S'pore's K-pop duo going to Seoul

S'pore's K-pop duo going to Seoul

SINGAPORE - She can sing, dance, play the guitar, and has the looks to boot. YouTube singer Stephanie Koh, 21, has "the whole package" to do well in regional TV talent competition Scoot: K-pop Star Hunt 3, say the judges of the Singapore leg of the auditions.

So strong is she that she may be the one to come up tops and take the title for Singapore - away from the traditionally strong Thai contestants, who won the previous two seasons of the reality show.

Says Mr Eddy Tan, vice-president of programming for Fox International Channels and an audition panel judge for the past three years: "The applicants are very strong this year and Stephanie stands out as an all-rounder. She has good presence on stage and she looks good too.

"The auditions here are the first stop of the regional tour. I'm so happy to see that Singapore is off to a strong start."

Ms Koh, a freelance graphic designer, and freelance dance instructor Yvonne Chua, 24, are the two Singaporeans picked to appear in the third season of the show from more than 400 applicants after auditions held last Sunday.

They will go to Seoul next month for three weeks to train and compete in singing and dancing challenges against 12 contestants from six countries, including Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines.

The regional auditions and reality TV competition will be aired on Channel M (StarHub TV Channel 824/874, SingTel mio TV Channel 518) from Nov 30.

The winner will be offered a contract with Korean entertainment company CJ E&M and record label FNC Entertainment, and be groomed as a K-pop star.

In the show's first season in 2011, Singaporean contestant Jasmine Tan Li Jun, 18, made it to the Top 5. Her compatriot Maressa Zahirah, 24, was in the Top 11 that year.

In Season 2 last year, Singaporeans Rendy Lauwandy, 21, was a Top 8 finalist and Anthea Wang Yi Thong, 16, was Top 12. None of them was scouted for further training apart from the show.

After her audition win, Koh tells Life! that she is "very nervous" about undergoing the infamously tough training with Korean pop music-makers.

Koh, the eldest of three daughters of a housewife mother and a father who is an engineering company director, is a lot more nonchalant when asked about plastic surgery. "I don't mind doing it, I don't like my nose," she says with a laugh.

"But I'll keep the rest, especially my eyes, which I really love."

To attend the auditions, she flew in the night before from Sydney, Australia, where she had been "just chilling" for the past month.

During the auditions, she sang a powerful version of Alicia Keys' If I Ain't Got You and also did an acoustic cover of Psy's Gangnam Style on her guitar.

Koh, whose YouTube videos (www.youtube.com/user/StephMicayleMusic) have received between 50,000 and nine million hits each, says she is "going to start learning Korean straight away".

"I downloaded six different Korean language apps on my phone, so I'm going to start getting into how to speak it. I am really excited and looking forward to the competition."

Chua, the other Singaporean going to Seoul, showcased her smooth hip-hop dance moves to the song Growl by K-pop group Exo and also sang a soulful version of Rihanna's Take A Bow. But it was her determination to succeed that impressed the judges most. She had auditioned for the show last year and made it only to the Top 15 of the Singapore leg.

"I really worked hard on my dancing over the past year. and I think maybe that showed at the auditions this year. One thing is for sure, I really, really want this and that's why I came back to audition again."

But one of the judges, Mandopop singer Derrick Hoh, 27, says frankly that she "still needs some work on her singing".

"Still, it was an unanimous decision by the judges to choose her anyway because she has the drive and confidence. I'm sure with enough training, she will do really well. She has great potential and I can tell that she is a smart girl with the right attitude."

Chua, the youngest of three children of a housewife mother and a father who was in the construction business but has since retired, will be sacrificing three weeks of income from her freelance dance classes. "But that's okay", she says, "because doing this K-pop thing well is more important".

She celebrated her 24th birthday one day before the auditions and says: "I wished really hard that I would make it through the auditions and I really did. This is the best birthday present ever."

yipwy@sph.com.sg


Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.