ENCORE Winner Zee Ang Wore Her Wedding Dress For Finale After Wedding Was Called Off Mid-Contest

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Those who tuned in to the finale of Mediacorp singing competition ENCORE on Mar 22 may have had one question in mind: Why was eventual champion Zee Ang wearing a wedding dress for her final performance?

The 34-year-old took top prize in the inaugural season of the show, which premiered in January.

Hosted by local actress Xixi Lim, the finale featured the top eight contestants battling it out for victory. The judging panel comprised Dennis Chew, Nathan Hartono, Tay Kewei and Jim Lim, alongside special guest judge, Singaporean Taiwan-based singer Qiu Fengze.

When 8days.sg reached out to Zee, she shared the bittersweet story behind her outfit choice for her final performance — an assigned song, ‘Kite’ by Stefanie Sun.

"I wore my wedding dress because my wedding got cancelled," she tells 8days.sg, and in a surprisingly calm manner too.

"When I first joined the show, I was preparing to get married, but along the way it didn't work out," Zee says of her relationship with her Australian boyfriend whom she had dated for "two wonderful years".

She adds that her wedding day was initially going to clash with one of the filming dates, and she was worried that she'd have to quit the competition halfway. "In fact, [my ex] even told me that I could change the wedding date if I joined the competition and I said 'no'," she recalls.

In a bittersweet turn of events, the scheduling conflict didn't happen since the wedding was called off.

Zee, who's a music therapist and the founder of local music school Latido Therapy, adds that her finale song 'Kite' was coincidentally very relevant to her situation as someone who's gone through a very sweet relationship — one that's "still very sweet" to her until today, despite the breakup.

"He wasn't willing to move [to Singapore] and I'm not willing to move to Australia, we decided to call it off since we don't see a future together," she shares, adding that they still support each other very much and are good friends "over a distance and over the phone".

"The song was all about letting go and wishing each other well, so yah," she explains to us, as she begins to tear up. 

In fact, the humble singer believes her story was "probably the reason" why she won as it had "touched the audiences and judges". 

Regardless, Zee gushes that she felt very thankful when she was announced as the winner, as this was one of the largest competitions she had joined in Singapore.

She previously also joined other competitions, such as Campus Superstar and Taiwanese singing competition One Million Star, but had never made it past the first two auditions. 

"I had to learn to accept such big stages weren't meant me," she recounts, adding that she's gained so much more than just a champion title from ENCORE.

"The contestants are now close friends to me who have supported me through the emotional stuff I had to go through in my relationship. It's very funny, they even tried to match made me with their friends," she laughs.

She also credits her mum among one of her biggest supporters through the journey. "[My ex] was my biggest supporter [before the wedding was called off], but my mum was always physically here. She'd attend every performance that I have and would even bring her friends down."

Thanks to ENCORE, Zee also noticed that she's gained followers on Instagram and that people would recognise her on the streets now too.

"It's very cute, I'd post on my Instagram about moments like that 'cos they're really adorable. And they're all people above their 50s lah," she cackles.

Moving forward, as the first winner of ENCORE, Zee shares that her main focus would still be on music therapy. She’s also especially proud of bringing her music therapy service to a mainstream primary school, and believes it should be widely adopted across the education system.

Still, Zee hopes to be a part of the National Day Parade one day.

"I really feel a lot more patriotic after having lived in Australia and having the option to stay there, I realised that my love for Singapore is huge!" she quips. "And it would really bring so much advantage to my business, right?"