Karen Joy Morris, better known as Karen Mok (Chinese: 莫文蔚; pinyin: Mò Wénwèi, born 2 June 1970) is a Hong Kong actress and singer. She is considered one of the leading East Asian pop singers and actresses with a career spanning three decades.[1] Mok is the first female Hong Kong singer to win the Golden Melody Award, and to date has won it three times. She has released 18 solo studio albums, starred in over 40 movies, and has over 15 million followers on leading Chinese social media site Weibo. The Lhasa concert during The Ultimate Karen Mok Show (2018–2021) set the Guinness World Record for the Highest Altitude Mass-Attended Music Concert.[2] In 2024, Mok was the first female singer to do a solo concert in Beijing National Stadium, the Bird's Nest.[3]
Karen Mok was born on 2 June 1970 as Karen Joy Morris in British Hong Kong. She is of mixed ancestry: her mother is half Chinese, quarter German and quarter Persian, while her father is half Welsh and half Chinese.[4][5] Her grandfather was Alfred Morris, the first principal of King's College, Hong Kong. She speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Italian, German and French.[6]
While studying in London, Mok auditioned for the West End Musical Miss Saigon. At the same time, she recorded music demo tapes together with fellow students which landed her first recording contract with Star Records. She decided to put her theatre aspirations on hold, headed back to Hong Kong and released in 1993 her first Cantonese album Karen.[citation needed] She achieved her musical breakthrough with the launch of her first Mandarin album To Be in 1997. To date, she has released 17 studio albums, the most successful ones being To Be (1997), Karen Mok in Totality (1995), [i] (2004), Without You (2006), Live is Karen Mok (2007) and Half Time (2018) containing numerous number 1 hits such as "He Does Not Love Me", "Overcast"[9] and "Growing Fond of You".[10] Her 2021 single "Empty World" had over 3bn streams on Chinese music platforms and became an anthym during the Covid pandemic in mainland China.
In 2013, she launched her English album Somewhere I belong,[11] an East-meets-West reinterpretation of jazz classics.[12][13] The album is recorded in China with East Asian musicians and adding the guzheng on several tracks.[14] She showcased this album at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, London, on 30 May 2013.[15] Mok said about the title of the album: “It’s about what I do, when I feel comfortable, that’s when I’m doing what I love most, that’s singing, that’s when I’m performing on stage, and just singing my heart out, sharing my emotions,” she said. “So that’s where I belong.”[14]
Mok performing at her concert in Shanghai on 23 June 2018.
In 2000, she gave her debut solo concert, The Very Karen Mok Show, in Taipei in front of 20,000 spectators.[16] In 2005, she started her international concert tours with the Extremely Karen Mok Show,[17] followed by The Original Karen Mok Show (2009–2011)[18] and the tour The Age of Moknificence (2014–2015),[19][20][21] with which she celebrated her 20th anniversary in show business. Starting from 2005, she also assumed the role of creative director and producer in her concert tours.[22]
The Regardez Tour (2015–2016) started in Taipei and led Mok to 27 cities in Asia, North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.[23][24] As part of this tour, she was the first Chinese pop artist to give solo concerts in Madrid and Milan.[25]
Poster of The Ultimate Karen Mok Show on a bus in Hong Kong, June 2018 Announcement for 2019 concert in London
The Ultimate Karen Mok Show started on 23 June 2018 with the concert in the Hongkou Football Stadium in Shanghai 23 June 2018 in front of more than 20,000 spectators[26] and totaled 48 concerts in 40 cities in Asia, Europe and Australia.[27][28] The tour was largely conducted in outdoor stadiums, with the maximum attendance of 40,000 in the Beijing Workers' Stadium, Beijing, on 22 September 2019.[29] On 12 October 2019, she performed in Lhasa at an altitude of 3650m, setting the Guinness World Record for the Highest Altitude Mass-Attended Music Concert[30] and being the first solo stadium concert in Tibet. Her concerts in the Taipei Arena on 7 and 8 December 2019 had the special feature that she performed entirely different song lists on each night.[31] The European leg of the tour brought her in London to the Palladium and in Paris to the Folies Bergère, making her the first Chinese pop singer to perform in this venue.[32] With the Ultimate tour, Mok celebrated her 25th anniversary in show business. Interrupted by the events around the global Covid pandemic, the tour finished with three concerts in Hong Kong in June 2021.
In 2024, Mok ran a series of large-scale stadium concerts titled "The Big Big Show", commencing in Beijing on 15 June 2024, followed by concerts in Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Wuhan. In the course of this, she was the first female singer to perform a solo concert in Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium.
Mok gave her film debut in 1993 with a cameo role in the movie The Tigers – The Legend of Canton.[41] Her first starring role was in 1995 together with Stephen Chow in A Chinese Odyssey. In the same year, she acted in Wong Kar Wai’s movie Fallen Angels, for which she received the award for Best Supporting Actress at the Hong Kong Film Award and the Golden Bauhinia Awards. In total, she starred in more than 40 movies.
Throughout her career, Mok has frequently branched into adjacent areas of performances. In 2005/2006, she played the female lead Mimi in the 10th Anniversary Asian Tour of the Broadway musical Rent. In 2001, she supplied the voice of Princess Kida for the Cantonese dub of Walt Disney'sAtlantis: The Lost Empire. In 2020, Mok sang the theme song of the Hong Kong TVB drama Flying Tiger II. The theme song, "呼吸有害, Breathing Is Hazardous",[42] topped all radio, TV and digital platforms in Hong Kong, a first in Cantopop.[43]
In 2016 and 2017, she starred in the two reality TV productions Up Idol (我们来了), of Hunan Television[44] and The Next (天籁之战), season 1 and season 2 (天籁之战 and 天籁之战 (第二季)), of Dragon Television.[45] On 20 May 2021, Mok won the 星耀年度金曲 award with Breathing is Hazardous at Weibo Starlight Awards 2020.[46]
She was a torch bearer for the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing [47] and performed at the opening and closing ceremonies. In 2016, she was awarded the title of Cultural Ambassador of the Italian city of Bergamo, being the first Chinese to be awarded this title.[48]
In 2023, Karen Mok celebrated the 30th anniversary of her career in show business with dedicated exhibitions in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei and Chengdu, titled "Reign of Moknificence", featuring materials from her careers across music, film and charity.[49]
In 2007, Mok was involved with MTV EXIT, a campaign against human trafficking in Asia, presenting Traffic: An MTV EXIT Special, a documentary on trafficking.[67] In 2013 she championed in the campaign Roll Back Malaria (RBM).[68] Mok currently serves as an ambassador for UNICEF,[69]SPCA,[70]Animals Asia Foundation[71] and Care for Children.[72] In 2017, Mok created the Morris Charity Initiative, providing support in animal welfare, education and the environment. As a first initiative, the charity raised money for a scholarship at the United World College Changshu.[73] Since then the charity has provided numerous donations to charities across the target areas.
Mok married her boyfriend, German-born Johannes Natterer, at a church near Florence, Italy, on 1 October 2011.[74] Mok has three adult step-children and spends her time between London and her international engagements. In 2017, they celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary with an elaborate party at Kensington Palace.[75][76]
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