Kelvin Kwan was born and raised in Canada; his father was a former executive of PolyGram and a friend of Hong Kong pop singer Alan Tam. As a result, Tam became Kwan's godfather. Also, he is the nephew of Teddy Robin. In 2004, during the summer vacation after his first year of university in Toronto, he went on a trip to Taiwan; after a night of karaoke with his father's ex-coworkers, Kwan was offered an audition, and was signed to Universal Music's Taiwan division. A year later, he moved to Hong Kong.Tam immediately took Kwan under his wing, teaching him how to face the media and deal with their queries about his personal life, which began to arise in July 2006 after he was seen attending a concert with fellow Universal Music singer Gia Lin.Tam's relationship with Kwan continued to prove a boost to Kwan's career; in August 2006, the pair recorded a music video of the duet "Big Cry Baby (???)", which secured Kwan's popularity in the Hong Kong music industry. Kwan's debut album, entitled "IF", was released on October 11, 2006. Among the songs on the album was Big Cry Baby, which only 5 days after the album's release was ranked as China's 4th most popular duet by China Central Television.