Tia Lee wraps up 2023 with incredible success, teases more to come in 2024

First released at the end of 2022, C-pop star Tia Lee 李毓芬 (Lee Yu Fen)’s song Goodbye Princess was a tremendous success, setting the record for being the fastest C-pop video to reach 100 million views on YouTube. Symbolising Tia’s transformation from her old self that was bound by constraints into a stronger and braver version of herself, the music video was both inspired by Tia’s journey in the music and entertainment industry, as well as a celebration of female empowerment.

"Negative stereotypes continue to stand between women and their dreams—especially when it comes to Asian women. With Goodbye Princess, I am trying to express that women should have the freedom to set their own priorities and choose their own direction in life," Tia explained.

Aside from being an international success, the song was also a major hit on Chinese social networking site Weibo, with 10.3 million views in just 24 hours. Goodbye Princess is the first-ever C-pop song to be produced by Grammy Award-winning American producer Swizz Beatz, who has worked with superstars like Justin Bieber, Beyoncé, Madonna and more.

Shortly after the initial launch, Australian female DJ duo NERVO remixed Goodbye Princess, bumping the tempo up while introducing new synth layers. Having written and produced songs for artists like The Pussycat Dolls, Steve Aoki, Armin Van Buuren and more, the pair also joined the #EmpowerHerMusic movement, spinning the remix during their global tour to share the message of female empowerment.

The #EmpowerHer campaign that Tia launched has also been a huge success, with the six-part animation and motion images series for the pre-release campaign garnering over 100 million views, setting a global record for a music video’s pre-release campaign.

Aiming to support and grow the “female empowers female” concept, Tia partnered with four women-centric charities across the world – Women in Music (USA), Beatz by Girlz (Europe, Africa, Americas), Teen’s Key (Hong Kong), Daughters Of Tomorrow (Singapore) – to raise HKD 3.8 million (approximately US$480,000). Monetary donations were made with each view count milestone on the music video, with fans being able to contribute to the cause with each view on the video.

Tia shared, “Gender equality as a cause should be non-controversial by its definition. I want to share my personal experience and let people know that traditional and negative stereotypes still exist, and they are not conducive to the pursuit of happiness for women in general.”

Content creators also played a major role, helping Goodbye Princess go viral on TikTok with the “Goodbye” dance garnering millions of views and likes thanks to the combined 164 million followers of the creators who took part. Big names like Australian-Filipino dancer and choreographer Hannah Balanay took part, along with others like JLou, Leen Mohammad, Evie Meg and Salice Rose. The #EmpowerHerDance has chalked up 6.5 million views on TikTok since then, with only more to come.

A spokesperson for Tia mentioned how thrilled she was with the success in 2023, with the singer turning her sights to even bigger things coming in 2024. While Goodbye Princess was essentially Tia’s “virtual self” in an animated fantasy world, fans will be excited to know that Tia’s “true self” will be making appearances in upcoming music videos for new songs that were teased to be upbeat and up-tempo, while featuring other celebrities.

Furthermore, Tia has been working hard on her singing and dancing to prepare for large-scale live performances in 2024 for her fans, with the appearance of a teaser #EmpowerHer tour tag showing up on Tia’s Instagram. With Tia’s song creation, dance choreography and overall style being more international, the hope is for Tia to continue supporting the globalisation of C-pop and help to bring it to an even larger international audience.

Thanks to the global popularity that K-pop music, Tia’s management company feels that it has opened the doors for C-pop and Asian language music to attract new fans all over the world. With Goodbye Princess breaking records and being introduced to new regions that previously lacked C-pop exposure, it does seem like C-pop will be able to grow from strength to strength and find a wider audience outside of the Asia Pacific region in the upcoming years.

After a three-year hiatus that started in 2019, Tia Lee has certainly come back swinging on both the musical and charitable fronts, and it doesn’t look like she’s going to slow down any time soon, with the singer planning to continue working closely with charities and campaigns to advocate further for female empowerment in 2024.

This content was produced in partnership with Tia Lee Management.