Artist Spotlight: Taiwanese Jazz Singer Whyte (?te) Knows Her Power
Before Taiwanese singer-songwriter Whyte (?te or 懷特 in Mandarin Chinese) became the artist she is now, she was a student studying medicine. It was her seventh year, and she was interning at a place with an extremely strict environment — a hospital that was both a teaching hospital and a part of the military. When Whyte began writing and releasing original music, she wanted to hide her identity. Of course, while at work she wore a mask, so she decided to wear sunglasses and wide-brimmed hats as “Whyte.”
Fast forward to now, and Whyte considers this stylistic choice to be her “weapon.” In a world where many judge women more harshly than men, others do not have permission to see her face without sunglasses. However, as she said to EnVi with a twinkle in her eyes, “I can see everyone.” In 2025, her sunglasses and her hats are her power.
A few days after Whyte performed at SXSW in Austin, Texas for the first time, EnVi chatted with the rising artist over Zoom. Although the conversation was only 30 minutes, Whyte was candid from the start, honestly sharing more details about her artistic journey.
The Making of “Whyte”
On March 12, Whyte performed at South by Southwest in Texas (SXSW) as a part of the Taiwan Beats Showcase. “It was my first time there,” she recalled. “And [it] was pretty exciting because it was also my first time [in] America.” Laughing, Whyte also added, “I’ve never spoken so much English in front of an audience [before].”
Although the singer-songwriter’s fans have mostly been in Taiwan, the jazz artist’s music has been reaching more corners of the world. Not only did Whyte hold a four-stop winter tour around her home country, she also performed in Germany for the Reeperbahn Festival last September. As for Whyte’s SXSW show, fans made it clear that her music has impacted them greatly. “After the show, they [came] up to me and share[d] their personal experience and how my music [made] them feel,” Whyte shared with EnVi.
For those who are unfamiliar with the “enigmatic songstress,” Whyte dropped her first single, titled “Cazzo,” in 2019. Because she was in medical school — and based at a military hospital for her internship — she decided to wear a hat and sunglasses to keep her artist and med school student identities separate. “At the time when I was writing songs and recording in the home studio, I told the producer I needed to hide my identity,” Whyte explained. “Because if you are seen as someone that is doing other things, like you’re not doing medical studies, you’re going to be isolated and you could probably be [bullied].”
This experience impacted the type of music she makes. “I became a real feminist, I would say,” Whyte mused. Having been in an environment where “90% of the people around you are men,” she realized she was in a special position to let her unfiltered thoughts fly through her songs. “When I became a person that can spread music and spread [a] message, I knew I [had] the power to spread [this] message now,” added Whyte. “I need to say those words that a lot of women are not able to speak.”
Thus, what was first borne out of fear became one of Whyte’s distinct powers. “After I really became [a] full-time artist, I found that this is actually a weapon because no one can judge my appearance,” she noted. Especially when she is performing on stage, the audience has no way of recognizing her except through her style of sunglasses and hats. “I know how they look, but they don’t know how I look,” Whyte said slyly with a grin.
Whyte decided to pursue music full-time, however, after she was nominated for — and won — Best New Artist at Taiwan’s 32nd Golden Melody Awards (considered to be the Grammy Awards of Taiwan) in 2021. “I was the Best New Artist of that year and before that, I didn’t expect that I [could] do it full time. But after that award, I got a lot of invitations and interviews; I got a lot of exposure,” she said, speaking on the encouragement she received from the notable recognition.
But when she was growing up, singing as a full-time career never occurred to Whyte. Her mother’s family are fishermen, while the singer-songwriter was raised by her grandmother. Apparently, though, Whyte noted with a laugh, that her family loves to sing in the shower. “So I didn’t know that I’m the special one,” she joked.
Whyte started writing music when she was around 23 years old, an age she believes is “pretty late.” Before that, she dropped out of med school but picked up the guitar and learned more about music theory. Whyte’s full-time artist career kicked off officially when she was 28 years old. “I never thought [I would] have the chance to become a full time artist,” Whyte shared. “It changed my life.”
You’re Never Too Late for Your Dreams
However, her wide-brimmed hats and collection of sunglasses isn’t the only thing worth paying attention to. Whyte’s jazz-influenced music blends chillhop, lofi, and R&B, creating a calming yet experimental soundscape. To create this discography, Whyte pulls inspiration from jazz legends like Shabaker and Billie Holiday. “Their voices can show their emotions and the emotions are not bright and happy; they’re mostly sad too,” she explained. ”I might look like a happy person, but I’m actually a sad person,” Whyte added with a burst of laughter.
The songstress’ lyrics allow listeners to take a peek into that sadness, into the incisive thoughts she then pours into her songs. From “Ho(l)e” — which cuts into female expectations in today’s world — to “Let Me Be” — a letter from a frustrated high school student to their parents. The latter is Whyte’s latest single in collaboration with Japanese artist TENDRE. While she tends to sing mostly in English, she also has sung songs in Mandarin, her native language. “Singing in Mandarin is a little bit more challenging,” the jazz musician admitted.
The majority of Whyte’s tracks have English lyrics, which can be attributed to her “listening history” that consists of jazz and Western music. However, when she first started out as a singer-songwriter, others in the music business had some opinions on which language she used. “A lot of people told me that I need[ed] to focus on Mandarin [songs] because this market [in Taiwan] is mostly Mandarin listeners. If I didn’t write in Mandarin, I [was] going to lose those listeners,” Whyte shared honestly. At that time, she attempted to “compromise and [tried] to write more Mandarin.”
