Rita Carpio

Rita Maria Carpio (; born June 17, 1965) is a Hong Kong pop singer of Filipino-Macanese ethnicity. Active since the 1980s, she is most well known for the 1990 Cantopop classic "You Needn’t Be Acquaintances to Meet with Each Other" (相逢何必曾相識), a duet which she sang with Ram Chiang.

Life Born to Filipino and Macanese parents in Hong Kong, Rita Carpio was exposed to music at an early age since the Carpios in Hong Kong were heavily involved in the music industry. Her father Tony Carpio worked as a jazz musician, while her cousin Teresa Carpio became a household name in Hong Kong as a singer during Rita's childhood. Rita's parents were separated early in her life, so she and her siblings were raised by her father, who taught them the piano and guitar. While her siblings eventually became established musicians playing instruments, Rita opted to sing instead, and started to sing at her father's performances as a teenager. Her father used to turn her microphone's volume down in these performances in order to train her voice.

In 1982, she participated in the inaugural New Talent Singing Awards hosted by Hong Kong's television broadcaster TVB under the name Rita Maria Carpio. While most other contestants chose to sing Chinese songs, Rita Carpio did not feel confident performing in Chinese (having been brought up in an English-speaking household) and performed The Nolans' "Sexy Music". She emerged as the contest's first runner-up, losing only to Anita Mui, future Cantopop diva.

In the late 1980s, Carpio was scouted by a Taiwanese record label to sing English songs for the Taiwan market, where she was named Mi Ti (米媞, from her name Rita) for marketing purposes. She released two English albums there, Days of Sunshine (1988) and High Cost of Living (1989) to mild success; however, she became homesick and went back to Hong Kong. Without an agent of her own, she did not leverage the fame she gathered in Taiwan to stage a comeback to the Hong Kong market, and instead had to start from the bottom. She started singing for advertising agencies and ended up as a backing vocalist for Ram Chiang. Her resonant voice in the background of Chiang's song "Those Who Have to Go Will Eventually Go" (要走的始終都要走) attracted attention from radio DJs, which prompted Chiang's producer to sign her onto their label Fitto Record. In addition to performing at shows, she also teaches music, with Kandy Wong being one of her notable students.

Discography Star Hits Vol.3 (1978) — Sings "Boogie Oogie Oogie" only The Best Of 20 Years Before Vol.5 (1982) — Featured on four songs. (Al Di La, Blue Tango, Only You and Yellow Rose Of Texas) Greatest Oldies 48 (Early 80s) — English Album with Kenny Cheng and Lung Ying-Ha 心裏氹氹轉/心中的秘密 (1986) — EP with Wawa Greatest Oldies 48 Vol.2 (Late 80s) — English Album with Kenny Cheng Days of Sunshine (來自陽光的小女人, 1988) — English album High Cost of Loving (無價的愛, 1989) — English album Revolution (革命, 1990) — Cantonese album Remix (1991) Love Me Once Again (1993) — Cantonese album 解放 (1994) — Cantonese album Legendary Voices (傳奇巨聲, 2014) — Compilation album with Ram Chiang Dolce Rita (綺麗人生, 2016)

Filmography Come On, Cousin (2014), Chan Yee Shan — TVB drama Knock Knock Who's There? (有客到, 2015) — Hong Kong horror film Oh My Grad (老表，畢業喇！, 2017) — TVB drama