2010: Pre-debut Zhou's music career began in 2010, when he began singing online on a Chinese video-based social network,
YY.com, under the nickname 卡布叻, or Kabule.
2014–2015: Participation in The Voice of China After listening to Zhou's singing online, the director of
The Voice of China invited Zhou to participate in the first and second seasons of the show. However, Zhou declined both invitations, fearful of how audiences would perceive his unique voice. Undeterred, the director continued to invite him for the following season, and although Zhou initially declined again, she persisted for 3 months until Zhou, touched by her efforts, accepted the invitation. Zhou participated in
The Voice of China (season 3) and amazed the coaches with his cover of
Chyi Yu's "Huan Yan" (欢颜) in the blind audition round. The song "Lake Baikal" (贝加尔湖畔) sung by Zhou and Li Wei in the competition was awarded Song of 2014 of
The Voice of China. In the same year, Zhou participated in the live tour presented by
The Voice of China. He attended
Beijing TV's New Year's Gala and supported the bid for the
Olympic Winter Games in Beijing by singing a multi-language version of "
Let It Go". He also participated in the world tour of the performing-arts extravaganza
Cultures of China, Festival of Spring. In May, Zhou went to London to attend
The Voice UK with Li Wei on behalf of
The Voice of China. He then released a cover album called
Aftertaste together with Li Wei in July. On 8 August 2015, Zhou's first single, "The Rose and the Deer", was released, and he won the Best New Artist of
ERC Chinese Top Ten Awards.
2016–2018: "Big Fish" and debut album In May 2016, Zhou sang "Big Fish" for the Chinese animated film
Big Fish & Begonia. "Big Fish" and "The Rose and the Deer" were both selected as part of the Top 10 Hits Songs of
Freshasia Music Award 2016.
ERC Chinese Top Ten Awards named "Big Fish" one of the Top 10 Songs of the Year, and awarded Zhou the People's Choice Male Singer of 2017. He also won the Most Popular Male Singer Online of Music Pioneer Award 2016. Following the phenomenal success of "Big Fish", other films and series began to invite Zhou to perform songs for them, including "Echo" for the series
The Starry Night The Starry Sea, "Calm Romance" for the film
Brotherhood of Blades II: The Infernal Battlefield, and "Speechless" for the Chinese animation
Dahufa. In October, Zhou appeared on the music show
Mask Singer. In November 2017, Zhou released his debut album ''
Charlie's Debut Album'', created in collaboration with producer
Gao Xiaosong, songwriter Yin Yue, and composer Qian Lei. In 2018, Zhou performed over 10 songs for various films and TV series, including the Chinese promotional song for the Academy Award-winning film
The Shape of Water. In May and June, Zhou embarked on his first concert tour, the Deep Space Tour, in Shanghai, Wuhan, and Chengdu. He won the Most Improved Artist of the
ERC Chinese Top Ten Awards and the Best New Artist of the Global Chinese Music Chart Awards. In November, Zhou participated in the show
Super–Vocal, where his performance of classic songs including "
Time to Say Goodbye", "
Memory", "
Think of Me", and "
The Lonely Goatherd" received extremely high praise from industry professionals. He participated in
The Masked Singer again, this time using his
Bel canto skills and versatile vocals to mislead the guessing panel.
2019: Planet C-929 Tour, Our Song In 2019, Zhou performed over 20 songs for various films and TV series, including "With the Wind" for
Mystery of Antiques, "Only You" for
Relying on Heaven to Slaughter Dragons, "Longing for a Wholehearted Lover" for
Royal Nirvana, and "Untouchable" for
The Upside. He was awarded Breakthrough Artist of the Year and the song "Blossom" won the Top 10 Songs of the Year from
ERC Chinese Top Ten Awards 2019. A continuation of his first concert tour was held in
Beijing in January, followed by
Shenzhen and
Hangzhou in June and July. In April, Zhou participated in the
Super–Vocal and Never Say Goodbye concert tours. He also held a joint music concert with Isabelle Huang in
Shanghai on 18 May. On 25 May, he attended
Victor Wong's "The Pursuit of Happiness" concert in Beijing as a special guest. On 12 June, he participated in the Nanyang Khek Community Gift of Warmth Charity Concert 2019, a charity concert in Singapore for people with autism, together with
Chyi Yu, Huang Hongying, and Roy Li Fei Huei. In October 2019, Zhou was ranked on the music industry list of
Forbes 30 Under 30 China 2019. On the 1 and 2 November 2019, he participated in the Nanjing
The Untamed music concert, performing his song "Passing by the Deserted City". In November 2019, he won the
MTV Europe Music Award for Best Greater China Act. From November 2019 to January 2020, he held his second concert tour, named
Planet C-929, with stops in Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. From October 2019 to January 2020, Zhou participated in the first season of the singing competition
Our Song, broadcast by
Dragon TV, where his duets and comedic interactions with his senior partner, cantopop legend
Hacken Lee, widely contributed to the popularity of the show. Zhou and Lee were ultimately crowned the winners of that season.
