Aileen Tan, 57, Will Dance To Blackpink At The President’s Star Charity, Hopes To Avoid “Looking Like A Clown”

Aileen Tan has been busy of late. The Mediacorp actress, who turned 57 earlier this week, only just wrapped up work on upcoming drama I Do, Do I?, and she's now ready to dazzle you at the upcoming President’s Star Charity.

On Sunday (Oct 22), Aileen will perform to Blackpink’s ‘Boombayah’ with Pan Lingling, Chen Xiuhuan and other younger stars.

Speaking to 8world, Aileen said she “got a shock” when she was asked to dance to K-pop this time round.

“Firstly, I’m not familiar with the Korean language. Secondly, K-pop songs have always been challenging [to perform] as they require good stamina and the dance steps need to be in-sync,” she said.

The self-professed Blackpink fan, who bought tickets to catch the quartet in Singapore earlier this year, also said: “Our movements have to match the song’s lyrics. This is also a group performance, so it is important that our moves are synchronised. For us, this is a challenge.”

“‘Boombayah’ is one of Blackpink’s older songs. Honestly, I’m not very familiar with it, and we haven’t had many rehearsals. Thankfully, we have experienced dancers like Hazelle Teo and Tay Ying [to guide us]. I’ve also been doing yoga for many years, so my flexibility helps when it comes to matching the tempo of the song,” she continued.

According to Aileen, veteran actress Jin Yinji was initially one of the performers. However during the first rehearsal, Jin-jie received the news about her husband’s unfortunate passing.

“Jin-jie started her showbiz career as a singer, so she’s great at dancing too. She’s also Korean, so if she was able to join us, the end product would be even better!”

Aileen added that she's not putting too much pressure on herself to give a flawless performance, and that she’ll be satisfied as long as she avoids “looking like a clown”.

“Actually it’s also not bad to be a clown that brings the audience happiness!” she said.

Catch President's Star Charity live on mewatch, Channel 5 and Mediacorp Entertainment on YouTube on Sunday, Oct 22, 7.30pm to 9.30pm.

You can find more information on President's Star Charity, and donate if you'd like at mediacorp.sg/psc.

In the meantime, you can rewatch Aileen in an episode of Shero below.