Playback: Jolin Tsai - Dancing diva

I got introduced to Mando-pop star Jolin Tsi at Uni by a friend of mine who was and still remains obsessed with her. By this point I was knee deep in my love for J-Pop and in my mind Hikaru Utada was saving herself for me until I graduated, so I had no room for another chick in the East Asian music market to occupy any room in my heart. But then "Dancing diva" came along and Jolin had a place in it for a minute. Well...3 minutes and 43 seconds to be exact.

The beat on "Dancing diva" sounded a bit dated, but it an intentional way. Nobody was trying to make a club banger or even a radio hit with this song. More than anything it seemed to be a vehicle for presenting a step change in Jolin's sound and image. The focus of the music video is the dance routine which was one of Jolin's most intensive up until this point - something which would be a focal point of every live performance she would do of this song. This girl was taking balls and ribbons on stage with her to make a point of this routine. The routine didn't do much for me until Jolin opened her legs on the floor and showed me how real the struggle is for her to work the floor and keep the ball from rolling off out of the shot, then I thought it was the best thing ever.

"Dancing diva" is one of my favourite tracks from Jolin. It sounds like a stage theme from Soul Calibur 1, which I think is why I like it. Anything which gives me Soul Calibur 1 feels gets an instant pass from me. But what struck me about this song in comparison to Jolin's songs which came prior was that it didn't feel like it was trying to be anything. This could have been 'that' type of song where the Arabian and Middle eastern influences got completely urbanized, which was 'the in thing' and the sound of the moment around the time this released. But it turned out not to be and was all the better for it.

Also, Jolin looks smokin' with her dark hair down. God Gawd.