2020: Singer 2020, end of contract with The Voice of Dreams From February to April 2020, Zhou appeared on Hunan TV's
Singer 2020 as an initial singer. Zhou was one of the most consistently high ranking contestants across all seasons of the show. He won first place in episode 8 for his cover of the song "Dalabengba", in which he blended singing with voice acting, using 5 different voices in his dynamic performance. This performance proceeded to go viral on Chinese platforms, receiving over 10 million views within a day of release and remaining trending on Chinese search engines. It dominated the music charts and within a month had over 100 million streams on Netease Cloud Music alone. This version has been widely praised by China's domestic music critics, noting how his viral performance has contributed to the spread of ACGN culture. "Dalabengba" won NetEase Cloud Music's 2020 Most Popular Single and Most Popular Show Performance categories. From January to April 2020, he participated in the cultural reality show
The Great Wall. As Zhou gained widespread recognition in 2020, he also appeared as a guest in many popular Chinese variety shows, including
Day Day Up,
Ace vs Ace,
Back to Field,
Smoothly Flowing Melodies, and
Keep Running!. Zhou later participated in the variety show
Youth Periplous II as a regular cast member. On 19 July 2020, the establishment of Zhou Shen Studios was officially announced after his six year contract with The Voice of Dreams ended. His first online concert "Good Night, See You Tomorrow" was then held on 25 July through TME live, on the 6th anniversary of his debut. The concert was streamed on multiple platforms, and the QQ Music broadcast alone attracted over 7.2 million online viewers. In August, he ranked 42nd on the
Forbes China Celebrity List of 2020. Zhou collaborated several times with internationally renowned pianist
Lang Lang, performing "Interstellar Train" on
The Coming One: SUPER BAND as well as "Big Fish" and "Scarborough Fair" on Jiangsu TV's Kuaishou "One Thousand and One Nights" Gala on 30 October. On 16 October, Zhou also collaborated with renowned Mongolian singer
Tengger to perform a mashup of "Big Fish" and Tengger's "Heaven" on the TikTok x Zhejiang TV Autumn Gala 2020. From August to November 2020, Zhou appeared on the variety show
Go Newbies, in which he learned how to drive and obtained his driving license. Starting from 4 November, Zhou Shen appeared in a workplace-observational reality show
An Exciting Offer Season 2. On 20 December, Zhou was awarded The Most Popular Singer of 2020 at the
Tencent Video All-Stars Night 2020 Awards Ceremony. On 31 December, Zhou Shen gave performances at multiple New Year's Eve concerts, including
China Media Group's "Set Sail 2021" New Year Gala,
Jiangsu TV 2021 New Year Countdown Concert,
Bilibili 2020 New Year's Eve Gala, "Welcoming Olympic Winter Games" Beijing Media Network's 2021 New Year Global Gala, and
Guangdong TV 2020–2021 "Passing on Joy in Beautiful Life" New Year Celebration.
