SINGAPORE — As if to commemorate her 20th anniversary in showbiz, Karen Mok released her first English album in January this year. Entitled Somewhere I Belong, the album is a collection of jazzy covers that feature Mok playing the guzheng.

The traditional Chinese zither has a special place in her heart. At the age of 13, Mok wanted to learn to play a second instrument in addition to the piano. Her father suggested the guzheng because it was “different” and “elegant”.

“Back then in Hong Kong, it really was not popular at all to play a Chinese instrument,” she recounted. But what sold her the idea was that “in a Chinese orchestra, it would always be in the middle, and so you would be the centre of attention!”

As it turned out, the instrument would change her life in more ways than one.

“A lot of things happened because of the guzheng,” Mok said. “I really liked playing the guzheng so I joined the Hong Kong Youth Chinese Orchestra and because of that, sometimes we were invited to go perform in other places, including Singapore.”

One country she performed in was Italy. She liked the country so much that she applied for a scholarship to study there — and that was when she “met the person who turned out to be my husband now”.

The rest of the story is familiar to Mok’s fans: As 17-year-olds, she and German Johannes Natterer were sweethearts but reunited and tied the knot only in October 2011.

Laughing girlishly, Mok said: “Everything happened because I learned this instrument. It’s amazing. Now I can really showcase it very nicely in my jazz album. And jazz is like my biggest passion in music. So it’s like everything has a reason.”

It was important that her album should, like Mok herself, be a melodious blend of east and west.

“Jazz is, of course, a Western music style and it’s very dangerous to fall into the trap of copying someone from the West,” she said. “I think in music or in any sort of creative work, you should be expressing yourself and not trying to pretend you’re somebody else. Jazz is something that really has no boundaries, and you could be very creative and inventive. So I thought, well, why not try to play my guzheng and see if it blends in well.”

One could look at Somewhere I Belong as a reflection of Mok’s exploration of her own identity, but her journey has been less conflicted than one might expect of a Eurasian girl born in Hong Kong.

“I do come from a mixed background. I’ve been exposed to different cultures throughout my life, living in different places,” she said. “Actually, I love the fact that I don’t really have any substantial roots anywhere. I think I just like to have this liberty to be free, kind of.

“And it’s also fun. I’ve always enjoyed being a little bit different from the rest of my friends. And so for example when I’m in England, I play up my Chinese heritage because that’s interesting to my friends there. And then when I’m back in China or Asia I play up the influence I’ve had from living abroad. So it kind of refreshes you.”

But why has an English album been so long in the making for the multi-lingual 42-year-old?

“I think it works out fine because now is probably just the best timing for me to be doing a jazz album,” she said. “Looking back, if I had done such an album when I was in my twenties, I think it would have a very different feel. I think having gained all this experience throughout my 20 years in the business and also in my personal life gives it more substance.

“(I’ve been) maturing as a person and also as a singer, because now I’m just more in control of how to use my voice and what way to express my emotions.”

Besides being a successful pop star, Mok is also a committed activist who was recently appointed a Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Champion. RBM was founded in 1998 by WHO, Unicef, UNDP and the World Bank.

“I do a lot of different types of charity work and very often we go on field trips … Malaria is always around. It’s always in the picture,” Mok said. “Living in big cities, we forget that malaria is still quite rampant in many parts of the world; also in the Asia-Pacific region. And the thing is, it’s a preventable and curable disease, so really, there’s no reason why we should still allow this disease to be around and to be still taking so many lives. So I feel rather compelled to lend my voice.”

It has to help that her voice is both powerful and easy on the ears.

Karen Mok’s Somewhere I Belong is in stores now. Buy the album to gain entry to an autograph session today at 7.30pm at Bugis Plus level 2 (those who buy the deluxe version from That CD Shop get to the priority queue).