Vanness Wu

Early life

Vanness Wu was born in Santa Monica, California to Taiwanese immigrant parents, George Wu and Mimi Yang. He was named after Van Nuys Boulevard, where he and his parents used to live. After graduating Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, California, he moved to Taiwan to pursue a career in entertainment. He learned to breakdance as a teenager and competed in numerous dance competitions throughout the '90s and featured in the 1998 breakdancing-themed music video for Jason Nevins' remix of Run-D.M.C.'s "It's Like That".

Career

Early career with F4

Wu starred as Mei Zuo (美作), one of the F4 members, in the Taiwanese drama series Meteor Garden and its sequel, Meteor Garden II. At the conclusion of the series, they continued to perform together and released three studio albums as the boy band F4. In 2002, Wu became the second F4 member, after Vic Chou, to release his debut solo album, Body Will Sing. The track, "I Hate Myself" is listed at number 95 on Hit Fm Taiwan's Hit Fm Annual Top 100 Singles Chart for 2002. The album was awarded as one of the "Top 10 Selling Mandarin Albums of the Year" at the 2002 IFPI Hong Kong Album Sales Awards, presented by the Hong Kong branch of IFPI.

In 2003, he performed a Mandarin Chinese rap in a version Beyoncé's single "Crazy in Love", featured on the Asian special edition of her album Dangerously in Love.

In 2004, Wu made his film debut in the Hong Kong film Star Runner and was nominated at the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Newcomer.

In 2006, he collaborated with Korean singer Kangta, forming Kangta & Vanness. The duo released the album Scandal.

In 2008, Wu was announced as the opening act and special guest for Kanye West's "Glow in the Dark" concert in Shanghai. They performed the hit song "Good Life".

Solo career

Wu has appeared in several Taiwanese dramas as well as motion pictures. In 2009, he starred as Ren Guang Xi in Autumn's Concerto, one of the highest-rated Taiwanese idol drama. He also released his first Japanese single "Only", which entered Top 10 of the Oricon Chart, as well as another single "I Don't Wanna Lose You".

Wu's third Chinese solo album C'est La V was released July 2011 under Universal Music Taiwan. It features collaborations with international artistes such as Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic, as well as Bruno Mars and Justin Michael who wrote the track "Knockin".

Wu is also the creator/designer of his own designer label 3.V.O.7.

In 2012, Wu won the "Best Crossover Singer" at the 16th Chinese Global Music Charts.

In 2013, Wu joined Jiangsu TV's diving variety show Stars in Danger: The High Dive, and won the silver medal.

In January 2015, Wu was announced to be one of the judges of the talent show Asia's Got Talent, along with Indonesian-French singer Anggun, Canadian musician David Foster, and former Spice Girls member Melanie C, which aired from March to May on AXN Asia.

In July 2015, Wu returned to the Philippines after a decade of his first visit for the special show for the #LiveinLevis event sponsored by Levi's in line with the launch of the Women's Denim Collection for Fall 2015. Wu's performance was a way of thanking the brand's fans and style seekers.

In 2016, it was announced that Wu would star in his first Chinese television series The Princess Weiyoung alongside Tiffany Tang, playing the 5th century prince and then Emperor Tuoba Yu of the Northern Wei Dynasty. He was also in the science fiction film Pili Back. In the same year, he participated with his sister Melody in the third season of The Amazing Race China, based on CBS's reality program of the same name, where they were eliminated on the ninth leg and finished 4th.

Musical style

Wu's albums are composed of a majority of dance tracks, although he did include a handful of soothing ballads. A number of songs, such as the upbeat "Never Let You Go", bear nostalgic reminders of 90s pop genre, although it is predominantly Western hip-hop in quality. A musical arts research analysis published at jstor.org has contrasted and compared this track with the works of a fellow contemporary Asian-American artiste, Leehom Wang, who also has an established fan-base and following in East-Asia.

Personal life

Wu and Taiwanese actress Vivian Hsu had previously dated from 2002 to 2005.

Wu first met Singaporean actress and socialite Arissa Cheo in California in 2006, Cheo was also a heiress to the million-dollar palm oil refiner business Mewah Group. Cheo would later went to become an entrepreneur in 2009. Wu and Cheo were officially married November 7, 2013 and held wedding ceremonies in Los Angeles on November 15, 2013 and in Singapore on January 5, 2014 respectively.

In May 2018, Wu filed for divorce, citing they had been living separately for the last three years, which Cheo refused to sign. Wu filed again in June 2018, with amended reason citing irreconcilable differences and Cheo's lack of support for Wu's career. Both of them eventually signed the agreement in December of the same year, and their divorce was officially finalized in February 2019.

In early May 2026, Wu secretly had a marriage in Las Vegas. Two days after F4's reunion concert in the Philippines, Wu announced his remarriage in his Instagram account on June 29, 2026 without identifying his new wife, which led to speculations. Taiwanese news ETtoday reported that his new wife was the Japanese singer Emi Aramaki on the following day on June 30, 2026 and was confirmed by Wu's agency B'in Music.

Filmography

Discography

With Kangta and Vanness

2006 – Scandal – Kangta & Vanness Collaboration

Other collaborations

Beyoncé – "Crazy in Love" (Asian releases only) [2004]

Coco Lee – "Hip Hop Tonight" [2006]

Brian Joo – "Everything to Me" [2010] – 3rd Wave Music – I WILL BE THERE Album – www.3rdwavemusic.org

Sammi Cheng – "Forgiveness" (In both English and Chinese) [2010]

Lee Junho – "Undefeated" [2012] (M/V)

Avicii – "Levels" (Mandarin Version) [2013]

David Foster, Anggun and Melanie C – "Let's Groove" (charity single for the victims of Nepal earthquake) [2015]

B. Howard - "We Are Champions" [2020]