Priscilla Chan Wai Han (Chinese: 陳慧嫻; Jyutping: Can4 Wai6 Haan4; pinyin: Chén Huìxián; born 28 July 1965) is a Hong Kong singer.

[1][2] Debuted in 1983 at age 18 from a trio album project named Girls' Magazine (少女雜誌), which was formed by Fiori Productions Ltd. (法安利製作有限公司), with the hit "Forgotten Promise" (逝去的諾言), Chan began her solo singing career in 1984 and has since remained popular for more than three decades.

[3] Chan signed to PolyGram Records, Hong Kong (寶麗金) in 1986 and reached her career peak between the late-1980s and mid-1990s, and scored several hits particularly in the 1980s, most remarkably including "Silly Girl" (傻女) from her 1988 album Priscilla's Love (嫻情), as well as her signature song, "Thousands of Songs" (千千闋歌), one of the all-time Cantopop classics, from her 1989 best-selling farewell album Forever Your Friend (永遠是你的朋友), which also elevated Chan to the top tier of Hong Kong singers.

[5][6] Chan made a few brief comebacks in the 2000s, including the one in 2003 when she signed to Universal Music Hong Kong, performed a concert with two shows, and released an album entitled Love Knot (情意結).

Feeling frustrated upon poor record sales, Chan stepped back from the Hong Kong musical industry and embarked on her live performances at private functions and concerts overseas and in mainland China, where her popularity was further boosted.

When Chan was still a primary six student, she already participated in the annual garden party, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's birthday, at the Government House held by the Government of British Hong Kong on behalf of the Marymount Primary School, and even shook hands with Sir Murray MacLehose (麥理浩), the then Governor of Hong Kong.

At the same time, Chan continued her secondary education and was admitted to the Hong Kong Baptist College in 1985, majoring English studies.

On 30 June and 1 July 1984, the "Girls' Magazine" group participated in their first public concert entitled "Dragon and Tiger Talents in Concert" (龍虎群英演唱會), at the Hong Kong Coliseum with stars like Anita Mui (梅艷芳), Leslie Cheung (張國榮), Deanie Ip (葉德嫻), Elisa Chan (陳潔靈), and the Tiger Team (小虎隊; William Hu (胡渭康), Suen Ming-kwong (孫明光), and Lam Lei (林利)).

[13] On 15 to 16 September 1984, Chan co-starred in a youth musical titled "First-love Quintet" (初戀五重奏) with four other female teen idols, namely Sandy Lam, Sandy Lamb (林姍姍), Sara Lee (李麗蕊), and Michelle Pau (鮑翠薇), at the Academic Community Hall (大專會堂) located in the Hong Kong Baptist College.

At the same time, Chan quitted her Bachelor's studies at the Hong Kong Baptist College in order to be fully committed to her singing career.

[31] Starting from "Priscilla's Love" till "Forever Your Friend" (1989), Chan's retro-styled stage presence, accompanied by varied, vintage outfits and hatwears also became one of her most iconic images throughout her singing career.

[33] Another Cantonese album "Autumn Colours" (秋色) appeared on 21 October 1988 and included a number of chart-toppers, such as "Joe le Taxi", a cover version of the French singer Vanessa Paradis's 1987 hit of the same name; "When Will I See You Again?!"

[35][36][37] 1989, the year before Chan moved to New York State to pursue a bachelor's degree in Psychology at Syracuse University, was generally recognised as the pinnacle of her career.

[44] Together with a series of farewell songs, including "Night Flight" (夜機), Chan's another great hit, the Cantonese version of the German singer Nicole Seibert's 1983 single "So Viele Lieder Sind In Mir", which was also awarded the RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards of the same year; and the upbeat dance hit "Dancing Boy", a Cantonese rework from another Masahiko Kondō's song "Dancin' Babe" (1988), "Forever Your Friend" garnered enormous success as the album had sold over 350,000 copies (7× platinum) already only in the year 1989, finally becoming the best-selling record of Chan herself and that of the year 1989 in Hong Kong.

