Tia Ray

Her interests in western music all started when a musician gave her a Mariah Carey CD.   Inspired by the music by musicians like India Arie, Stevie Wonder, Eryka Badu, Jill Scott, she formed her first band - Soulside, with a group of young musicians. Soulside was different from other bands in China at the time. They introduced R&B and soul, to a live music scene that was mostly rock and old-school jazz.  Soulside performed at various live houses and music festivals and soon gained a following.   A few years later, she started her second band The Knutz.  They continued to play at live houses and music festivals to a growing audience.  It's her experiences performing with her band that made Tia such a ‘natural’ on stage.  She's definitely “The Queen of Live”!

Tia's first big break came in 2012 when she took part in The Voice of China. Her soulful rendition of the Chinese classic song "The Curvy Moon" (弯弯的月亮) made her a household name.   

Two years later,  she released her debut album T.I.A., writing or co-writing all the songs herself as there were no writers for soul and R&B music in China.  Her song "Lost In Traveling",  became her first hit.

In 2017, her song "Be Apart" was used as the theme to the hit Chinese movie The Ex-File: The Return of the Exes, ranking No. 7 on IFPI's Global Singles chart. The following year, she released her second album, “TIARA" and held her first solo concert tour. She also joined singer Kehlani on the song "Just My Luck” and Will Pan on his new single “Moonlight”.

In 2019, she released EP called "1212," featured on Far East Movement's song "Paint the Clouds," collaborated with Gallant on "Trust Myself," and with Jason Derulo on the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup song “Champion."

In 2020, she released her single “Starfall” featuring Hoyo-Mix, the in-house music team of miHoYo - a video game developer, for the video game Honkai Impact 3rd.

Her most recent project is featuring in Beijing Olympics and Paralympics promotional song “A Better Future Together” (一起向未来) with Chinese singer, William Chan.

• Tia (2014)
• TIARA (2018)
• 1212 (2019)
• Once Upon A Moon (2021)

• "You Know I Love You" (2004)
• "Because of Love" (2004)
• "Stage Sisters" (2008)
• "Love Passes Love" (2008)
• "Tacit Understanding of Love" (2008)
• "Sweet Things" (2009)
• "Blossom" (2015)
• "Uncle Long Legs" (2016)
• "Love Herby" (2016)
• "Be Apart" (2018)
• "Starfall: Impressions" (2020)

• "Just My Luck" (featuring Kehlani) on her TIARA album
• "Lucky Rain" (featuring Jackson Wang) (2018) on her TIARA album
• "Moonlight" (Will Pan featuring Tia Ray) (2018)
• "Paint the Clouds" (Far East Movement featuring Tia Ray) (2019)
• "Trust Myself" (featuring Gallant) (2019)
• "Champion (Official song of the FIBA Basketball World Cup China 2019)" (Jason Derulo featuring Tia Ray) (2019)

Ray first appeared in the I Am a Singer series as one of eight "Initial singers" for the season. After Ray narrowly avoid elimination for the first two shows (on the first week however, she was declared safe due to a contestant's withdrawal from the competition), she was eliminated on the third week. Ray later advanced to the semi-finals after reinstating her in the Breakout rounds, and finished in 7th place.

Ray was invited as one of the four guest singers from the 2017 season during the season's biennial concert along with a guest Victor Ma. That season was currently the latest season to feature a concert airing after the finals held a week prior. The 2018 season also featured runner-up Hua Chenyu, who would also later compete along with Ray and two other singers two years later, and Hua gone on to win the season.[2]

Ray was again invited as a guest singer on the seventh season to accompany with Liu Huan (the eventual winner for that season) once more during the semi-finals.

Ray later returned for her second season in 2020, entitled Year of the Hits, as one of the four returning singers from seasons four to six (including Lala Hsu, Jam Hsiao and season's winner Hua Chenyu). Ray was again eliminated after week eight (and unlike previous seasons, Ray was not entitled to Returning Performances the following week due to safety concerns regarding the coronavirus outbreak at the time), but she was reinstated upon her success in the Breakouts and went on to clinch as the season's runner-up, making her the best-performing previously eliminated singer in the series.[3][4]