UMPG'S PLAY FOR RAY

Tia Ray, the first and only Chinese singer to be listed on IFPI’s Top 10 Global Singles Chart, has signed an exclusive, global publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing China. The artist is pictured here with global pubco ruler Jody Gerson, whose Mandarin is significantly better than ours.

Tia, who has released four studio albums and nearly 40 singles, made history as the sole Chinese artist on IFPI's Top 10 Global Singles chart with her hit song, "Be Apart," the world's seventh best-selling track in 2018. Her collaborative songwriting project, "TIVA000," received the 2021 Original Song Award of CCTV Global Chinese Music Top 10, and her self-produced album Once Upon A Moon garnered two nominations—Best Female Mandarin Singer and Best Vocal Recording Album—at the Golden Melody Awards.

“In putting songwriters first, one of our primary goals is to foster a dynamic and healthy environment that nurtures songwriters' originality and transcends boundaries,” UMP China Managing Director Joe Fang said. “Our tightly knit international community of songwriters is eager to collaborate with Tia. We extend our warmest wishes to Tia and look forward to supporting the incredible musical milestones she will achieve.”

In a possibly related story, a marketing exec in Shenzhen has ordered a stronger spam filter to keep out our emails.