Ugly Beauty is the fourteenth studio album by Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai. It was released on December 26, 2018, by Sony and Eternal. It was produced by Tsai with Razor Chiang, Starr Chen, Howe Chen, and Øzi. Musically, it is a pop record which merged a series of genres such as trap, house, reggae, and gothic rock. Thematically, it tends to break through the traditional aesthetic criterion and explore the bipolarity of human feeling, and Tsai wants to "uncover the ugliness hidden behind the perfect surface, and peek into the emotions that try the best to be buried" through the album.
The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who commented the concept is unified and complete, singing condition is comfortable and freehand, and it was considered the leading production in the C-pop music industry. The album became the highest-selling album of 2019 in Taiwan. It became the highest-selling digital album by a Hong Kong/Taiwanese female artist of all time in China, and it made Tsai the highest-selling digital Hong Kong/Taiwanese female artist of all time in the country. In August 2023, the album's digital sales crossed the 850,000 mark in China.
The album received a total of eight Golden Melody Award nominations. The album was nominated for Album of the Year, Best Mandarin Album, and Best Vocal Recording Album, "Womxnly" was nominated for Song of the Year, the music video of "Ugly Beauty" and "Lady in Red" were nominated for Best Music Video, Tsai was nominated for Best Female Mandarin Singer, and Tsai together with Starr Chen were nominated for Best Single Producer for "Ugly Beauty". The album eventually won Album of the Year, and "Womxnly" won Song of the Year. To further promote the album, she embarked on her fifth concert tour Ugly Beauty World Tour on December 30, 2019 and it concluded on January 8, 2023.
Background
On November 15, 2014, Tsai released her thirteenth studio album, Play. It sold more than 85,000 copies in Taiwan, becoming the year's highest-selling album by a female singer and the year's fourth highest-selling album overall in the country. The album earned a total of 10 Golden Melody Award nominations, and it is one of the three most nominated albums in the awards' history. Eventually, it won Best Mandarin Album and Best Vocal Recording Album. In support of the album, Tsai embarked on her fourth concert tour, Play World Tour. The tour started on May 22, 2015 in Taipei, Taiwan at Taipei Arena and continued before concluding on July 16, 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at Stadium Merdeka.
On September 30, 2016, she collaborated with Alesso and released the single, "I Wanna Know". On October 31, 2016, Tsai collaborated with Starr Chen and released the single, "Ego-Holic". In 2017, Tsai released a series of single, including "Give Love" for the 2017 Mother's Day and a related public interest campaign held by Taiwanese charity organization Tzu Chi Foundation, "We Are One" collaborated with Hardwell, "On Happiness Road" for the 2018 Taiwanese animated film of the same title, and "Stand Up" for the 2018 Chinese film, Monster Hunt 2. In January 2018, Tsai released the live video album, Play World Tour, which chronicled the Play World Tour and was filmed at Taipei Arena during the Taipei dates of the tour on May 22–25, 2015. On June 12, 2018, Tsai released the single "The Player" for the video game, Dungeon & Fighter.
Development
On July 26, 2016, Tsai announced that she was ready to get started on her next album. On November 12, 2016, Tsai revealed on Instagram that the names of songwriters Hayley Aitken, Olof Lindskog, and Johan Moraeus with photos of them working in recording studio of label The Kennel in Stockholm, Sweden. On July 18, 2016, Tsai's manager Tom Wang confirmed that Tsai devoted herself to the album and it would be Tsai's most expensive album ever made, with a budget of over NT$100 million. Wang also revealed that Tsai has formed the team independently to create songs and music videos and she would form the team to promote the album. On July 20, 2017, Tsai revealed that she had invited Ashin to collaborate on the album. On the same date, Tsai said: "So far around eight demos have been collected, but we are encountering problems in rewriting the lyrics until the songwriters could get the correct sentiment I want. This time I am listening to my body, if the demo conveys me a sense of excitement, then it's right." On September 11, 2017, Tsai confirmed that two songs had been recorded but the album were significantly behind in progress.