Sammi Cheng Sau-man was born in Hong Kong on 19 August 1972, with ancestral roots in Chaozhou, Guangdong, and is a singer and actress. In 1988, aged sixteen, she took third place in the seventh New Talent Singing Awards run by TVB and Capital Artists, singing Frances Yip's 'Gan Yat Bui', and signed with Capital Artists. She released her first Cantonese album in 1990 and later joined Warner Music, becoming one of the best-selling female singers in Hong Kong in the 1990s with hits such as 'Can't Let You Go' and 'Beautiful Life'; she has held eleven solo concert runs at the Hong Kong Coliseum, with more than a hundred shows in the city, and her 'Nike eyebrow' look at her first Coliseum concert in 1996 set off a make-up trend. That year she joined Warner Music Taiwan, opening up the Mandarin-language market. In film she became a romantic-comedy star with 'Needing You' (2000), 'Love on a Diet' (2001) and 'My Left Eye Sees Ghosts' (2002), made by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai's team; at the 21st Hong Kong Film Awards in 2002 she was nominated for Best Actress for three films at once, including 'Love on a Diet' and 'Wu Yen', and was also nominated for Best Original Film Song for 'Beautiful Life', at the time the most nominations for a female actress in a single year. In 2023 she finally won Best Actress at the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards for 'Lost Love', and the theme song she sang for the film, 'How I Live a Day', also won Best Original Film Song. She is also known for long-distance running and charity work.
In the 1990s Sammi Cheng drove the performing style of Hong Kong's female singers through her upbeat songs and Coliseum concert culture, and she later shaped an image of the metropolitan woman in films such as 'Needing You'. After many years of nominations she won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2023 for 'Lost Love', her perseverance becoming an inspiration to many Hong Kong audiences.
Achievements
- 1988 · Took third place in the seventh New Talent Singing Awards and signed with Capital Artists
- 2000 · Starred in 'Needing You', becoming a leading figure in Hong Kong romantic comedy
- 2023 · Won Best Actress at the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards for 'Lost Love' after years of nominations