Sa Dingding

Born around 1984 in Mongolia, Sa inherited her Mongolian mother’s lineage and her Chinese father’s. From early childhood she performed vocally while mastering the zheng, a zither-like instrument, the horse-head fiddle, and an array of Chinese percussion. Drawing on the traditions of her forebears, she has fashioned a richly varied and continually compelling body of work that fuses classical Mongolian, Tibetan, and Chinese elements with influences from the Indian subcontinent and strands of modern global music from the West and elsewhere. Her performances feature lyrics in Tibetan, Mandarin, Sanskrit, Lagu, and an invented tongue shaped to trace the music’s melodic lines. At eighteen she released her first recording, which quickly drew notice throughout China and adjacent regions. Appearances during a 2005 journey to the United States and at the 2006 MTV Style Gala further expanded her reach, and a subsequent contract with Universal Music rendered her recordings far more accessible and widely embraced.