China's Sa Dingding in line for World Music award

China's folk fusion queen Sa Dingding has been nominated for a prestigious World Music award by BBC Radio. The multi-talented singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and choreographer is expected to attend the awards ceremony, which will take place in London on April 10.

In a busy spring and summer promoting her album Alive, Sa Dingding has two more UK dates planned. She is in the line-up for the July 25 – 27 World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival in Malmesbury, Wiltshire and is also scheduled to perform at a Promenade concert in London's Royal Albert Hall. The Promenade concerts, usually known as the Proms, are Britain's leading classical music festival.

Sa Dingding's striking performances combine Buddhist influences with elements from China's indigenous minority cultures. Born to a Han Chinese father and a Mongolian mother, the twenty-five year old sings in Mandarin, Tibetan, Sanskrit and Lahu (a language spoken in south-west China's Yunnan Province) as well as penning lyrics in her own, invented language. She plays several classical Chinese instruments including the zheng, a type of zither, and the horse-head fiddle.

Critics see Sa Dingding's creative combination of traditional music and electronic beats as a welcome change from the usual Chinese fare of derivative pop jingles and bland hip-hop. She may be poised to make the elusive leap from national fame to international stardom using her British dates as a springboard.

(China.org.cn April 3, 2008) By John Sexton