After 12 years, home-grown singer Kit Chan is finally releasing a new record of original material, The Edge Of Paradise. The album hits stores tomorrow.
Her last album of original songs, East Towards Saturn, was released in 2004.
The launch of the new disc was held yesterday afternoon at the Eslite Spectrum auditorium in Xinyi, Taipei.
On the long break, Chan, 43, says at the launch: "I've been hard at work living my life."
Looking happy and relaxed in an off-shoulder, flowy pale blue dress, she talks about the album title. "I've learnt about the beauty of imperfection. My paradise is not that everything is hunky-dory, but you're at the edge, you see the light and perfection, but you're not there yet. That yearning and hope are most beautiful."
The album features songs in a variety of genres, from the jazzy Don't Ask Me Why I Love You to the emotive ballad People Who Are Separated By Wind. Of the mix, she says: "It's varied, but not in a way that is cluttered."
Her collaborators include veterans such as songwriter Pan Hsieh-ching, composer-producer Hsu Chang-de and singer-songwriters Kay Huang and Jimmy Ye.
In between the two albums, she took a break from show business, worked in public relations for 19 months and tied the knot with her long-time Singaporean banker boyfriend in 2012.
But she was not quite done with music. She released an album of covers, Re-interpreting Kit Chan, in 2011 and undertook her first regional concert tour last year.
A high-profile stint on the Chinese reality television contest I Am A Singer early last year led to a contract with a major China record company, Taihe Music Group.
Asked how she continues to look good, she says: "I think the heavens are fair. No one thought I was beautiful when I was younger.
"If you're beautiful when you're young, it just goes downhill. But if you're okay-looking, then your character gets (to shine through) with time."