Elisa Chan’s life has always revolved around music. The 29-year-old’s childhood memories are of singing competitions and her father performing Cantonese opera at Macao’s Cinema Alegria. So, it wasn’t exactly a surprise to find herself on stage at local broadcaster TDM’s annual music awards back in July. But scooping Best of the Pop’s biggest prize, the Golden Award, was still a thrill for the songstress. Adding Best Producer, Best Arrangement and a Favourite Song award to her collection of accolades made the event even sweeter.
Chan saw her success as a sign her musical journey was right on track. “Over these years, I’m happy that I have not given up on my music career,” she tells Macao magazine. “I persist in expressing myself through music and I create results.”
She also reveals that her prize-winning song “Desire 404” was inspired by a sloth – a cartoonish one printed on a T-shirt along with the legend, “do it tomorrow.” This message resonated with Chan. While the word “sloth” is synonymous with laziness, Chan preferred to think of the tropical tree-dweller simply living his best, stress-free life. She found herself fascinated by sloth characteristics and habitats, so dreamed up what she describes as a ‘sloth’s wonderland’ for her latest work.
“I wanted to emphasise the playfulness of a place that you can escape to, stop overthinking, put aside all desires and live for the moment,” Chan explains. Hence the song’s title (a 404 error message, of course, is what a browser displays when a web page can’t be found).
A combination of Chinese and English lyrics in “Desire 404” encourages listeners to “do things in your own way” and find joy in days that aren’t especially productive. Its accompanying video features original artwork by Macao illustrator Ana Lam that depicts a cheeky sloth swinging from a branch, dangling a computer mouse from his claws.
Broken monitors are strewn across the jungle floor, sticky notes stuck to their blank screens.
The song, a funky R&B-style number, is more upbeat than Chan’s usual soulful offerings – which include covers of her musical idols, powerful female performers whose songs tell stories. Her teenage favourite artist is Canada’s pop-punk starlet Avril Lavigne. “Her style was magnetic and she had such a rockstar aura,” the singer-songwriter says. “Avril’s music always lifted my spirits.” Lavigne’s influence is particularly strong in Chan’s fashion sense: she favours a punk aesthetic, and often sports fishnets.
‘Remembering who we truly are is important’
As noted, Macao-born Chan had a musical upbringing. “My whole family loves singing, and now when we get together for dinners, we often book a restaurant with karaoke,” she shares. Chan remembers playing with a toy piano as a child, but her voice had always been her favourite instrument. Chan’s talent shone in school singing competitions and she later performed as lead vocalist in a school band formed with a couple of classmates.
Her first big-time brush with the music industry happened a decade ago, via local auditions for The Voice of China 2014. She made it to the final 15 Macao contestants during her last year of high school, performing the song “Just Tonight” by US rock group The Pretty Reckless. The experience was momentous, Chan recalls. “I felt over the moon to be there as a high school student. The only thing I was thinking about was to enjoy myself on the stage and give my best to perform a song I love.”
It wasn’t long before she landed a contract with a Macao-based talent management company. Under their guidance, a hard-working Chan released a handful of singles while wrapping up school and later working at a café. When that contract ended in 2018, Chan decided to be an independent artist. And she quickly realised she was the sort of woman who could do things on her own: from writing lyrics and musical compositions, to the production and distribution of her works.
Her first single from that new era, “Indigo”, also marked her debut as a composer. “The song’s name comes from the colour of our veins,” Chan says. “I want to express that unhappiness happens in our lives for a reason. Many people want to forget these times, but they are what make us strong and who we are today.”
While Chan is a solo artist, she never feels alone in Macao because she’s so well supported by friends in the local music community. “We jam melodies together, and I made the adjustments to the notes – it works very well,” she says.
The singer’s toolkit consists of a pen, paper and the recording device on her smartphone. She says her inspiration tends to come from chance encounters in day-to-day life, and that her music is a reflection of her own interests and quirky personality, of self-discovery, and life-lessons gleaned along the way.
One idea Chan’s long been fascinated by is that of a girl who wakes up in the midst of an identity crisis. She explores this concept in her 2019 single, “Glimmer”, which opens with the line (in Chinese), “Open your eyes and look at the mirror, I saw an unfamiliar face.”
“I think when we have to handle many things simultaneously, we forget who we are,” Chan says of the song’s subject matter. “We have many faces to deal with different situations. We must adapt to these, but remembering who we truly are is important.”
Her 2023 track “Leftover” was inspired by an experience in her own kitchen. “I once made soup for myself and my roommate, and my roommate wanted to throw what we didn’t end up eating away,” she says. “It made me think about all the people that contribute to a person’s life, only to get tossed aside when they’re no longer useful.”
“Leftover” went on to win Best Composition and Best Arrangement at last year’s Best of the Pop awards.
‘We’re like a big family’
Having received recognition from Best of the Pop two years in a row, Chan appreciates how much the event does for Macao’s music scene. “Macao is a small city, and so is the music industry – we’re like a big family,” she says.” Best of the Pop is an invaluable opportunity to meet friends who support and give feedback to each other. Although it’s a competition, we support each other more than try to beat each other.”
These days, Chan’s main focus is on writing new material while performing at events around Macao and the Greater Bay Area. In addition, she hosts the occasional TV show and works as a voice actor. But she’s also a devoted cat-mum. Chan’s eight feline companions often feature in her music videos. Asked how she manages to look after so many pets, Chan cites an old Cantonese saying: “To feed one more mouth, we just need one more pair of chopsticks”.
As she nears the end of her twenties, Chan says she’s been listening to her all-time favourite Adele’s album, 30, on repeat. In it, the British pop sensation muses on life at this milestone age – something Chan finds herself doing more and more. “I think Adele’s album is mostly about self-care,” she says. “And as I turn 30, I think I need to put more care into myself. Writing music is what allows me to learn more about myself, and I find that to be a very important part of the process.”
