Vancouver pop singer-songwriter Wanting Qu is a celebrity most Canadians have scarcely heard of, and yet she is one of the most famous artists in the world.
Wanting is a huge star in Asia, with more than 700 million fans. She has two albums, which went platinum, and deep roots in Canada.
From Harbin, China, she moved to Vancouver â all by herself â to study English and business. However, she ended up finding success in music.
The style can best be described as Western-pop Chinese style, sung in English and in Mandarin Chinese.
âIf people ask me like, âDo you think youâre Canadian or Chinese?â Iâll say Iâm half-half,â said Wanting in an interview with CTVâs Beijing Bureau Chief Janis Mackey Frayer.
W5âs cameras were given exclusive access to the pop star during a 25-city tour of China to promote her second album Say the Words, and back home in British Columbia.
Lyrics from her song âShut the Hell Upâ reveal struggle, loneliness and rebellion. Itâs Wantingâs take on her lifeâs story and how sheâs doing it her way.
âSome people they donât just have anything good to say about anyone.
I donât wanna listen any more.
Why you still here bringing me down?â
Wanting was born in Harbin, in north-eastern China. The city is famous for its annual ice sculpture festival.
Winters there can get as cold as Winnipegâs. She grew up learning how to skate and enjoying the four seasons. Itâs the place that shaped her, made her who she is.
Wantingâs mother, who is a powerful and well-connected politician, had her daughterâs life planned out: learn English in Canada, get a business degree, then a masters in business and move back home.
The young Qu had plans of her own. As she puts it: âI was 16 years old and very rebelliousâ.
âI was definitely alone you know,â she said. âLike, I went there without my family. Youâre like a newborn again. You speak the language, (but thereâs) the new style of food, new way of thinking. Humour is different, grocery store â everything is different. It was totally hard. I was so alone.â
"Life is a struggle, Iâm not the only one.
Life is a tangle, Iâm not the only one.
Everyone grows up and Iâm not the only one.
So why the hell am I still feeling so alone?"
Alone maybe, but leaving Harbin permitted Wanting to choose her own path. When she didnât do well in some of her courses, she chose a different path.
âI did finish a bachelor degree, just to please my mom, and then I did poorly in economics and I was asked to withdraw. And they asked me to go to another school to take other courses to boost my GPA up. I just didnât want to waste that money on those courses. So what I did was I bought like an electronic piano.â
It wasnât quite âa star is bornâ â but it certainly set the future artist on her path.
In 2005, Wanting began writing songs and within a few years had a demo ready and reached out to Terry McBride. Based in Vancouver, he is one of the top music managers in the world.
McBride has represented artists like Sarah McLaughlin, Avril Lavigne and Cold Play.
âShe sent me some music. I listened to the music. I didnât even know that she was Chinese.â McBride told W5 in an interview.
âI asked to meet for tea to talk about to find out where she was from. I just wanted to know whether the person behind the music was actually real.â
âI felt like she was singing from her heart, I felt that she was singing from her own sort of universe and all the things that happened to her. So she was speaking with a real voice.â
"Now you see what happened at last?
Never underestimate your strength my lady
Don't give up, don't give up
Never give in, never give in"
Encouraged by McBride, Wanting posted a new song, Drenched, to YouTube. It went viral.
Noticed by a Chinese movie director, he used it in his hit movie Love in the Buff and the ESL student from Harbin was suddenly a star on the Asian music scene.
"When I look into your eyes
I can hear you cry for a little bit more of you and I
Iâm drenched in your love"
With more songs in 2012, Wantingâs debut album Everything in the World went platinum six times. Her track âYou Exist in My Songâ received an unbelievable 100 million video views and was number one in China for eight weeks.
To top off her banner year, Wanting went on to share the stage with Celine Dion at Beijingâs Lunar New Year televised gala which had an audience of more than 700 million viewers.
âThereâs one purpose for me on earth is to either heal these lonely souls or just give them strength, or just tell them, âHey, youâre not aloneââ, Wanting said.
âIâm your friend, Iâm here, and weâre all the same. I give them some hope and strength. Thatâs what the most fans, most fans tell me what I give them is this hope and strength and so I love that. I love it.â
Following her first album, Wanting was recognized as the Best New Artist, Best New Original Artist, Best Music Composer at the Chinese Music Awards. The tune, "You Exist in My Song", won the award for Best Song.
Her second album, Say The Words, introduced her to North American audiences. She toured the continent with live performances in 17 cities.
McBride believes Wantingâs success is just beginning.
âYouâre looking at an artist whoâs sold billions of songs. Billions. You know, North America tends to measure things in millions which is really interesting to me,â said McBride. âWhen she plays the CCTV New Yearsâ show, seen by 780 million people, itâs numbers that the music business here has a very hard time grasping.
âThereâs over 60 million Chinese that donât live in China. Thatâs almost double the population of the country that we live in, so that reach gives her a marketplace everywhere, not just in China, but everywhere.â
Wantingâs ability to reach audiences in Asia inspired Tourism Vancouver. In 2013 she was named the cityâs Tourism Ambassador to China.
Music videos promote the cityâs attractions and since the campaign began, visits to Vancouver from China are up 25 per cent.
Wanting is a Canadian landed immigrant now and has made Vancouver her home for 14 years.
More recently she was in the news when Wanting confirmed that she was dating Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson. Following months of rumours, he posted a romantic Valentineâs Day message to her on Weibo, a Chinese social media site similar to Facebook.
Wantingâs musical success has also repaired her relationship with her mother.
When she first pursued her music career, her mother cut her off and stopped sending her the support money intended to continue Wantingâs schooling. The two didnât speak for a number of years.
Last year, while in Harbin for a concert, W5âs cameras watched as mother and daughter greeted each other and hugged at the airport. Her mother was given a front row seat at that nightâs concert and sang along as Wanting sang Say The Words.
"I have a mother, she was very strict mother
And I was a rebel made her life a living hell.
But Iâm not like that anymore,
I want to make her smile.
So I like to take this moment
And say the words.
I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you."