Olivia Ong

Born on October 2nd, 1985 in Singapore, multilingual singer-songwriter Olivia Ong has a back catalogue spanning Mandarin, English, Japanese and Cantonese. Getting ahead aged fifteen after the president of Japanese label S2S watched her win a talent competition and subsequently offered her a record deal, she soon put herself on the radar of listeners as a founding member of Singaporean J-pop group Mirai, whose debut single, “Open Up Your Mind”, was included in the anime Gensomaden Saiyuki. By 2004, Ong had refocused on her solo career, and found herself the centre of attention while performing the Singaporean national anthem at the country’s World Cup Asian Qualifier against Japan. Her first album, A Girl Meets Bossa Nova, emerged the following year to critical acclaim. It featured a selection of English-language covers of easy-listening classics including Bart Howard’s “Fly Me to the Moon” and Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Girl from Ipanema”. Shifting from jazz towards pop on her ensuing records, she made strides on a national level with her 2007 album Fall In Love With Olivia, later scoring a #2 hit on the Radio 933 chart with the 2008 Chinese single “Ruyan”. Ong soon landed a deal with HIM Music, who first teamed up with her to release 2010’s Olivia. The album achieved widespread praise from cultural commentators, picking up three KKBOX awards and a Singapore Hit Award. Crossing over into acting while continuing to release new LPs in the following years, she enjoyed another career highlight in 2013, receiving an MTV Award nomination for Best Southeast Asian Act and winning yet another Singapore Hit Award for her eleventh album, Waiting.