler, English signature

The group's name, S.H.E, was selected for two reasons. Once the dots in S.H.E were removed, the resulting word would emphasize the fact that S.H.E was a girl group; the dots would have symbolized individual differences between the three members. Secondly, by having an English name, the group would be more accessible to an international audience.However, there were concerns about how audiences would react to such a name. Selina was certain that the name would never catch on. Moreover, S.H.E would have been perceived as plagiarists by having a name that was eerily similar to S.E.S., a girl group that was already making a name for themselves in South Korea.HIM had known this beforehand, so they provided local audiences with an alternative Chinese name for their new group: 女朋友 (pinyin: nǚ péngyŏu; literally: "girl friends"). Although "Girl Friends" remains the official Chinese name, it is no longer used to publicize the group.


Before releasing S.H.E's first songs, HIM International focused on the group's chemistry, and assigned the three girls to live together in a dormitory room.[6] On September 11, 2001, S.H.E released their first album, Girls Dorm (Chinese: 女生宿舍), in memory of their prior living quarters. Although the CD sold an impressive 150,000 copies for a debut group,the trio gained notoriety for singing off-key during their first live performance.Because of their successful debut, S.H.E earned a nomination for Best New Artist at the 13th Annual Golden Melody Awards, but lost to Jeffrey Kung. On January 29, 2002, Youth Society (Chinese: 青春株式會社), was released and went on to sell over 250,000 copies.Upon the release of their second album, "S.H.E Girl Friends" underwent a name change and became simply "S.H.E". The trio's third album, Genesis (Chinese: 美麗新世界), was released on August 5, 2002, approximately six months after Youth Society. Continuing the successes of the group's previous albums, 20,000 copies of Genesis were ordered in advance of the release date. The album would go on to sell over 180,000 copies.[7] S.H.E later signed an endorsement deal with N-age, a South Korean online game company. Not only did N-age appear in a couple of music videos, they also sponsored S.H.E's first major concert in Tainan, the N-age Genesis Concert (Chinese: N-age美麗新世界演唱會), which attracted over 20,000 fans.

2003 was a year plagued with setbacks and interruptions. On January 23, 2003, S.H.E released their fourth album, Together, which featured only four new titles; the remainder was a selection of greatest hits from previous albums. On April 19, S.H.E, along with Power Station and Z-Chen, held a concert under the HIM International banner. However, S.H.E and Z-Chen were featured as mere opening acts, performing for a combined 65 minutes before making way for Power Station. At the height of the SARS epidemic, Hebe exhibited fever-like symptoms on April 16 while coming home from Singapore.Since Ella was living with Hebe at the time, both were forced into quarantine for 10 days, leaving Selina as the only one in the group who could host the television show Happy Sunday.The quarantine was later extended to 14 days.On July 29, Ella was injured while performing a stunt for Happy Sunday and did not resume work until January of next year.

S.H.E's fifth album was intended for release on August 6, but due to Ella's injury, Super Star arrived in CD stores on August 22, 2003.The album featured the group's first pop/rock song, "Super Star," which, for ten consecutive weeks, placed no lower than fourth on Singapore's YES 93.3 music charts.To date, Together and Super Star have combined to sell over 580,000 copies;over 250,000 copies of Super Star were sold in Taiwan alone.On February 6, 2004, S.H.E released their sixth album, Magical Journey (奇幻旅程), in two different versions: a Magical Version and a Journey Version. Both versions combined to sell over 1.5 million copies in Asia, including 160,000 copies in Taiwan alone. Later that year, on September 4, 2004, S.H.E began their first major tour, the Fantasy Land Tour (奇幻樂園). The tour started in Taipei, where over 25,000 attendees were present,and ended in Genting Highlands, Malaysia. In Shanghai, the trio even managed to set an attendance record.The tour raked in over NT$22.4 million in gate receipts. Because of Selina's graduation, the release of S.H.E's seventh album, Encore (安可), was pushed to November 12, 2004. Nevertheless, Encore sold 1 million units in Asia within one week of its release;since then, that number has reached over 2 million.[30] By the time Encore was due for release, media outlets had already begun labelling S.H.E as "The Number One Girl Group" (女子第一天團.

S.H.E has released ten studio albums to date, a number that includes two compilation albums. All of S.H.E's album covers display an oxalis, the symbol for the group. On some covers, the clover is easy to spot (Girls Dorm, Together, Encore, Forever); on other covers, its appearance is more subtle (Super Star, Once Upon a Time). S.H.E's other contributions include songs in the soundtracks of Magical Love, The Rose, Reaching for the Stars, Tokyo Juliet, The Little Fairy, and Hanazakarino Kimitachihe.

All three members have different vocal ranges to complement each other when singing. Ella sings within the alto to mezzo-soprano range, while Hebe and Selina sing within the mezzo-soprano to soprano range.[45][c] As a result, Ella sings more parts if the song is intended for a lower key; Hebe and Selina are the predominant voices if the song is intended for a higher key. Most non-lyrical introductions are sung by Hebe.

The majority of S.H.E songs fall into the category of pop music. The songs that fall into this genre consist of light melodies,simple drum beats, and the occasional piano or synthesizer accompaniment. In Girls Dorm and Youth Society, acoustic guitar melody lines would be used as well. While some slower songs, particularly those in Genesis, fall into the genre of R&B,high-tempo songs, such as "Beauty Up My Life," focus more on techno. S.H.E has also sung a few pop/rock songs, including "Piquancy, "Super Star," and "Star Light." As their career progressed, S.H.E began mixing light-hearted pop ballads with elements of hip hop and dance. Attempts to fuse these genres started with songs such as "If You're Happy, Then I'll Be Pleased" (你快樂我隨意), which contained a short rap segment, and evolved into songs such as "Listen to Yuan Wei-jen Play Guitar" (聽袁惟仁彈吉他), which is comprised entirely of rap with the exception of the chorus.

Credit to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.H.E