2021: First appearance on CCTV's Spring Festival Gala Since 6 November 2020, Zhou has been the official Promotion Ambassador of Guiyang Cultural Tourism, and he appeared on the cultural urban travel documentary
Marvelous City presented by
Youku on 5 January to introduce the city where he grew up. In January, Zhou was named The Most Popular Singer of 2020 at the Tencent Entertainment White Paper ceremony and the Best Mainland Male Singer of the Year at the
Tencent Music Entertainment Awards. On 27 January, Zhou was announced as a mentor for the Tencent's talent show
Chuang 2021. His impromtu cover of a famous Ukrainian pop song "Річка" in the show with a Ukrainian trainee was broadcast on several Ukrainian news channels. During the 2021 Lunar New Year, Zhou performed at numerous Spring Festival galas, including China Media group's, Tencent's, Hunan TV's, Jiangsu TV's, and CCTV's 2021 Lantern Festival Gala. Most notable was his first appearance on CCTV's "
CCTV New Year's Gala" and his critically acclaimed performance of "China in the Lights" (灯火里的中国) with singer
Zhang Ye. The performance exceeded 100 million views cumulatively across Chinese video platforms the day after it aired. On 9 April, Zhou participated in the Global Diplomats' Chinese Cultural Night, where he was awarded the 2020 Most Influential Youth Singer of the Year. On 25 May, Zhou collaborated with world-renowned composer and conductor
Tan Dun in the Nanshan Pop Festival 2021. On 31 May, he participated in a public welfare project aimed at providing more opportunities for rural children.
2022–2023: Keep Running, Thank You Concert Beginning in 2022, Zhou has become a regular cast member
Keep Running. The program director, Yao Yitian, noted one reason he invited Zhou is because of Zhou's thoughtfulness and consideration towards others, which has contributed to the atmosphere of the show. In 2023, Zhou sang theme songs for various films and series, including "Endless Sailing" and "Eternal Solitude" for
Three-Body, "Humans are ___" for
The Wandering Earth 2, "Free Floating" for
Back from the Brink, "Dazzling Adventurer" for
Soul Land 2: The Peerless Tang Clan, "Borrowing a Dream" for
Story of Kunning Palace, "I'm a Star" for the Chinese release of Disney's
Wish, and the Chinese version of
Suzume. On 21 January 2023, Zhou made his second appearance at CCTV's Spring Gala Festival, performing the song "Blossoming Flowers, Forgetting Sorrows" (花开忘忧). He served as the Public Welfare Ambassador for the
2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15). A wax figure of Zhou Shen was unveiled at Madame Tussauds Beijing on 25 July 2023. On 19 August 2023, Zhou held a special thank you concert "深深感谢你" at Beijing's Wukesong arena.
2024–present: Shenself and 9.29Hz World Concert Tour In January 2024, Zhou was awarded Most Popular Singer of the Year at the Weibo Awards Ceremony. In February, his OST for the movie
YOLO was released; the song, "Little Happiness" (小美满), proceeded to dominate the weekly charts across Chinese platforms and was awarded Movie Song of the Year at the 2023–2024 at the China Movie Data Gala and Awards Ceremony of China Movie Channel M-Chart. On 9 February 2024, Zhou made his third appearance in CCTV Spring Festival Gala with the song "Health Order" (健康到到令). On 18 April 2024, Zhou was invited to attend the 15th annual United Nations Chinese Language Day at the UN headquarters in New York. He participated in the roundtable discussions and performed the song "Ode to Peace", which was composed specifically for the occasion, in addition to his songs "Big Fish" and "Wait for Me". On 31 March 2024, "Mirage", the first song from Zhou's second album, was released. In May 2024, Zhou Shen's 9.29 Hz concert tour officially launched in stadiums across China. Tickets for every concert sold out within seconds of release. On 19 May 2024, his second album
Shenself (反深代词) was released globally through Warner Music. The album sales exceeded 1 million copies one week after release.
Shenself ranked 11th on the 2024 IFPI Global Album Sales Chart, making Zhou the only Chinese artist to appear on the chart in 2024. On 28 January 2025, Zhou made his fourth appearance on CCTV's Spring Festival Gala, performing a mash-up of Peruvian folk song "
El Cóndor Pasa" and Chinese folk song "
Lan Huahua" with renowned operatic tenor
Juan Diego Flórez. Beginning in February 2025, Zhou's 9.29 Hz concert tour went international, with stops in
London,
Las Vegas,
Seattle,
New York,
Toronto,
Melbourne,
Sydney, and
Kuala Lumpur. However, on 14 February, the London stop was cancelled due to health issues. After arriving in London on the 11th, Zhou experienced discomfort in his throat with symptoms worsening significantly on the 14th. Per the doctor's recommendation, the concert was cancelled. Tickets were refunded through the official ticket retailer
AXS. Domestic travel and international train expenses were reimbursed in full while lodging and international flight expenses were reimbursed up to a set amount. == Discography ==