[45] Besides Chan's own popularity and the news of her suspension of career, some critics believe that the wave of mass migrations from Hong Kong in the late 1980s, prompted by events like the signing of the "Sino-British Joint Declaration" in 1984 and the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, also contributed the emergence and accelerated popularity of Chan's songs like "It's A Small World" and "Thousands of Songs".

[51] Although Chan originally planned to stop her musical career after graduation, in fact her singer contract with PolyGram still remained and was not completely over; after being persuaded by PolyGram staff and with Au's help, Chan continued recording new tracks in the US and had even made a few low-key returns to Hong Kong to record new Cantonese albums during winter and summer vacations in 1991–1994.

[52][53] On 26 March 1992, Chan released the album "Come Back" (歸來吧), in which tracks like "Drifting Snow" (飄雪), a chart-topper adapted from Yuko Hara's (原由子) 1991 hit "The Journey of the Flowers" (花咲く旅路); "Red Tea House" (紅茶館), a cover version of Kouji Taira [ja]'s (平浩二) "Bus Stop" (1972) and was awarded the 1992 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards; "Moon" (月亮), adapted from Taiwanese singer Mai Meng's (孟庭葦) 1991 hit "Look at the Face of the Moon" (你看你看月亮的臉); and "Come Back" (歸來吧), adapted from Taiwanese singer-songwriter Salsa Chen's (陳小霞) 1991 Taiwanese Hokkien song "Marionette" (傀儡尪仔)[note 1], still became hits and even classics.

The album achieved a surprisingly good result of triple platinum certification despite the fact that Chan spent most of the time in the US with minimum publicity and promotion activities in Hong Kong.

The album, certified double platinum, was also a success, and Chan filmed a special music programme titled "Priscilla's Love in New York" (紐約嫻情) for TVB as promotion.

[71] Chan also filmed a special music programme series titled "Wonderful Encounters in England" (英倫奇緣) in the UK for TVB as promotion.

The death of her beloved cat, Remington, which she had been raising since she was studying in the US, in 1998 marked the start of the period when she found life difficult as the new recording company was also not working well for her.

[80] On 29 August 2000, Chan released "Good For You" (為你好), a retro-styled album directed by Michael Au, her long-time musical director starting from 1986, with the title track of the same name.

[40] After the early termination of her contract with Cinepoly in 2001, Chan was diagnosed anxiety disorder around 2002, also because of the breaking up with her second boyfriend, Michael Cheung (張卓文), in addition to her cat's accidental death.

[83] However, as the album sales of only 8,000 units was way below her expectation,[84] mostly because of the market downturn after the 2003 outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), illegal online downloading and piracy, Chan decided to retreat once again; she also criticised the general preference of Cantopop audience at that time, who she believed were only interested in admiring the artists' images but not in truly appreciating their music.

[87] From 2008 to 2012, Chan held concert tours in various mainland Chinese cities, including Shanghai,[88] Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing,[89] and Nanning.

[90] During her tours in mainland China, Chan released a few Mandarin singles, such as "Asia" (亞細亞) (2010), one of the theme songs of the 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou,[91] and "Let Love Blooms" (讓愛綻放) (2012), a commemorative track for the fourth-year anniversary of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

[100] The popularity of Chan and her classic "Silly Girl" increased after a Hong Kong singer Don Li (李逸朗) covered the song in an exaggeratedly emotional and "tearful" way and became viral in early 2015.

Live guests include Hacken Lee,[106] Kenny Bee (鍾鎮濤),[107] Alan Tam,[108] Andy Hui (許志安),[109] and Grasshopper (草蜢).

[116] In September 2022, Chan announced her participation in the mainland Chinese pop music reality show, Singing With Legends 4 [zh], produced by Dragon Television.

[117] On 26 October 2022, Universal Music Hong Kong released a 3CD greatest hits album entitled "Isshōkenmei" (一生懸命), which includes two brand new Cantonese singles, "Early Flight" (早機) and "Return Home" (回家).