Local singers who did us proud in overseas talent shows

The homeboy kept his participation in Sing! China a complete secret and word got out only after the first episode aired (nice one, Nathan). From there, all hell broke loose—in a good way, naturally—and the 25-year-old has been continuously making waves on the show, even scoring the highest score of 93.65 to come out tops in last week's semi-finals. Heavily tipped to be the “next JJ Lin” with the potential to break into the Mando-pop market, Nathan has the entire package, from looks to vocals and musical capabilities. As one of the final six contestants to be battling for the championship title tonight, Nathan, the only member from Jay's team to make it into the finals, will be performing at least two songs tonight, including a duet with his mentor.

Go out there and make us proud, Nathan!

Learn more about Nathan:
The truth and lies of Nathan Hartono
3 fun facts about Nathan Hartono

Kit is the first Singaporean contestant to partake in China’s wildly popular I Am a Singer TV programme and boy did she blow everyone away with her nuanced performances that were gentle, emotive and stirring. She may have got out of the race very early in the competition, but the local songbird left such a strong impression on the minds of the audiences that she is now enjoying a career revival in China. Never mind that she didn’t win the competition, performing on such a grand stage was in itself an honour.

Photos: Aloysius Lim

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This homegrown singer-songwriter became an overnight sensation when her performance clip in Chinese reality TV show Sing My Song went viral. Apart from rocking the stage with her guitar and band, her original and catchy composition, titled ‘Single One’, also won over judges, including fellow countryman and local singer Tanya Chua and renowned musician Wakin Chau. After her brush with fame, she straddles between Singapore and Beijing, where she is working on new original material, and counts famed Singaporean music producer Lee Shih Song as her mentor.

Before he was selected to be the Singapore representative in the blind auditions for the third season of The Voice of China last year, Jeremy was in the spotlight for gaining fame in another Japanese singing competition, Nodojiman The World. The then-20-year-old was pitted against 20 other international contestants and went home victorious. He proved detractors wrong when his singing performances, which were done entirely in Japanese, won him rave reviews from both netizens and native judges alike.

Silver started her showbiz career in singing, as a participant on Project Superstar Season 1. While the latter career option didn’t work out as expected, she continued working on her dreams and took the plunge by joining Super Star two years ago. While she did not get far into the competition, she has other backup talents to fall back in – acting and hosting. The former air stewardess was last seen in Ch5 drama Koji Cooks and makes regular guest appearances on variety shows such as WTO Sister Show and Mars VS Venus.

One decade after she emerged the female champion on Project Superstar in 2005, Kelly decided to give her flagging singing career a second shot and joined Super Star, a Taiwanese reality TV singing competition. It proved to be one of the best decisions she’s made to date for the singer sailed through the competition and successfully “graduated” from the programme to release her first EP in three years, Miss Kelly, last year.

Best remembered for her sweet saccharine smile and voice, Teresa, who belongs to the first generation of contestants and is the first female champion in ChU’s Campus Superstar, took her singing career overseas by participating in two singing competitions – she was in the top 20 for Chinese Idol in 2013 and in fourth placing for Million Stars Season 3 in 2014. The 25-year-old is still actively performing in Taiwan today and has made her debut as a solo singer this year, under the guidance of famous record producer Eric Chen.

Photos: Teresa Tseng via Facebook

He’s the winner for 2014's Channel U Project Superstar singing contest and the selected Singapore representative for The Voice of China 4 from a round of closed door auditions; she’s a local singer with a few albums under her belt and was invited by the organisers to take part in the blind auditions. In case you haven’t heard, the two singers are also a pair of lovebirds and tied the knot in January last year. Both of them failed to make the cut for the final 48: while Alfred impressed the judges with his vocal chops, they were not so floored by his remixed edition of Faye Wong's 'Wo Yuan Yi'; on the other hand, Kewei's nerves got the better of her during her audition round, which saw her performing with the er hu too.

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Don’t judge Rachel by her diminutive size for she’s a powerhouse singer who’s had a strong showing in a slew of local and regional singing competitions. In 2009, she was the overall female champion in Campus Superstar Season 3, then she was sent in as a representative to be a guest challenger on Taiwan’s One Million Star Season 5 and finally, she came in first runner-up at TVB’s annual singing competition, New Talent Singing Awards in 2011.

After an unsuccessful stint on our very own local TV talent show, Project Superstar, Jing Lun was invited to star in One Million Star where he received recognition for his unique voice and never looked back since. After two music albums (his last album was released in 2009), he is now better known as a TV personality with a knack for hosting and acting. He was last seen performing at Innamorati Two, a local Chinese theatre production, by Toy Factory Production, which just ended its run recently.

Here’s another Project Superstar alumnae who tried his luck at the popular Taiwanese reality singing programme but without much luck, as compared to his peer Jing Lun. These days, Sugie can be seen in local musicals such as Toy Factory’s Glass Anatomy, December Rains and the recently-concluded Innamorati Two.