Serene Koong

Serene Koong
Background information
Native name	龚芝怡
Origin	Singapore
Genres	Mandopop, R&B
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Piano, guitar
Years active	2010–present
Website	serenekoong.com

Serene Koong is a Singaporean singer, songwriter and producer. She is a 2 time Global Chinese Golden Chart Award,^[1] 3 time Singapore Hit Awards^[2] and a Singapore Star Awards winner.^[3]

Recognised for her emotive voice and writing hit songs, her featured works include 《幸福不难》, Theme Song for the MediaCorp Channel 8 drama series The Dream Makers, 《明知我爱你》，as well as her R&B duet with Jaycee Chan 《最好的我》.

Music career

Serene performing her hit song “幸福不难 Happiness is not Difficult” (Theme song for The Dream Makers 志在四方 ) during the Singapore Hit Awards. She also won Star Awards "Best Theme Song" and 2 awards at the Global Chinese Golden Chart Awards.

In May 2010, she released her debut mandarin album, <<55:38:7>>, composed of 10 original compositions, which produced a few top ten hits on radio music charts in Singapore and Malaysia. Amongst which was her widely popular single 《明知我愛你》，which peaked at No.3 on Y.E.S. 93.3FM 醉心龙虎榜. Her collaboration with Jaycee Chan on their R&B duet 《最好的我》 has attracted afollowing for her music in China and combined views for the song exceeding 1 million views on YouTube . That year, she was amongst the most nominated artistes at the Singapore Hit Awards, receiving 2 awards ("Most Popular Newcomer 最受欢迎新人奖" and "Meritorious Newcomer 优秀新人奖") and 4 nominations,^[4] including a nod for her songwriting talent with her song 《明知我愛你》 being nominated for "Best Local Composition 《最佳作曲》 along highly acclaimed artists like Tanya Chua.

Serene Koong 龚芝怡 at 2014 Asian Television Award. She was nominated for "Best Theme Song" with her work《幸福不难》which she wrote, performed and produced for the hit drama series "The Dream Makers 志在四方".

Serene has filmed for 2 advertisements with F&N Beverages, one of which featured her original song "Lala". She is also involved in movie and drama theme song writing and production, with theme songs recorded for MediaCorp's New Beginnings (红白喜事) -《在我左右》and The Dream Makers (志在四方) – 《幸福不难》 as well as 《手中线》for the movie Love Cuts (割爱) starring Zoe Tay and veteran Hong Kong actor Kenny Ho (何家劲). In 2014, she was invited as the Mandarin lead singer for the theme song,网织同心 (Knit with One Heart), of the Singapore Chingay Parade 2014 which was presented at the parade with Lee Wei Song as music director.

She made her debut in March 2012 in Taiwan with the album《聲.體.輿言》, distributed by Warner Music Taiwan . In the same year, she played to a full house for her first solo concert as one of the featured in::music artistes at the Esplanade's Huayi Festival.^[5] Other acts included high-profile Taiwanese singer-songwriters Waa Wei and Summer Lei.

In 2013, she wrote, produced and performed the theme song, 《幸福不難》 (Happiness is Not Difficult) for the MediaCorp Channel 8, TV 50th Anniversary blockbuster drama series The Dream Makers. 《幸福不難》 became a huge hit when the series premiered and Serene continued to build on her work as a rising female Singaporean singer-songwriter to watch as the drama series also featured Tanya Chua's work (十万毫升泪水) as sub theme song.

That year, Serene was named "Top Downloaded Female Artist" by MeRadio at the Singapore Hit Awards （第十八屆新加坡金曲獎） for the song 《幸福不难》(for which the winning male artist was popular Taiwanese singer Alien Huang. The 18th Singapore Hit Awards was held at Suntec Convention Centre and was attended by regional artists such as Karen Mok and Wilber Pan. Serene was amongst the Singaporean artists who won awards that night including JJ Lin, Derrick Hoh, Serene Koong and Olivia Ong.^[6]

The Dream Makers was one of the most talked about and popular drama series in 2014 and featured a star studded cast included Zoe Tay, Rui En, Jeanette Aw, Chen Liping, Rebecca Lim, Chen Hanwei and Desmond Tan. It went on to become the biggest winner at Star Awards 2014 with a total of 9 awards, including “Best Drama Series”. Serene won “Best Theme Song” at the Star Awards.^[7]

In 2014,《幸福不难》was also named "Top Dedicated Hit Song" by UFM1003 . The song reached No.1 on the Singapore iTunes Mandopop chart, holding its No. 1 spot as top releases for that period amongst Asia's top names as Stefanie Sun and Eason Chan.On the back of the song's popular reception, Serene received 2 Global Chinese Golden Chart awards ( 全球流行音乐金榜）including "Outstanding Artiste Award" (Singapore, UFM1003), for which previous winners include JJ Lin and Tanya Chua. She also received a nomination for "Best Theme Song" at the prestigious 19th Asian Television Awards.

In July 2015, it was announced the Serene has written, performed and produced the theme song 《心肝》 for Kelvin Tong's film (Grandma Positioning System)^[8] in the highly successful SG50 Anthology "7Letters", a film by seven acclaimed Singaporean film makers namely, Boo Junfeng, Eric Khoo, K Rajagopal, Jack Neo, Tan Pin Pin, Royston Tan and Kelvin Tong to commemorate Singapore's Golden Jubilee. It was the first film to open at the revamped historic Capitol Theatre, and all tickets to the three-day screening were sold out on the same day tickets were released.^[9] "7 Letters" received great reviews and overwhelming response from audiences as well as a 4.5/5 rating in the Straits Times.^[10] Due to the overwhelming response for the film, a second series of screenings were made available at the National Museum of Singapore for 8–10 August, for which all tickets were once again fully redeemed. It was finally announced that "7Letters" would be theatreically release in Golden Village Cinemas from 20–26 August.^[11] In her interview with UWeekly,^[12] Serene has shared that《心肝》was inspired by the love story of Singapore's founding father Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his wife. It was also mentioned that this song talks about holding on to memories and treasuring people we love. It is one of her most intimate works to date and pays tribute to love and her country, Singapore. She is the producer, vocal producer, songwriter and performer of the song, which peaked at #6 on the iTunes Mandopop Charts (SG) during its week of release. In August, it was announced that this acclaimed SG50 anthology will make its international premiere at the 2015 Busan International Film Festival in South Korea.^[13]

Her latest single "All Alone《当世界只剩下我一个人》Sub Theme Song which she wrote, performed and produced for 志在四方2 “The Dream Makers 2” premiered on 4 December 2015. The blockbuster series has featured works by outstanding Singaporean female singers; in addition to Serene's works 幸福不难 and 当世界只剩下我一个人，the drama also features works by Tanya Chua (十万毫升泪水）and Kit Chan who performed the theme song 终于 for "The Dream Makers 2".

Management

Serene Koong is independently managed by her own company GoodGirlMusic Pte. Ltd. In 2013, GoodGirlMusic is the music production company started by Serene and was announced as one of the music production companies selected under the inaugural MediaCorp–MDA joint call for proposal to produce theme songs for MediaCorp drama series. GoodGirlMusic is the music production company behind 《幸福不难》， theme song for the MediaCorp drama series "The Dream Makers 志在四方", which is written, performed and produced by Serene.

Discography

Awards and Nominations

References

External links

• Official website
• Serene Koong on Facebook
• Serene Koong's Blog
• Serene Koong on Instagram
• GoodGirlMusic Pte. Ltd.