Zhang's debut album was titled The One and was produced by Craig Williams. Her next album, Update, broke away from the Chinese pop scene by combining elements of R&B and jazz. After the release of Update, Zhang participated in a World Peace One concert that was designed to increase awareness and activism for world peace, and to raise funds for humanitarian relief. Other participating artists included U2, Madonna, Pink Floyd and Green Day.
Her father was an engine attendant for a transportation company in Chengdu, and her mother was a shop assistant.During her childhood, she performed at her parents' workplace on several occasions. However, her parents divorced when she was 13; two years later, Zhang's father died. This forced her to work outside of school; she started to sing at a local public house, where her uncle played the accompaniments.While performing at the pub, Zhang was exposed to a wide variety of music genres, and developed a taste for American country singers in addition to Western pop singers, such as Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera. Because she was unable to afford her own music players, Zhang frequently borrowed walkmans and headphones from her classmates, and skipped lunches to save enough money for cassettes.After graduating from college, she studied at Sichuan University's Foreign Language Department where she was majoring in English; she dropped out soon after to compete in the 2005 Super Girl competition.
Zhang auditioned for the Super Girl contest in 2005. Super Girl (simplified Chinese: 超级女声; traditional Chinese: 超級女聲) is the Chinese equivalent to the popular Idol franchise where only female contestants were allowed to participate.She auditioned in Chengdu, and after progressing through the preliminary rounds, she entered the national competition with Li Yuchun and He Jie (simplified Chinese: 何洁; traditional Chinese: 何潔).
Throughout the series, she had established a fan base whose members called themselves "Liang Fen" (simplified Chinese: 凉粉), a phrase that combined the Chinese pronunciation of her name and the English word "fan." The term "Liang Fen" originated from Hong Kong years ago, but is now used to define a particular type of bean jelly snack in central China.Zhang demonstrated her ability to sing in foreign languages, with performances of "I Still Believe,""What's Up,""Beautiful,"and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina."As such, she was recognized by judges, critics and musicians to be the most talented singer in this competition.Some critics even regarded her as one of China's best artists.Nevertheless, she was not the most popular contestant among young supporters. Her final number of votes by text messaging was 1.3 million. Consequently, she placed third behind Li Yuchun and Zhou Bichang.Her loss did not come as a shock because Li and Zhou had garnered more popularity during the competition. Their creative eccentricity and tomboyish appearances triumphed over Zhang's "old, introverted, [and] pretty-girl" image.
After the competition ended, Zhang was invited to visit Sichuan University, her alma mater, during its orientation week celebration in early September. She performed her own rendition of Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine" there.On September 26, 2005, she became the first Super Girl contestant to hold a personal music show for her fans. Numerous celebrities attended the show, including Huang Jianxiang, a host on CCTV's football shows, Phoenix TV host Zeng Zimo, and Taiwanese singer Sky Wu.Zhang also signed a contract with CCTV to play the supporting role in The Song of the Movie, a stage music show produced by Taiwan pop musician Jonathan Lee. Harlem Yu and Yuan Quan also starred in the musical, which opened in Beijing in December 2005 and later in Hong Kong.
On January 9, 2006, her first EP, Jane·Love (simplified Chinese: Jane·爱; traditional Chinese: Jane·愛) was released. The EP, which cost 2 million yuan to produce,contains six tracks in total: 3 songs and 3 instrumentals. In China alone, over 210,000 copies of the EP have been sold.On Forbes' China Celebrity 100 list, Zhang was placed 55th.Her debut album, The One, was released on October 11, 2006, her 22nd birthday.During the production of the album, Zhang visited the United States to collaborate with music producers Craig Williamsand Peter Hyams, the latter of whom had worked with Celine Dion and R. Kelly.The One contains ten songs, three of which are in English; the three English songs were produced by Williams.She has also sung many popular theme songs for various films and series, including "Only for Love" (simplified Chinese: 我用所有报答爱; traditional Chinese: 我用所有報答愛) for the film The Banquetand "Unparalled in the World" (simplified Chinese: 天下无双; traditional Chinese: 天下無雙) for the TV series The Return of the Condor Heroes. The popularity of both songs was reflected on numerous Chinese music charts."Only for Love", which was a collaboration with Chinese pianist Lang Lang,was nominated for Best Original Film Song at the 2007 Hong Kong Film Awards.
