Like many in the West, my first taste of Canto-Pop came with Jackie Chan bellowing the theme-tunes to his movies over out-takes of him jumping through windows and landing on his head. Perhaps not what you'd call a naturally gifted singer, he made up with his characteristic enthusiasm what he lacked in ability. Jackie on his own may be a little to much to take without the distraction of a man dangling from a rope attached to a helicopter bouncing off skyscrapers so i'm giving you the song he did with the wonderful Twins that ended their gloriously silly vampire-hunting comedy Twins Effect.


Twins are Hong Kong native Gillian Chung, 24, and Canadian-born Charlene Choi, 22. The sharp-witted out there will probably have gathered that they're not actually twins. They've released an astonishing eighteen albums, at my count, in less than four years, ranging from the mature R&B pop of Magic to the two-volume Singing In The Twins Wonderland which features covers of songs like Old MacDonald Had A Farm and Have You Seen The Muffin Man? Their best efforts, as far as i'm concerned, are the excellent Our Souvenir and Amazing albums, full of energetic pop and adorable ballads.

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Twins' rivals in the Chinese girl-group market are Taiwan's S.H.E who have, thus far, had the advantage of singing in the majority-language (Cantonese is unique to Hong Kong and Guangdong province). However, the HK girls' first Mandarin album, Trainee Cupid, seems to have shifted the balance of power. S.H.E can't really compare in terms of charm and star quality but they do occasionally come up with some neat, anthemic pop tunes, Super Star being the prime example.




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