Before working with Chedid, she had worked with German composer Robert Zollitsch, who is known as Lao Luo in China, from her sophomore year. She also collaborated with rock band Hanggai from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

"The music with Chedid was mostly impromptu," says Sangka. "For many Chinese audiences, the instrument can be seen everywhere, on TV and at teahouses. But for Chedid, it is something new, and he can interpret it in a different way."

Chedid's upcoming tour will also witness the release of his new album, which he says is a mix of live poetry, distorted guitar playing and elaborate offbeat rhythms.

Accompanied by bassist Brad Thomas Ackley and drummer Lawrence Clais, who have been working with him since 2012 and will also perform during his Asia tour, Chedid recorded the whole album in one take over a sleepless night at a Brussels studio, he says.

His artistic talent is deeply rooted in his family－h(huán)is father is a famous French pop singer, his grandmother is a writer and his sister is a concert director.

As Chedid says, he learned everything onstage, and not at a music school.

In the 1990s, he started to form his own musical style and invent his stage persona, which is a way of distancing his work from that of his family's established reputation. With a playful look, an M-shaped haircut, and pink suits that only Prince or Elton John could otherwise carry off, Chedid hit French rock and pop circuits with a bang.

He gained international fame through his recording of the song Belleville Rendezvous for the animated film The Triplets of Belleville (2003) in both French and English. The song was nominated for the Oscars in 2004.

If you go

8:30 pm, March 25. Shanghai QSW Culture Center, 79, Yichang Road, Putuo district, Shanghai. 021-6266-3191.

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