In February 2007, she was invited by World Peace One (WP1) to join a hundred world-renowned singers and bands to record a song called "Give Your Love". This was aimed to bring attention to all cultures of the globe. This project aims to promote awareness of the poverty of third-world countries.Zhang was the only Asian female singer who received an invitation to participateand it was reported that Craig Williams recommended Zhang to the organiser of the event.Zhang performed her first North American concert on March 31, 2007 in Pasadena, California.Famous Japanese musician Kitarō and Gavin Christopher also attended the concert, in which Gavin Christopher and Zhang sang I'll Be There together.On April 8, 2007, she was awarded the Best Singer Award in the 2007 Music Chart Awards ceremony was held in Beijing Exhibition Centre Theater.Her July 28, 2007 concert in Beijing also set a record for the most expensive VIP seating for a mainland Chinese artist.She performed live versions of hit songs from The One, new songs from her second album Update, which was released in August 2007, as well as Richard Marx's signature ballad "Right Here Waiting" and Beyoncé Knowles's "Listen" from the award-winning Broadway musical Dreamgirls.On August 2, 2007, her second album, Update was released. When asked about the album's name, Zhang explained that the album is an upgraded step from The One. The songs broke away from the Chinese pop scene by combining elements of R&B and jazz.One of her tracks, "We Are Together" (simplified Chinese: 我们在一起; traditional Chinese: 我們在一起), was produced for a project by the United Nations Children's Fund.
Zhang was invited, along with 130 other renowned Chinese performerssuch as Elva Hsiao, Joey Yung, Alan Tam, Wang Feng, Eason Chan, Hacken Lee and Jackie Chanto record "We Are Ready" in July 2007 for the countdown to the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was released on August 2."We Are Ready" was composed by Peter Kam and Keith Chan,at the request of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), for the celebration of the one-year countdown to the start of the 2008 Olympics. On August 8, the artists who recorded the song gathered at Tiananmen Square, and performed the song live for the first time.In addition, Zhang, along with Wang Leehom, Stefanie Sun, and Wang Feng, recorded the theme song of the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch relay, "Light the Passion, Share the Dream" (simplified Chinese: 点燃激情，传递梦想; traditional Chinese: 點燃激情 傳遞夢想).
On December 8, 2007, Zhang performed a live concert in her hometown, Chengdu. She performed most hit songs from her two albums, The One and Update, together with songs from her newly released EP, Dear Jane.Additionally, she also sang a promotional tourism song for Chengdu , titled "I Love This City".
Jane@Music, Zhang's third album, was released in January 2009. She also accompanied Taiwan-based artist Leehom Wang in a duet in Wang's album Heart Beat.
Zhang made her American television singing debut on The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 11, 2009.
Believe in Jane, Zhang's fourth album, was released in February 2010. She also performed at the first annual New York China Film Festival, where she was awarded most popular Chinese singer.She further represented China in the 7th Asia Song Festival held in Koreaand hosted her first fanmeet in Singapore in September 2010.In August, she begun her Believe in Jane tour with concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Tianjin.Jane further performed "I Believe" and "The Only" at ice-skating couple Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo's wedding. The latter was accompanied by a ice skating performance by the couple.As a brand ambassador of Coca-Cola in China, she also collaborates with K'naan and Jacky Cheung in the Chinese version of Wavin' Flag for Coca-Cola's 2010 World Cup promotional tour at the 2010 Shanghai Expo on May 8, 2010.A passionate vegetarian, Jane Zhang won the title of Asia’s Sexiest Vegetarian woman in 2010 in a poll by PETA-Asia Pacific.