Now, as Whyte mentioned to EnVi, she is prioritizing cross-cultural collaborations. This musical direction will not only broaden her experiences but also create global music. This year alone, Whyte will drop collabs with American and European artists. Plus, at the end of March, she dropped her track with TENDRE from Japan.
As the songstress emphasized, “I want to have this more different experience because for me, making music shouldn’t be chasing goals. For me, I want to try different markets, I want to see how it works.”
Inspiration Is Everywhere
When Whyte is faced with a “What’s your favorite track?” question, she genuinely cannot answer. “Every song is special [to] me,” she said. Recently, her discography revolves around stories about being a woman. This was actually “pretty unexpected” to her, as she originally thought she “could only write some things about love.” Whyte’s approach changed when she began writing her feelings about being a woman in this world into her lyrics. As a result, “I got so much feedback from women about how I change[d] their lives,” Whyte reflected. She knew she had to keep talking about these topics, “talking about the difficulty of being a woman and what they encounter in their [lives].”
But where do her songs start? During our conversation, Whyte walked EnVi through her process. First, she starts with a hook, a short melody, and then puts it on a digital audio workstation (DAW), software for music making. Once Whyte discovers the melody, she has a “picture, a vision” in her head that leads to more concrete details for the song. “I usually need to visualize it first before I start to write,” noted Whyte. This picture answers questions like “Where is the song?,” “How does it look?,” What is the tone?,” and “What is the color.” (The color is particularly important.)
When she does start writing, she does it solo. “I need to do it by myself,” Whyte mentioned. “It’s hard for me to write with people; honestly, I don’t know why. I always write songs alone.” She added, “Every time I write songs, it just comes out naturally.”
Sometimes, writing a track takes a little longer — like, years longer. She will go back to old demos and see if she can add anything new to them at a different time. “When you come back to the music, you [are] probably a little older,” with more experiences behind you, Whyte considered. The process is like a puzzle, where “different pieces [fit] together at the end, but it was different ideas [from] different times” that created the full picture.
For her February single, “Dating Me Ain’t Hard,” the singer steps into the shoes of someone with a major crush. However, this person never took the first step to confess to the other. They “never got the feedback [from this person]” about whether these feelings were mutual. As Whyte shared through the eyes of her character, “I just waited there and I just observed. I see there’s a chance but I never [took] action.”
Instead, overthinking colors the crush. “Dating me ain’t hard / You just gotta deal with my overthinking,” Whyte sings a bit cheekily in the chorus. The character’s imagination goes wild and builds an elaborate story in their head, mainly revolving around “what it would be like to be with this person.” Just as she opens the track, “I analyze every message like a scientist / My brain is playing tricks / Cuz I’m lost in the world of ‘what if,’” every little detail is turned around and around.
When Whyte imagined “Dating Me Ain’t Hard,” she pictured warm oranges, yellows, pinks, and even blues. This image bleeds into the album art, which Whyte created with Marcus Cederberg, a Swedish photographer. Known for his minimalist style focused on a small object or figure surrounded by a large swath of colorful space, his vision aligned with Whyte’s hopes for her new song. She told EnVi that she texted Marcus about a collaboration, and after he agreed, he sent over some unreleased works of his. As soon as Whyte saw a “warm orange color,” she knew that image was “Dating Me Ain’t Hard.”
Due to this artistic collaboration — and a collab post on IG between the photographer and the singer-songwriter — more people have found Whyte’s music. “A lot of people from Europe started to share this music,” she said happily. “I was really surprised that this song [has] now spread to somewhere outside of Taiwan.”
Whyte on the Up and Up
With an SXSW performance and two new singles propelling her forward, Whyte is full of energy during our call. “I’ve got songs about a lot more sensitive topics, but now, I’m not afraid to release [them],” she teased with a hint of mischief in her voice. “I will slowly talk about [them]…gradually,” the songstress mentioned a beat later with a laugh.
For now, listeners can soak up her collaboration with TENDRE. Briefly summed up as “about Asian parents,” Whyte timed this single to drop when Taiwanese high schoolers are finished with college exams and preparing for college interviews. As she noted, “There will be a lot of fights between parents and kids” since career path — and life — expectations will be nearing their peaks. Meanwhile, the kids “probably…don’t know what they want,” leading to potent battles between family members.
“Let Me Be Me” takes the perspective of the frustrated high schoolers, who express their empathy for their parents but also want their thoughts to be heard. “I don’t understand your love but it’s a little bit too controlling for me,” Whyte elaborated. “I hope you can understand my feelings.”
June 2025 will mark six years since Whyte dropped her 2019 debut, “Cazzo.” If she could give her 2019-self some advice, these matter-of-fact words also speak to feelings: “I will tell myself you’re brave.”
In that first year, a label company was interested in signing her, but Whyte declined. Although she did have a distributor, not having a label company backing her music was a challenge. “At the time, I was struggling,” she told EnVi honestly. But without that struggle, she would not be where she is today, including having created her own company.
“Even though I didn’t have the strong support from a big label, I was supporting myself pretty well. I will keep following this path and encourag[ing] people that want to be independent artist[s]. I [will] keep encouraging them to be strong, and we’ll have a community together,” Whyte reflected.
“I’m really grateful that we have this kind of support, so I will keep going and helping the people [who] are like me.”
Keep up with Whyte on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. Listen to her music on Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp.
Want to read more conversations with your favorite rising artists? Check out EnVi’s artist spotlight with J-pop group PSYCHIC FEVER here!
