Sun & Wyclef Jean

Bryant Park Hotel
September 11, 2006

It’s Olympus Fashion Week in New York and many of us are tired and cranky due the endless summer heat sunk into the city. Nonetheless, fashionistas, models, press, photographers and one lucky music Editor are hanging out at the Penthouse of the Bryan Hotel overlooking Olympus Fashion Week’s ubiquitous white tent. The occasion: The Daily, Fashion Week’s daily magazine, hosts Sun with Cygalle’s Healing Celebrity Spa, a multi-roomed plethora of activity and socialization.

Vodka, Wine and POM Wonderful juice flow freely, while several women sit on a giant bed, getting their hands rubbed. Photographer Patrick McMullen and his assistants sound-off to each person in succession walking up to them, as if McMullen himself wrote the book on professional hobnobbing. Two masseuses—one male, one female—deliver round after round of massage in the corner, relaxing visitors despite all the excitement around them. Sun sits at the foot of the bed, basking in the whirlwind of stimulation that is her first ever fashion week in New York City.

Sun’s single, “Gone” has became a Billboard Magazine Power Pick of the Week, hitting the number 5 slot as recently as October 7, while also getting plays on AOL Radio, Music Choice, XM Satellite Radio and domestic radio stations. The power pop single also came remixed by some of club-culture’s top producers, including Ralphi Rosario, Jason Nevins and Steve Mac. “These people are so huge; they’re so talented,” she sizes-up. “I’m like the new kid on the block, in a sense, in this market. I really feel privileged.”

Moments before I get a relaxing, world-class massage, I have a chance to speak with Sun, as she holds court at the foot of her bed. Even though she’s a Singaporean pop star sensation, she still found it challenging breaking into the American market due to subtle language differences.

“In Singapore, we all speak English,” she explains. “English is our medium of education. Since Singapore was under the British colony, the pronunciation is more British sounding. Like, we say, ‘Can I have a cup of hot tea.’ And you guys say, ‘Can I have a cup of haat tea’— the vowel, the enunciation is more open.”

In the studio, producers had Sun pronounce words in different ways. “I had to concentrate on that,” she remembers. “I tried to remember how to put the emotion into my recordings. But now, it’s becoming very natural [spoken with a confidence, as if she’s washing her hair with orgasmic shampoo—beautiful]. Now it’s ok.”

But America is the perfect place for the world to convene culturally. We’ve been the biggest fans of international talent who contribute their art to the American pop culture grid for years, after all. “I think the Americans are so receptive,” Sun agrees. “You guys are so open to things that are so different. That gives me empowerment to really express myself. It’s not like me coming and bulldozing over everybody, saying, ‘Look, this is my music—like it or not.’”

But she isn’t about assimilation either, per se. Rather, she’d first have listeners understand that while she’s singing in English, she’s from somewhere else. “No matter how I learn it, I would still have that pinch of accent,” she reminds me. “But I just don’t want to sing in a way that people are saying, ‘What is she singing?’”

Most recently, Sun got to work with Wyclef Jean, who she describes as an amazing person. “[Producers] don’t necessarily work with you…they might get different ones to work with you,” she reveals. “The moment I arrived, [Wyclef] picked-up his guitar and started strumming, singing songs about how he feels about me, making up words and lyrics in tune. And I started singing together with him.” The result, “China Wine,” made its way onto Sun’s upcoming album. Sun returns in late October to continue working with Wyclef in the studio.

The inclusion of Sun in NYC Fashion Week might seem unlikely, until you know that she has opened four boutiques in Singapore this year. “I’m totally into fashion,” she proclaims. “I’m the sole distributor of Ed Hardy [former designer for Von Dutch]. We’ve become very good friends.”

As she made her way around Southampton and NYC nightlife, Sun showed face to notables such as Kate Bosworth, Whoopi Goldberg and Kristen Dunst. But that was peripheral to the number of Fashion Week related events she visited, beginning with a preview of Nicole Miller’s spring line and continuing with reported attendance at Brian Reyes, Akiko Ogawa, Vera Wang and Proenza Schouler shows.

“We’re actually talking about coming out with my own line next year, or the following year,” Sun unfolds. “I love Gwen Stefani. She has that line Lamb. I love her music and her sense of fashion. I totally connect with her. In a sense, I hope I can follow in her footsteps, coming out with a Sun line and expressing that Asian sensibility through my fashion and music.”

Sun’s upcoming album, title TBC will see a first quarter release in 2007, which includes collaborative work with Wyclef Jean, Denise Rich, Diane Warren, Jason Nevins and Paul Oakenfold.

For more information on SUN visit www.sunmusic-us.com

Review by: Dennis Sebayan