When she's not too busy acting for cinema, TV or for commercials, Athena still manages to find time to sing! Even if it's not a real new activities for many local actors, those who can really make a full career of it (the main example being Andy Lau) are are. But music is a genuine passion for Athena who has never given up this form of expression despite average results since her start.
The first album released by Athena Chu was made in 1996 under the title Earthquake. Strangely, she chose for her first release to sing in mandarin, a language she didn't master perfectly at the time. We wouldn't recommend it because of it, the general composition and Athena's own limitation in the singing department.
Picture from her first album
The second one LP, made a year later and called Glass, saw the actress-turned-singer sings in Cantonese. An improvement but only slightly as the above-mentioned problems remains.
A third attempt named Kick Kick (?!) didn't achieve better results.
Picture from Obsessed
Still, Athena hasn't given up. Even if the sales are average and producers half-convinced of her skills for a breakthrough, the young woman persisted and released a fourth album in 2002 named Athena In Maldives. “ I'm doing it for the experience. I want more people to see me as a singer. A lot of people think a woman at my age should get married but I'm still going forward. I don't care what the media says and I don't care what people say about my music. I'm doing this to discover more about myself” . In order to be in complete control of the product, she's self-financed . A wise move and the improvement is obvious, be it in the singing or the music-writing. A good part of this rise in quality comes from the involvement of Athena's boyfriend, Beyond's member Paul Wong, who managed to convince her of the average artistic results of her previous singing efforts. This new attempt didn't attract much people though. The sales being not even enough to break even.
Athena and her boyfriend/personal composer Paul Wong
Persistence is the keyword to describe the singing career of Athena Chu. And even if she doesn't enjoy as much success as in her acting career, she never gives up her aspiration to touch people through songs. Thus she released another album called Obsessed in 2003 and another more in 2004 under the name Attitude. Those two records confirm the good impression left by Athena in Maldives of a real improvement in every departments.
Even if Athena will arguably never be a singing star of the calibre of Sammi Cheng, Miriam Yeung and the likes, she will certainly continue on this path. And, if she manages to keep up the improvements, she may achieve a relative success in a near future. |