I Don't Wanna Pray
张靓颖 Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
委屈了 就哭了 像孩子那样失控
心痛了不是罪过 那为什么我
不可以冲动
那些点头的朋友 狂欢后剩下什么
上了车 就往前走 至少先离开
我无所谓 让心缓缓破碎
既然不懂 就不要责备
我不是你心里所认为的那个谁
I don't wanna stay There's another way
玩到越疲累 快乐越沉醉 I don't wanna pray
就这样吧 把什么都放下
不要以为 我情愿被当作刺猬
就不用 安慰
I don't wanna pray I just wanna play
爱不就是挣脱寂寞然后不肯给
I don't wanna stay There's another way
玩到越疲累 快乐越沉醉 I don't wanna pray
I don't wanna pray I just wanna play
人不都是凭着直觉明知那不对
I don't wanna stay There's another way
玩到越疲累 快乐越沉醉 I don't wanna pray
离开只是因为 I don't wanna pray
The lyrics of 张靓颖's song "I Don't Wanna Pray" reflect a sense of rebellion and resistance against societal expectations and pressures. The singer expresses a desire to break free from the constraints placed upon them and live life on their own terms. The opening lines suggest a longing for freedom and a reluctance to conform by stating that they haven't found an excuse in a long time and that they don't need to understand everything. The lyrics then describe feeling misunderstood and bursting into tears like a child when feeling wronged. The singer questions why it is seen as a fault to feel heartache and why they can't act impulsively.
The lyrics also touch upon the idea of superficial friendships and the aftermath of celebrations. The singer implies that friends who nod in agreement during happy times may not truly understand or support them. The lyrics convey a sense of detachment and a desire to move forward, even if it means leaving those friends behind. The singer declares that they don't care about their heart slowly breaking, and if they don't understand, they shouldn't blame them.
The chorus repeats the statement "I don't wanna pray, I just wanna play," which can be interpreted as a rejection of traditional norms and a yearning for personal enjoyment and freedom. The singer states that they are not the person others perceive them to be and that they don't want to stay in that projected image. They emphasize that happiness becomes more intense the more tired they become from playing.
Overall, the lyrics of "I Don't Wanna Pray" express a longing to break free from societal expectations, superficial relationships, and the burden of constantly trying to conform. The singer advocates for personal freedom, the pursuit of happiness, and a rejection of the need for validation from others.
Line by Line Meaning
多久没找个借口 不必什么事都懂
It's been a long time since I found an excuse, I don't have to understand everything
委屈了 就哭了 像孩子那样失控
When I feel wronged, I cry and lose control like a child
心痛了不是罪过 那为什么我 不可以冲动
It's not a sin to feel heartache, so why can't I be impulsive?
那些点头的朋友 狂欢后剩下什么
What's left of those friends who nod their heads after the party?
上了车 就往前走 至少先离开
Once on the car, just move forward, at least leave first
我无所谓 让心缓缓破碎
I don't care, let my heart slowly break
既然不懂 就不要责备
Since you don't understand, don't blame
I don't wanna pray I just wanna play
I don't want to pray, I just want to have fun
我不是你心里所认为的那个谁
I am not who you think I am in your heart
I don't wanna stay There's another way
I don't want to stay, there is another way
玩到越疲累 快乐越沉醉 I don't wanna pray
The more exhausted from playing, the more intoxicated with happiness, I don't want to pray
就这样吧 把什么都放下
Let it be, let go of everything
不要以为 我情愿被当作刺猬 就不用 安慰
Don't think that I would rather be treated like a hedgehog, so there's no need to comfort
I don't wanna pray I just wanna play
I don't want to pray, I just want to have fun
爱不就是挣脱寂寞然后不肯给
Isn't love about escaping loneliness and then not giving up?
I don't wanna stay There's another way
I don't want to stay, there is another way
玩到越疲累 快乐越沉醉 I don't wanna pray
The more exhausted from playing, the more intoxicated with happiness, I don't want to pray
人不都是凭着直觉明知那不对
People don't always follow their instincts knowing that it's not right
I don't wanna stay There's another way
I don't want to stay, there is another way
玩到越疲累 快乐越沉醉 I don't wanna pray
The more exhausted from playing, the more intoxicated with happiness, I don't want to pray
离开只是因为 I don't wanna pray
Leaving is only because I don't want to pray
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: ALEX EBERT, JADE ALLYSON CASTRINOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind