Twins (group)

Twins
Twins in the 2007 international 6th anniversary concert tour in San Fransico
Occupation	Singers, actresses
Genre(s)	Cantopop
Label(s)	Emperor Entertainment Group
Years active	2001–present
Current Members	Gillian Chung, Charlene Choi
Official site	Twins EEG HK Official Site
Awards MTV Asia Awards Favorite Artist, Hong Kong 2006

Twins is a Hong Kong-based female Cantopop duo created in the summer of 2001 by Albert Yeung's Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG). Twins is made up of two young ex-models, Charlene Choi Cheuk-Yin (蔡卓妍) and Gillian Chung Yan-Tung (鍾欣桐), who by birth is originally Chung Ka-Lai.

Biography

Main articles: Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung

Charlene Choi was born in Vancouver, Canada on November 22, 1982. Gillian Chung was born in Hong Kong on January 21, 1981. Twins started their career in the summer of 2001, and are best known for the song "Girls' School, Boy Classmate" (女校男生) from their first EP. Before signing with Emperor Entertainment Group, Chung studied at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. Chung had also worked as a part-time model during one of her summer vacations in Hong Kong. Similar to Chung, Choi was also a part-time model who had appeared in several advertisements. She became famous after her participation in the television program Y2K, organised by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). Choi and Chung were introduced to each other by their agents. They subsequently auditioned for and later formed the band today known as Twins.

Singing career as a group

See also: Twins discography

Like most other new singers, Twins made a great deal of effort to boost their popularity. During their first two years, they released 3 EPs and 3 albums, all of which sold very well. Most of their songs stayed at the top of many different musical charts for several weeks. Their achievements helped highlight and cement their popularity amongst other new singers. Twins had their first concert in 2002 and three more in 2003, one of which was held in Guangzhou. Between 2001 and 2003, they received a total of 48 musical awards. This was a remarkable feat for the relatively new group at the time, and it showed that their effort had been highly appreciated. In 2003, they received the largest number of awards in the annual prize presentations from the four major Hong Kong media organizations, which are RTHK, Commercial Radio Hong Kong, ^[1], MetroRadio and TVB.

Twins' effect

When Twins started their singing careers, there were very few musical groups in Hong Kong. However, after Twins' success, other music producers realized there was a huge market for group singers. As a result, more singing groups were formed.

Appraisal and criticism

Twins have been subjected to a wide range of criticism concerning poor singing skills, unclear Mandarin pronunciation, and lack of a reckoning status as singers (since they showed that they have been distracted from their singing career). Nevertheless, Twins have entered the Mandarin market successfully and their popularity keeps increasing in the Chinese music industry. Twins had spoken in Mandarin countless times as guest stars in Mainland China and Taiwan TV programs with many TV hosts praising their singing, dancing, and acting skills, and their overall attractiveness. In particular, Charlene has attracted many directors and movie investors, thus having a non-stop movie schedule for 2007. Gillian also participated in many Chinese drama series in 2006-2007. Twins state that they are currently trying hard to improve in all aspects of their performance (singing, dancing, acting), and have recently started to take singing lessons with popular entertainment voice coach Christine Samson. Twins will be releasing their third Mandarin album in April 2008.

Twins' fate in the coming future

Twins acknowledge there are shortcomings but promise to improve

The Hong Kong musical industry has shown, many pop group and bands break-up after they acquire a considerable level of popularity. The Twins are not immune to this and there have been rumors that Twins is also facing the same fate. It has been suggested by EEG that their concerts due for early 2006 may be their last. However these rumours have been around before and have proved unfounded and purely for entertainment purposes in generating gossip for tabloids. At the 2006 Hong Kong Entertainment Awards ceremony Choi tearfully acknowledged that there have been criticisms of the Twins' singing abilities and that she hoped that they could better improve in the coming year. Twins overcame rumours of splitting up when they attended the May 2006 MTV Asia Awards in Thailand together. They were nominated for and won the Hong Kong Most Popular Singer Award. Twins garnered many more votes than Andy Lau, who was predicted to take home this award. This is arguably the most important award for their profile. In February 2007, they celebrated their sixth year together in the Hong Kong music industry. They released a special Sixth Anniversary New + Best Selection CD/DVD. Most rumours of a split have ceased and they have reaffirmed to their fans they will celebrate yet another six years. In September 2007, to celebrate their sixth anniversary since entertaining the entertainment circle, Twins embarked on a multi-city North American concert tour, with special guests Sun Boy'Z. International stops included San Francisco, Toronto, and Atlantic City. It is their first time performing on a major tour across several North American cities.

Other ventures

Twins, Gillian (L) & Charlene (R), promoting a new drink (2006)

Apart from their singing careers, Twins have also been involved in a number of advertisements, television series and films. Within their first three years, they had appeared in 18 advertisements, a television series, and 16 films, being cast as main characters in 6 of these. The Twins have also been selected to promote several social campaigns in Hong Kong, such as summer activities for the Hong Kong Home Affairs Bureau in July 2003. In the film Beyond Our Ken released in 2004, Gillian played as Chan Wai Ching, a spurned girlfriend of the eponymous Ken, where she managed to brings both a charming girlishness and an opaque resolve to the character, and handles her despondency with believable vulnerability. Gillian occasionally gives off the same sweet likability that has characterized her earlier performances, but shows far more than that in this particular film. Charlene has good reputation among HK directors about her attitude, learning and acting skills. Her psychological thriller movie Diary, by the Pang Brothers has earned her the Best Actress award at the 11th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PIFAN Korean Movie Award). In her movie Simply Actors (2007) , a success at the box office, Charlene portrayed a Category III softcore actress, where she proved to the audience once again that she is not just a cute and bubbly young girl. Instead, she has shown herself to have matured into a young lady capable of taking on a variety of roles. She received numerous nominations for her solid acting, duly identified by an abundance of film critics. Only months later, she left the 2007 Golden Bauhinia Film Awards hand in hand with the awards for Best Actress and Favourite Actress for her portrayal of Dani Dan in Simply Actors.

Film Collections

Twins Effect DVD Cover (German Version)

Featuring Both Charlene and Gillian:

• 2002 June 14 Summer Breeze of Love (這個夏天有異性)
• 2002 September 19 Just One Look (一碌蔗)
• 2003 June 23 Twins Effect (千機變)
• 2003 November 6 The Death Curse' (古宅心慌慌)
• 2004 January 15 Fantasia (鬼馬狂想曲)
• 2004 February 3 Protege de la Rose Noire (見習黑玫瑰)
• 2004 April 8 Love on Rocks (戀情告急)
• 2004 August 6 Twins Effect II (千機變II: 花都大戰)
• 2004 November 25 6 AM (大無謂)
• 2005 March 24 House of Fury (精武家庭)
• 2005 July 21 Bug Me Not! (蟲不知)
• 2007 February 15 Twins Mission (雙子神偷)
• 2007 September 6 Naraka19(地獄第19層)

Television Show Collections

• February 2002 The Great Monkey King Suen Wu Kong (齊天大聖孫悟空)
• May 2003 Midnight - Stuck In The Lift (2半3更之困車立)
• October 2003 Triumph In The Skies (衝上雲霄)
• September 2003 Kung Fu Soccer (功夫足球)
• December 2004 Sunshine Heartbeat (赤沙印记@四叶草2)

Television Shows (Gillian only):

• Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain (雪山飛狐) (2007)
• Project A (A計劃) (2007)
• The Spirit Of The Sword(浣花洗劍錄) (Coming Soon)

Television Shows (Charlene only):

• Y2K (青春Y2K)(2000)
• Love of the Woods (森之愛情) (2007)

Concerts

• 2002 September 13-15 Ichiban Amazing Show (Twins Ichiban 興奮演唱會)
• 2003 January 18-19 Matsunichi Twins Guangzhou Amazing Show (松日Twins廣州興奮演唱會)
• 2003 June 25 Tou Hao Ren Wu Chang Hao Music Concert (頭號人物唱好音樂會)
• 2003 August 2 Netvigator NETCash Pop-up Concert ( 網上行叱吒樂壇Pop-Up音樂會)
• 2003 December 31 - 2004 January 4 Matsunichi Twins 04 Concert (Twins 04 好玩演唱會)
• 2005 June 3 Starlight Amusement Park Concert (Australia)
• 2006 January 4-7 Twins Star Mobile Incomparable Concert (Twins 星Mobile 一時無兩演唱會)
• 2006 August 18-19 Twins Concert in Genting Malaysia
• 2007 September 15 Twins in Concert Cow Palace, San Francisco/Daly City

USA^[2]

• 2007 September 18 Twins Concert in Toronto at Casino Rama (我們相愛6年)
• 2007 September 22-23 Twins Sixth Anniversary World Tour 2007 [Atlantic City] (Twins 我們相愛6年 環遊世界[大西洋城]演唱會)

Photo Albums

• 2001 November Twins 1+1 Photo Album' 96 pages
• 2001 August Twins Love The Colorful Travel 112 pages
• 2003 August Twins Love Hong Kong 112 pages

References

See also

• Gillian Chung
• Charlene Choi
• Cantopop

External links

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

• Twins EEG HK Official Site
• Twins EEG China Official Site
• Twins Lyrics (Pinyin and english translation)
• A Site run by Fans with most popularity(Chinese)
• Official Twins Worldwide English Fan Forum