INTERVIEW: Who Is Jane Zhang? | Everything You Need To Know

If you've seen one of Hulu's recent commercials, then you heard a song called "Dust My Shoulders Off," and it's from an artist named Jane Zhang. The 32-year-old pop star was born and raised in China where she placed third in the country's "Super Girl" competition (an American Idol-like competition) in 2005. Now, she's bringing her music over to the US, and working with super producer Timbaland. 

We recently caught up with Jane in Los Angeles where we got to know her better, and learn about her new music, her single "Dust My Shoulders Off," what it has been like working with Timbaland to produce her single, and what new music fans can look forward to.

[Buy "Dust My Shoulders Off" on iTunes]

On bringing her music to America

Jane has been performing and creating music for over ten years, her career really took off after placing third in China's "Super Girl" competition. "I just joined that competition to make some new friends who love to sing just like me," she tells us. "That's all I thought it would be like, but it just suddenly just changed my life."

Now, with her new single, she tells us bringing her music to the US is a "brand new journey" for her, especially working with a new producer and other artists. "I'm still learning, and it still feels [like] a brand new me, and some new way to sing the music. I'm still on the way. Sometimes when you're living your life for a very long time doing the same thing, it's very easy to feel you're stopped somewhere, but this makes me feel [like] I'm still moving on."

On her single "Dust My Shoulders Off" and working with Timbaland

Jane met Timbaland while she was working on music with other musicians. The producer's manager happened to be in town at the same time, and set up a meeting with Timbaland so he could listen for himself. And the rest is history. She says with "Dust My Shoulders Off," she wanted to "share the feelings" she had when writing the song. "For me, it's like I'm trying to be someone new, and trying the music [with] some fresh feelings, so I've always loved to do things fresh. And also, I think to share the feeling is the most important thing." She adds, "'Dust My Shoulders Off' is a way to share the feeling when I'm not on the stage, the normal life around me. [The] same problems happen on me too. We're all human, so we're all the same."

Working with Timbaland has been a great experience for Jane. She says of working with the mega producer, "He's very professional and very creative. He has a lot of ideas in the studio, and every moment might be something new [to] change. When we started to do the record, we would find a track, and we got some feelings and started to write a song, and we [would] change it many, many times once we had some new ideas."

Timbaland is executive producing Jane's upcoming album. She tells us, "We're still working on some other songs with other producers, [and] some musicians, so there are more new songs coming soon."

Watch Jane Zhang's official "Dust My Shoulders Off" music video below.