"我是她的歌迷。我们见过两次面。" 

——陈淑桦谈邓丽君, 1995 

“I am her fan. We met twice" -- Sarah Chen on Teresa Teng, 1995 

1995年7月，记者问陈淑桦她是否会填补邓丽君留下的空缺；陈淑桦回答说她是邓丽君的歌迷。

In July 1995, Sarah Chen was asked whether she would fill the void left by Teresa Teng's untimely death. She gave the answer stating that she was Teresa Teng's fan. 

Fan message (Sep 2025) left on our channel

"From EMI to Rock Records, this album (Waiting for the Storm) is my personal favorite. Sarah had a glorious and mature image, her music dynamic and beautiful, cumulating into a top-rated album! So many great songs. There's not a single best song, every song is my favorite!"

邓丽君比陈淑桦长五岁。她俩都是童星出家，在1967年邓丽君14岁，陈淑桦9岁时发了第一首歌。她们的歌声有相似性，适合演唱类似的歌。虽然不常互相翻唱，她们唱了19首相同曲调的歌，主要是贺年或传统台语歌。邓丽君和陈淑桦都是语言天才，录制过华语，台语，粤语，日语（主要是邓丽君），和英文（主要是陈淑桦）歌曲。

但她们的职业轨道很不同。邓丽君一出道便转为职业歌手，青少年期唱了两百多首歌。七十年代她是华语歌曲的主导，七十年代中期进入日本市场，直到她1995年去世时一直在日本占主流。邓丽君一生录制了1100多首歌，她唱的每一首歌都是金子般的珍贵。七八十年代，邓丽君的歌曲主导了广大的华语世界，她是重要的亚洲文化偶像。她与中国主席邓小平同姓，是大家夜里悄悄听的"小邓"，相应于他们白天必须听的老邓。

相比之下，陈淑桦的早期事业非常坎坷。她小时候的歌主题太成熟，给她带来障碍，害怕录情歌。当她18岁成为专业歌手时，邓丽君占了主流，陈淑桦不能随意地演唱。虽然邓丽君想怎么唱都可以，陈淑桦必须找到既真实又和邓丽君不同的唱法。这就跟双胞胎想让大家一眼就分开一样困难。陈淑桦一开始是效仿邓丽君，她1977年的专辑《悄悄地说再会》是淑桦吹丽君风，结果全军覆没。陈淑桦的星途暗淡，直到1982年才突破，那时她终于成功地摸索出淑桦秘诀，至今无人可破解。

八十年代初，也许是为了给台湾新秀发展的空间，邓丽君逐渐在华语歌曲范围内开始了收尾工作。至1983年录完经典福建歌，粤语专辑，和古诗专辑后，邓丽君主要保留的是日语歌曲。陈淑桦八十年代的崛起和邓丽君的提前让位在时间上吻合。陈淑桦的声誉从1983年开始迅速上升，以后十几年在华语乐坛独霸一方。

邓丽君于1995年五月不幸突然病逝。那年春节，陈淑桦自己曾因严重呼吸道急病昏睡了五天，险些丧命。她康复后，七月在马来西亚为《淑花盛开 Forever》作宣传。记者问陈淑桦她是否将顶替邓丽君留下的空缺。她说, "我从来未想过这一点。我是她的歌迷，我们曾见过两次面。什么结果都好，我不会特别去追求，一切随缘好了"。

几个月后，陈淑桦随缘而断然退离了歌坛。1995年12月，她录制了告别专辑《生生世世》，没有歌迷捧场，没有媒体宣传，没有美人照。悄然结束了她辉煌而波折的歌唱生涯。

Teresa Teng and Sarah Chen were just five years apart. Both began as child singers, debuting 1967: Teng at 14, Chen at just 9. Sharing vocal suitability, they tried to avoid overlapping, yet ended up performing 19 of the same songs, mostly holiday and traditional Taiwanese songs. Teng and Chen were both talented linguistically, recording in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Cantonese, Japanese (mainly Teng), and English (mainly Chen). 

Their career paths, however, diverged significantly. Teresa Teng turned professional from the start, recording over 200 songs as a teenager. She dominated Mandopop in the 1970s and entered the Japanese market in the mid-1970s, where she remained a major figure until her death in 1995. Teng recorded over 1100 songs; everything she touched turned gold. A cultural icon, Teng wielded extraordinary influences spanning the Chinese-speaking world. Sharing a surname with China's leader Deng Xiaoping, she was affectionately called "Little Deng," the voice people secretly listened to at night, in contrast to the "Old Deng" they were required to hear by day. 

By contrast, Sarah Chen's early career was filled with frustration. As a preteen, she was assigned adult-themed songs ill-suited for her age, which discouraged her from recording. When Chen turned pro at age 17, Teng's dominance meant that Chen couldn't simply sing as she pleased. While Teng could just sing, Chen had to forge a voice that's both authentic and distinct from Teng's, an almost impossible task, like trying to differ from an identical twin. She began by imitating Teng, most notably in her failed 1977 album "Quietly Saying Good-Bye." It took years for her to shed traces of Teresa Teng. Chen remained obscure until 1982, when she finally broke through with a unique style all her own.

Perhaps to make room for others, Teresa Teng began winding down her Mandarin output in the early 1980s. By 1983, she had shifted focus to Japanese songs, having completed classical albums in Taiwanese, Cantonese, and ancient Chinese poetry, leaving space for new voices. Sarah Chen's rise coincided with this retreat: as Teng stepped back, Chen rapidly rose to prominence from 1983, becoming a dominating force in Mandopop through the mid-1990s. 

In July 1995, two-months after Teresa Teng's sudden death from a medical emergency, Sarah Chen was asked whether she would fill the void left behind. Having herself spent five-days unconscious in a hospital bed from an acute respiratory illness earlier that year, Chen replied, "I haven't thought about that. I'm her fan. I met her twice. Whatever happens, I'll let fate decide."

That fate led to her quiet retirement. In December 1995, Sarah Chen recorded her farewell album Forever, Sarah in a studio in Singapore. There was no fanfare, no media blitz, no glamorous photos. She stepped away from music and disappeared from public view. 

This site was enriched by the generosity of a long-time Sarah Chen fan from Malaysia, C.Y., who shared her personal collection of clippings and magazine articles spanning much of Chen's career (1983-1996).