Singaporean Ex-Pop Star Stella Huang On The Harassment That Led To Her Showbiz Exit and How She’s Happy In Vancouver Now - 8days Skip to main content

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Singaporean Ex-Pop Star Stella Huang On The Harassment That Led To Her Showbiz Exit and How She’s Happy In Vancouver Now

"I never said anything. And it may have cost me my career advancement and my continuity in showbiz but I’m glad how it all turned out."

Singaporean Ex-Pop Star Stella Huang On The Harassment That Led To Her Showbiz Exit and How She’s Happy In Vancouver Now

She sounds exactly the way we imagined she would. We’re speaking over the phone to Singaporean singer Stella Huang, who many would remember as the super-cutesy, guitar-strumming 19-year-old pop ingénue who took Taiwan by storm in the early noughties. With her cherubic features, tin whistle voice and catchy tunes like ‘Wait’ and ‘Courier of Love’, she was the Baby Spice of the group of Singaporean singers, like Stefanie Sun and Tanya Chua, who ventured to Taiwan to kick start their careers. And now close to two decades later, Stella, 37, still has the sweet, chirpy voice of someone who was dubbed ‘Music’s Little Sweetheart’ and whose posters adorned the lockers of army boys, both here and in Taiwan, back in the day.

Stella recently moved to Vancouver from Taiwan, where she was living for the past 15 years, with her hubby, who she says is in the IT and app development business, and their unbelievably cute six-year-old son Ashton. It’s 10.30pm over there and Stella has just put her son to bed, which means she’s free to do our interview. It may be the first time we’re speaking to her but it’s not the first time we’ve encountered the former star. We remember seeing her around campus when we were both students at Anglo-Chinese Junior College. She was our senior and also one of the most popular girls in school (see paragraph above if you’re wondering why). So it came as no surprise when the Crescent Girls School and NUS English and Sociology major became a pop star just a few years later.

Her showbiz career, which started in 1999, while successful, was also relatively short-lived. She took an indefinite break from singing after the release of her third album in 2004 and by 2005, had turned her focus to the cake industry. After bringing in the Awfully Chocolate franchise into Taiwan — an ill-fated business decision which ended in a headline-making legal dispute — she set up her own her thriving bakery chain Black as Chocolate.

And then, just like that she suddenly disappeared from the public’s eye. So whatever happened to Stella Huang? Well, a lot, apparently. But maybe it’s best for her to tell you herself.

8 DAYS: It’s been a long time since we’ve heard news about you. What did you disappear to?

STELLA HUANG: (Laughs) I don’t think I suddenly disappeared, it was more like I gradually faded out. I After my third album, I started doing my own business which was when I officially moved to Taiwan. And I ended up living there for 15 years — time just flew by. So now every time I go back to Singapore, I always feel like a tourist. And my friends would be like, “Eh this place just opened, you should check it out!” And they would take me there. (Laughs)

When was the last time you were back?
In August actually. I was back for just a week with my son ’cos I wanted him to visit his great-grandmother who is 96, 97 already. But it was a very rushed trip ’cos of school. He’s in Grade 1 now, which is like our Primary 1.

Was it his first time back?
No, no. We try to go back at least once year, like every Chinese New Year. Or if I’m lucky twice a year.

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