ØZI (Stefan Chen)

ØZI (Stefan Chen)

Artist

Born in Los Angeles, California, ØZI (also known as Stefan Chen and Chen Yi Fan ((陈奕凡)), on March 27, 1997 to model and singer Irene Yeh, ØZI is a Taiwanese-American singer-songwriter and rapper who debuted in July of 2018 with the album ØZI: The Album.

Despite hating music at a young age due to his parents forcing piano, guitar, bass, and a variety of other instrument lessons on him starting at age four, Chen grew to love music by the age of 16, being influenced by Eminem, though he wrote his first English songs when he was 14.

Chen was later recruited by JYP Entertainment, but his father turned down the offer due to him not wanting his son to be restricted by company rules and idol rules.

Later, Chen would debut under his English name Stefan Chen, but made the change before his re-debut as ØZI in 2018. He explains that the stage name came from the sonnet “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Ozymandias is the Greek name of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II. In fact, the song “頭銜”, off his re-debut album is an homage to his stage name.