Janice M. Vidal (Chinese: 衛蘭) is a female singer in Hong Kong. She is of mixed parentage with a Filipino father and a mixed Chinese and Korean mother. As a Hong Kong singer she had chosen the Chinese name Wei Lan (衛蘭), although most of her fans refer to her simply as Janice. In the past she went under the name Renee in her musical work prior to her debut album in 2005 and "Ming Lok Tai" (明樂蒂) in a EEG singing competition in 2000. As of 2006, her father resides in Hong Kong, while her mother resides in South Korea.
Janice is emerging as one of the new singers in Hong Kong and Asia. Her music style is a mixture of Cantopop, Jazz and R&B. She performs her songs in English, Cantonese and Mandarin and will be performing songs in Korean in the near future.
Janice's twin sister Jill Vidal (衛詩) is also a singer. Jill was signed by the same record label as Janice at the end of 2005 and released her first song in December of 2005. Even though their voices sound virtually the same, Jill has a notably different style from Janice; her songs tend to be more hard-core R&B and are also more fast-paced, while Janice has a heavier Pop feel to her songs. In an interview on Sina, Charles Ying stated that Cantonese is not Janice's first language and asked how Janice dealt with this difficulty. Janice admitted that she does not read Chinese but uses English to help her pronounce words that she sings in the recording studio, however she replied that she is quicker at recognising Chinese characters. Janice will be holding her first concert in Hong Kong on the 29th March 2007. It is called "My First Concert"
Belonging to the same music label as Leon Lai, Janice first caught the media's attention days after Christmas of 2004 by covering in English one of Leon's essential tunes "Unspoken Words of Deep Feelings" (情深說話未曾講) on radio. The cover song quickly become a hit. Some fans initially thought it was an overseas singer who was covering one of Leon's classic hits, but were surprised to find out the singer was an unknown Hong Kong rookie. Since it was Christmas in Hong Kong at the time, Janice's first song was swiftly followed by a Christmas version of another Leon Lai cover "不可一世" (this time in Cantonese). The Cantonese cover of "Unspoken Words of Deep Feelings" (情深說話未曾講) was aired on radio in Spring 2005 for the first time. She learned English when she was in the United States.
By April 2005, Janice had become known as a mysterious singer who sung several cover versions of Leon Lai's songs, but whose face has never been shown in public. After roughly six months of radio publicity and building public anticipation, her face was finally unveiled when her debut album "Day & Night" was released on 13 April 2005.
On 25 November of the same year, Janice released her second album "My Love", a rarity for a newcomer in Hong Hong's music industry.
In mid-December of 2005 Janice was nominated by Commercial Radio 2 for the 2005 Hong Kong Music Awards Best Female Singer, which results are due out on Jan 1, 2006. On 1 January 2006, Janice was awarded by Commercial Radio Hong Kong (CRHK) the Gold prize for 2005 Best Female Newcomer., to the delight of her fans and family.
