Off stage, Sa Dingding appears to be serious and reserved, exuding the assured confidence of a star who refuses to be typecast. Zou Hong / China Daily

Sa Dingding is well known in the West as a crossover artist, but she is now concentrating on getting Chinese people to appreciate her folk roots. Chen Nan reports.

She's not that well known in China, but Sa Dingding, a 28-year-old singer from Inner Mongolia, has a Grammy Award nomination, a BBC Award for World Music, has performed at the Royal Albert Hall and has a nonstop schedule of sold-out concerts worldwide. She speaks little English, but her songs, which incorporate Buddhist mantras, traditional Chinese instruments, indigenous music and electronica, go down well in the West.

Now, she is going to have a concert at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 2, which she calls, returning to her cultural roots and showing a "made-in-China Sa Dingding".

"Some people in China know me from photos in florid costumes or a music video featuring psychedelic effects. Most of my songs are not performed in Mandarin and even without lyrics, they don't know what I am singing," Sa says in Beijing. "I want to show the true me at the concert, let my music talk and introduce myself."

She says that despite her rich performing experiences worldwide, she feels nervous about the upcoming concert, for an audience of 5,000.

In addition to her long-time band - which includes bass, drums and keyboards, plus traditional instruments such as the pipa lute and guzheng (Chinese zither) - dancers and folk artists from Chinese ethnic groups will perform. She also plans to put a giant drum, which was discovered at an abandoned temple in Tibet a few years ago, on the stage.

"I am eager to show my music and imagination to the audiences. Because I have developed my music from Chinese culture, I want to share with the people who have the same roots as me," she says.

In person, Sa is nothing like her dynamic stage persona. Serious and reserved, she considers each question carefully as if she's struggling to condense her thoughts into sound bites.

Rather than being exquisitely dressed in her usual lavish robes, Sa wears a loose sweater, with matching leggings and short boots. With her long black hair, she looks just like any other fashionable woman.

However, Sa exudes the assured air of confidence of a star who refuses to be typecast.

Born to a Han father and Mongolian mother, her earliest musical influences came from her nomadic life as a 3-year-old on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, with her grandma. There, she learned how to sing and speak Mongolian, which shaped her habit of music as a daily routine, molding her distinctive voice and love of freedom.