Sally Yeh

Sally Yeh (葉蒨文, born 30 September 1961) is a Taiwanese‑Canadian singer and actress who became a defining voice of 1980s and 1990s Cantopop. Born in Taipei, she moved to Victoria, British Columbia at the age of four, where she grew up bilingual in English and Mandarin and later acquired Canadian citizenship. After completing secondary school, Yeh returned to Asia, first attempting a singing career in Taiwan before relocating to Hong Kong, the epicenter of Chinese popular entertainment. In Hong Kong she was mentored by Warner Music’s CEO Ng Ching‑Yuen and her future husband, pop star George Lam, who helped her master Cantonese pronunciation and stagecraft. Her debut in the early 1980s quickly expanded from recording original songs to providing sound‑track vocals for Tsui Hark films, and she subsequently appeared in more than thirty studio albums, numerous compilations, and a prolific filmography that includes A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) and The Killer (1989). Yeh’s relentless work ethic and willingness to navigate three linguistic markets—English, Mandarin, and Cantonese—made her one of the first overseas Chinese idols to achieve pan‑Asian fame, paving the way for later stars such as Faye Wong.

Her career has been marked by a string of prestigious accolades: she won the Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards for Most Popular Hong Kong Female Singer four consecutive years (1990‑1993), secured the Best Original Film Song at the 7th Hong Kong Film Awards, and received the Golden Needle Award at the 33rd RTHK Top Ten Chinese Gold Song Awards in 2011. In the early 1990s she collaborated with Western artists Tommy Page and James Ingram, showcasing her versatility beyond the Asian market. Despite limited formal Chinese language education, Yeh continues to perform and record, relying on romanization aids to interpret lyrics she does not fully understand. She married George Lam on 17 July 1996, becoming stepmother to his two children, and remains a respected figure in the Cantopop community, celebrated for her effervescent stage presence and the cultural bridge she built between East and West.