After performing music festivals around the world, Sa Dingding is in the recording process of her second album at her studio in Beijing. The new album is scheduled for worldwide release this summer.

Sa has devoted herself to capturing the sounds of Eastern-style rhythms by borrowing musical elements from her daily life. "It just could be the sound of the wind on the grassland or euphonious melody played by herdsmen," explained by Sa Dingding.

Sa Dingding released her first album, "Alive" globally in 2007. [File photo]

"Compared with the first album, which was mostly made up of Western influences, such as electronic music, this album is expected to be more Eastern. Because all the elements belong to Sa Dingding only," Sa said.

Sa was the only Asian artist invited to make live performance in the Concert at the Royal Albert Hall after she won BBC's World Music Best Asia Pacific award.

Last month, Sa's popularity in UK and other western countries helped placed her among 28 candidates for the first Ten Outstanding Chinese Young Persons in the UK, which was organized by British Chinese Youth Federation based in London.

Born in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Sa spent her childhood living a nomadic life with her grandmother on grasslands -- where she was surrounded by ethnic music every day. She said ethnic music with Mongolian flavor cultivated her easygoing lifestyle.

"I enjoyed my college life most because I always visited different campuses to listen to various speeches and to take different courses -- including composition and dancing, which were helpful for me in creating music," Sa said, "I just immersed myself in a carefree and easy lifestyle."

Sa Dingding has mastered instruments including the zither and the Chinese gong. She is a singer, musician, composer and choreographer.

Sa signed with Universal Music China in 2006. She released her first album, "Alive" globally the next year. Sales for the album reached two million copies in Southeast Asia in the first two months after its release. Later, the album even sold out in Britain, Germany, Switzerland and North America. Her unique voice and distinctive songs even caught attention of world-class musicians and producers, including Madonna's former producer.

Sa studies ancient cultures in her spare time.

"Many girls like reading fashion magazines, while my interest has been focused on ancient scrolls. Old things are not necessarily dull, but are classy and illuminating," Sa said. "Cultures with ethnic backgrounds attract me most."

Fascinated by ethnic music, the multi-instrumentalist mixed modern elements of electronic music with eastern ancient styles to form a unified entity.

"I live in a modern society now, and my mind has been cultivated by the life in ethnic minority's area. So I mixed these two life styles naturally in my music," Sa said.

The versatile artist is also a linguist. Sa Dingding learned Sanskrit, Tibetan and even invented her own language used in her first album.

"I called it as self-created language, which is informal since it has no grammar and vocabulary. I just match the natural pronunciation with the melody and the emotion evoked by music improvisationally," explained by the linguist.

"All the languages are derived from natural pronunciation, the most original way to deliver information," Sa said, "It helps my audiences understand exactly what I hope to express when they cannot catch the meaning of the specific words -- which may cause ambiguity."

Sa Dingding also hoped to arouse audiences' attention to the music itself by her insistence on the use of self-created language.

"It has been really hardly to hear wonderful lyrics for 30 years. I just attempt to stop decorating the lyrics excessively," she said.

Cao Pu, guitarist of rock band Queen Sea Big Shark in Beijing, heard Sa's music last year on his band's first tour.

"Her music is really very mysterious and fresh in rhythm. I like it very much," Cao said.

Live shows are also an extension of her music. As a choreographer, Sa Dingding beautifully combined traditional Chinese folk dance with the rhythm. And almost all the details on the stage were designed by her, such as costumes, lights and set design.

Sa gave her first global show in September 2006 in Japan and held a solo concert at the Sydney Opera House in March this year.

"It was the first pop music concert made by a Chinese singer in the Sydney Opera House," said Dingding's executive at Universal Music China. "Some fans even made a special trip from Britain to Sydney to enjoy her concert because they were moved by the rhythm in Dingding's open show in London."

"Live concerts are a more direct way to understand singers' spirit," Sa said.

Sa will perform in Shanghai Concert Hall April 30 to welcome the upcoming World Expo Shanghai 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2009)