Career

In 1995, during a summer trip to Taiwan, Wang's music talent was discovered. His debut album Love Rival Beethoven (情敵貝多芬) was released by BMG Music in the winter of 1995, and received little limelight.

He was asked to leave his college study to pursue a full time singing career in Taiwan. Wang insisted to stay on to finish school, and at the same time, he was able to convince Decca Records to include some of his own writings in his next album. One of his writings became the title song or zhuda (Chinese: 主打; pinyin: zhǔ dǎ) for his second album If You Heard My Song (如果你聽見我的歌). Wang continued his study at Williams College, and released Missing You (好想你) during winter break of 1996 and White Paper (白紙) during summer of 1997. His music breakthrough did not come until a year later when Revolution (公轉自轉) was released after his graduation from Williams.

1998–2002: Revolution

After graduating from college, Wang was able to devote his full attention to his music career. He signed with Sony BMG Taiwan and released his fifth album, Revolution (公轉自轉) on August 21, 1998. The album became a huge success and won him numerous notable awards including Best Producer of the Year and Best Male Vocalist of the 10th Golden Melody Awards in 1999. He was just 23, making him the youngest person ever to win the award in either of the two categories.

His sixth album Impossible to Miss You (不可能錯過你) was released 10 months later. It was just as successful as his previous album. Although he was nominated again for Best Male Vocalist at the 11th Golden Melody Awards he did not win the award this time. However, the interesting style of music Wang had incorporated in this album had attracted many new fans. Since his release of Revolution, each album Wang produced conveyed different styles of music and sounds, attracted numerous fans from different regions in Southeast Asia.

Although raised in New York, Wang always felt the deep root in his Chinese heritage. He started to incorporate Chinese sounds into his music. In his seventh album, Wang remade a popular Chinese song "Descendants of the Dragon" (traditional Chinese: 龍的傳人; pinyin: lóng de chuán rén) to include in his seventh album Forever's First Day (永遠的第一天). The song raised the pride of the young Chinese generation, soon became a must-sing song in all of his concerts.

His eighth album, The One and Only (唯一) marked the height of his star career. "The One and Only" (Chinese: 唯一; pinyin: wéi yī) became his signature song. The song has won him over 7 different prestigious awards and was on the Ringback Tone #1 Download Charts for over a year.

2003–2006: Chinked-out

Having established himself as one of the most important, influential, and prolific artists in Chinese music, never repeating himself, Wang continued to invent and experiment with new sounds and voices.

His ninth album, Unbelievable marked a milestone in his career. Not only did the album heavily stress mainstream R&B and Hip Hop, it also sold more than 1.3 million copies in Asia and won him Best Producer of the Year again for the 15th Golden Melody Awards in 2004. The lead single of the album, "You're Not Here" (Chinese: 你不在; pinyin: nǐ bù zài) was ranked #1 in several music charts and stayed there for well over 10 weeks. Before the release of Unbelievable, Wang began his first world concert tour titled "Unbelievable". The concert tour received rave reviews from fans and critiques in all regions in Asia.

In his tenth album Shangri-La, released on the last day of 2004, Wang incorporated the often unheard music of Chinese aboriginal music into mainstream hip hop and coined this style "chinked-out". He experimented with the tribal sounds of China, Tibet, and Mongolia, traveled to remote villages, carrying 15 kg of equipment while fighting bouts of altitude and food sickness. Despite the derogatory nature of the term "chink," Wang had wanted to repossess the term and "make it cool." Within ten days of its release, Shangri-La sold past an outstanding 40,000 copies, an excellent start as the first album to be sold in Taiwan of 2005. Within a month, the album sold over 300,000 copies.

Continuing the "chinked-out spirit" by infusing elements of Beijing opera and Kunqu into the songs, Heroes of Earth was released on December 30, 2005. Heroes of Earth was his eleventh album. He collaborated with American rapper Jin and Korean artists Rain and Lim Jeong Hee and again won himself Best Male Vocalist in the 17th Golden Melody Awards in 2006. Heroes of Earth impressively broke the record of selling more than 1 million copies ten days after its release. The album stayed at first place in the G-Music Charts for 6 weeks. Ultimately, the album stayed in the charts for a total of 23 weeks and became third for the most sold album in Taiwan of 2006.

2007–Present: Change Me

In the summer of 2007, Wang released his much anticipated 12th album, Change Me. The album was released on Friday, July 13, disregarding the superstition generally attached to Friday the 13th. Through this album, Leehom promotes the issue of global warming and social awareness. The packaging of the CD uses recycled paper and contains no plastic. Wang believes that little changes in each person can affect the world. The CD also came with a pair of reusable metal chopsticks in a pouch. This is also to promote environmental awareness.

Wang's first promotional single album for the new album, "Falling Leaf Returns to Roots" (traditional Chinese: 落葉歸根; pinyin: luòyè guī gēn) gave its world premiere at Hito Radio on June 20, 2007. The music style is very different from Wang's previous singles. Wang had said that the inspiration behind the song was due to the influence of his portrayal of Kuang Yumin in the film Lust, Caution. The song accompanies melodic violin and piano solos. In addition, Leehom collaborated with Selina Ren, a member of the famous Taiwan girl group S.H.E in "You're a song in my heart" (Chinese: 你是我心内的一首歌; pinyin: nǐ shì wǒ xīn nèi de yī shǒu gē). For this song, Wang sings a few lines in Taiwanese, which was a bit of a challenge for him because of he is not fluent in Taiwanese. Wang learned some Taiwanese in order to help deal with this challenge.

In August 2008, Wang sought US$320,000 in damages for plagiarism by Pritam, an Indian composer. The lead song for the movie Race, composed by Pritam, was allegedly copied from "Deep Within the Bamboo Grove" (traditional Chinese: 竹林深處; pinyin: zhú lín shēnchù).

Wang was announced as conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra's 2008 annual grand finale for four concerts over three days. The finale will be held from December 22 to 24 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. He is the first musician to ever conduct the orchestra.

2008: Heart.Beat

In early December of 2008, Wang announced that his new album "Heart.Beat" (traditional Chinese: 心．跳; pinyin: xīn tìao) would be released on December 26. Along with this announcement, Wang released the cover song with the same title, "Heart.Beat," over the radio on December 8.