IT HAS been a bumper year for home-grown singer-songwriter Tanya Chua.

The 33-year-old, who broke out in 1997 and who is now based in Taiwan, harvested a whopping 21 awards - most notably the Best Mandarin Female Singer and Best Album Producer at Taiwan's Golden Melody Awards in July.

But that same month, she also found herself embroiled in a copyright lawsuit with her previous management and record company, Music & Movement.

Then, she unsuccessfully tried to stop the firm from profiting from the songs she had composed while contracted to it.

my paper understands that she will be appealing against the case next year.

Chua talks about her achievements and upcoming projects in an e-mail interview from Shanghai.

How did it feel to win so many awards this year?

I'm happy and proud...because I can represent my country overseas.

Though I did think 2008 would be a good year, I could never have predicted how many awards I would get.

What have you got planned for the coming year?

I'm producing an English album and a Mandarin album. The latter will be produced by two of my companies, namely Tangy Music Productions (an artiste- management and recording company) and Tian Ya Music Productions, which is in Taiwan.

I'll also be trying out a new image for my Chinese album.

Stay tuned for details.

For more my paper stories click here.