Lisa Ono performs at Shanghai's annual Jazz Week on May 2, 2007. [Oriental Morning Post]

For many Chinese music fans, Bossa Nova is associated with only one name - Lisa Ono. Now the most acclaimed Asian Bossa Nova singer is set to begin a concert tour of China to mark the 20th anniversary of her musical career.

The Japanese songstress will first take to the stage in the eastern city of Hangzhou on January 3rd, before moving on to Beijing's Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium on January 10th.

On January 16th, Lisa Ono will revisit Shanghai's annual Jazz Week and stage a gig at the 8,000-seat Shanghai Grand Stage. When Ono performed in Shanghai's Fuxing Park last year, the 1,900-seat tent specially built for the Jazz Week was nearly unsettled by a full house of ardent fans.

The concert's set list will be mainly composed of tracks off Ono's 2007 album, "The music of Antonio Carlos Jobim: Ipanema," the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported, quoting the event organizers.

Lisa Ono, 46, was born in Sao Paulo and raised in Japan. She was musically influenced by her father, a bossa nova fan who at one time managed the legendary Baden Powell and owned music clubs in both Brazil and Japan.

(CRI December 9, 2008)