Stars turn on the charm at Entertainment Awards

Living up to his new title of Asia's Rising Star, Super Junior-M's Henry charmed the 2,500-strong crowd with his cheeky demeanour at the Singapore Entertainment Awards' (SEA) Celebration Party last Saturday.

The multi-talented performer was also the biggest winner of the night, taking home five awards for himself and Korean boyband Super Junior. Super Junior-M are their Mandopop sub-group. Henry was the only member who attended the awards.

To the delight of fans, the Canadianborn singer, who speaks Korean, English and Mandarin, performed three songs, including Trap from his solo debut last year. He even tried teaching one of the emcees, UFM 100.3 deejay Liangquan, some dance moves from Trap.

Henry was one of the crowd favourites at the party. Now in its sixth year, the awards aim to honour the best talents of the Asian entertainment scene in the past year. It is organised by Singapore Press Holdings and fronted by its Chinese media platforms, including Lianhe Wanbao, UFM 100.3 and omy.sg.

Kicking off the festivities last Saturday at The Coliseum at Hard Rock Hotel Singapore in Resorts World Sentosa, were Taiwanese boyband, Lollipop F.

The four-member group performed two songs from their latest EP, Big Shot and What's Wrong.

Taiwanese aboriginal singer Jia Jia also performed. Touted as Asia's Adele, she was named Best Female Singer.

"The award isn't nearly as encouraging as the fans' cheers," she said in an interview after the party.

On whether she feels pressured by the comparison to the soulful award-winning British singer, she said: "I'm still me."

Taiwanese compatriot Alien Huang performed two songs, Forgotten Happiness and One In A Thousand. He clinched the Most Popular Male Singer award as well as two other popularity awards this year - omy Hot Star and Most Popular Music Video for the song Make Sense.

The 2,500-strong crowd were also entertained by Ruco Chan from Hong Kong, Singaporean songwriter Ling Kai and Malaysian singer Issac Dang.

Some 2.95 million votes decided the popularity awards' winners, while a panel of judges from the local and foreign media industry picked the recipients of the "Best" awards. More than 30 awards were given out, all of which, except Asia's Rising Star, were announced online prior to Saturday's party.

byseow@sph.com.sg

This article was published on May 19 in The Straits Times.

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