Top 10 Unbelievable Facts about Vanness Wu

photo by Samanthachan56 from Wikimedia

Top 10 Unbelievable Facts about Vanness Wu

Vanness Wu is a Taiwanese-American musician who is a member of the Taiwanese boy’s band F4 and the one-off pop duo Kangta & Vanness. He is also an actor, an entertainer, a songwriter, a director, and a producer.

Wu was born to Taiwanese parents George Wu and Mimi Yang on 7 august 1978 in Santa Monica California United States. His parents divorced when he was still young and he migrated to Taiwan when he was 18 years old.

Here are the top 10 unbelievable facts about Vanness Wu.

1. Vanness Wu Became Interested in Music when he was Young

Wu became interested in music when he was young. He learned to breakdance as a teenager and competed in numerous dance competitions. Breakdance was a popular dancing style in the United States throughout the 1990s.

After he graduated from Corona del Mar High School, Wu started to hang out with a U.S Taiwanese boys band L.A. BOYZ. He started to dance with the group and became very close with one of the group members named Jeff Huang.

L.A. Boyz was a Taiwanese rap group composed of brothers Jeff Huang and Stanley Huang together with their cousin Steven Lin. The band was formed in1991 and it was the first Taiwanese rap group in the United States.

2. He First Appeared in Jason Nevin’s Music Video in 1997

Photo by Jeff Pinilla from Wikimedia

Vanness Wu’s first big role in the world of music was when he appeared as a dancer in the music video for Jason Nevins’ version of the Run-DMC track “It’s Like That.” in 1997.

“It’s Like That” was the debut single of American hip hop group Run-D.M.C., released in 1983 by Profile Records. The song was remixed by house DJ Jason Nevins in 1997.

His version was released in 1997 on 10-inch vinyl in the United States and became a sleeper hit in 1998. It sold around five million copies worldwide, placing it amongst the biggest selling singles of all time.

3. Vanness Wu was a Member of the F4 Band

Flower Four boys band was formed in 2001 by Vanness Wu,  Jerry Yan,  Ken Chu, and Vic Chou. This was after a Taiwanese drama (Meteor Garden) they all starred in and was widely successful.

Together they starred in several Taiwanese drama series and released three albums, Meteor Rain (2001), Fantasy 4ever (2002), and Waiting for You (2007).

The band changed its name to JVKV in 2007 due to copyright issues they were having with a Japanese publisher. The group was very successful after its formation selling over 3.5 million copies of its first two albums.

F4 attained a lot of popularity in all parts of Asia, which include the Philippines, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea.

4. He co-formed Kangta & Vanness

Photo by Youngelectricpop from Wikimedia

Vanness Wu formed a one-off music duo with South Korean singer Kangta on April 27, 2006. The duo made its official debut performance at the MTV Asia Awards on May 6, 2006.

They recorded and released their debut studio album “Scandal” in South Korea on May 19, 2006. Localized versions of the album were later released in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

5. Vanness Wu Started his Acting Career in 2004

photo by Sry85 from Wikimedia

In 2004, Wu made his film debut in the Hong Kong film Star Runner and was nominated at the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Newcomer.

Wu appeared in several Taiwanese dramas as well as motion pictures. He also starred as Ren Guang Xi in Autumn’s Concerto, one of the highest-rated Taiwanese idol dramas in 2009.

In 2016, it was announced that Wu would star in his first Chinese television series The Princess Weiyoung alongside Tiffany Tang, playing the 5th-century prince and then Emperor Tuoba Yu of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

6. He was Married for Five Years

Vanness Wu dated Singaporean heiress and entrepreneur Arissa Cheo for seven years. They registered their marriage in Singapore in November 2013, before holding a lavish, star-studded ceremony in the United States that same month.

 On June 20, 2018, the couple decided to legally end their 5 years marriage after living separately for 3 years. Their divorce was finalized in February 2019 citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the divorce.

7. He Produced a Television Series

In 2010, Wu became the executive producer for the Taiwanese television series Year of the Rain. It was directed by the director of Autumn’s Concerto, Chen Hui Ling.

Year of the Rain was the first TV series about the Typhoon Morakot disaster that happened in August 2009 in Taiwan. The main actors were Jian Man Shu and Zhang Shu Hao. It also features Liu Shui-Chi, Isa Hsieh, Yu An-shun, and Ding Qiang.

This was the first Vanness Wu film production and it had six episodes.

8. Vanness Wu has Collaborated with other Artists

Photo by Samanthachan56 from Wikimedia

Apart from his collaboration with South Korean musician Kangta in 2006, Wu has collaborated with other big artists from across the globe. In 2003, he was featured on Beyonce’s single “Crazy in Love”, featured on her album Dangerously in Love.

He featured in Coco Lee’s “hip-hop tonight” in 2006, Brian Joo’s “everything to me” in 2010, Sammi Cheng’s “Forgiveness” in 2010, and Lee Junho’s “Undefeated” in 2012.

Others are Danson Tang, Diamond Zhang, Madoka Yonezawa, Siwon Yao Yao, Rainie Yang, Amber Kuo, and Wayne Huang in “Blessings” 2015.

9. He has his own Jewellery Line

Besides directing, producing, acting, and singing, Wu is also the creator/designer of his own jewelry line 3.V.O.7.

Jewelry brand 3.V.O.7 was launched in 2011 and is one of a long line of labels associated with Reebok Classic Leather. It also teamed up with Oakley to create frog skins sunglasses which are only available in Asia.

10. He won the Best Male Character Awards in 2016

In 2012, Wu won the “Best Crossover Singer” at the 16th Chinese Global Music Charts. In 2013, Wu joined Jiangsu TV’s diving variety show Stars in Danger in The High Dive and won the silver medal.

He won the best male character in July awards 2016. He was also a nominee for the best new artist at the 2004 Hong Kong films awards.