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Serene Koong
Koong in 2014
Background information
Also known as	Gong Zhiyi
Born	(1988-09-21) 21 September 1988 (age 36)
Origin	Singapore
Genres	Mandopop R&B
Occupations	Singer songwriter producer
Instruments	Vocals piano guitar
Years active	2010–present
Labels	GoodGirlMusic
Website	serenekoong.com
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	龔芝怡
Simplified Chinese	龚芝怡
Hanyu Pinyin	Gōng Zhīyí

Serene Koong (born 21 September 1988) is a Singaporean singer, songwriter and producer. She is a three time Global Chinese Golden Chart Award, three time Singapore Hit Awards, Star Awards winner, and Asian Academy Creative Awards National Winner.

Career

In May 2010, Koong released her debut Mandarin album, 55:38:7, composed of ten original compositions, which produced a few top ten hits on radio music charts in Singapore and Malaysia. Her single "明知我愛你" peaked at top three on YES 933 醉心龙虎榜.

At the 2010 Singapore Hit Awards, she was nominated for four awards and won two of them (Most Popular Newcomer and Meritorious Newcomer). Her song, "明知我愛你" was nominated for Best Local Composition.

Koong was also involved in song production for television series and films with "在我左右" for Mediacorp Channel 8's television series New Beginnings and "手中线" for the film Love Cuts starring Zoe Tay and Kenny Ho.

Koong had filmed two advertisements with Fraser and Neave, one of which featured her original song "Lala".

In March 2012, Koong made her debut in Taiwan with the album 聲.體.輿言, distributed by Warner Music Taiwan. In the same year, she performed at the Esplanade's Huayi Chinese Festival of Arts.

Koong formed her music company, GoodGirlMusic, to manage her career.

In 2013, Koong produced, wrote, and performed the theme song "幸福不難" for Mediacorp Channel 8's television series The Dream Makers. That year, Koong was named "Top Downloaded Female Artist" by MeRadio at the 18th Singapore Hit Awards [zh] for the song "幸福不难".

In 2014, the song also won the Best Theme Song at the Star Awards. It was also named the Top Dedicated Hit Song by UFM1003. The song reached No.1 on the Singapore iTunes Mandopop chart. Koong received two Global Chinese Golden Chart Awards including "Outstanding Artiste Award" (Singapore, UFM1003). The song also received a nomination for Best Theme Song at the 19th Asian Television Awards.

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.

In July 2015, it was announced that Koong had written, performed and produced the theme song 《心肝》 for Kelvin Tong's film (Grandma Positioning System) 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. "7 Letters" received great reviews and overwhelming response from audiences as well as a 4.5/5 rating in the Straits Times. 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. In her interview with UWeekly, Koong 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 No. 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. The film was also selected by the Singapore Film Commission as the official entry to the Oscars' Best Foreign Language Film category.

Her 2015 single "All Alone《当世界只剩下我一个人》Sub Theme Song which she wrote, performed and produced for The Dream Makers 2 premiered on 4 December 2015. The blockbuster series has featured works by outstanding Singaporean female singers; in addition to Koong'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".

In August 2016, Koong was among the three Singaporean artists whose works charted on the Global Chinese Golden Charts TOP 20 (first half of 2016). The TOP20 chart includes top artists from the region including Stefanie Sun, JJ Lin, Jay Chou and Amei.

On 7 May 2017, Koong received the "Outstanding Artist of The Year" (年度推崇大奖) presented by UFM100.3 award at the Global Chinese Golden Chart Awards which recognizes the best in Chinese Pop Music. The awards ceremony was held at Beijing's LeSports Centre with an audience of 10,000 and was streamed live to a reported 3 million viewers. A total of 20 artistes from around the region performed at this ceremony. They include: MayDay, LION狮子合唱团, William Wei, PowerStation, Della Ding Dang, Yisa Yu, , Angela Chang, Allen Su and Bii. Koong performed her winning work "当世界只剩下我一个人".

In her interview with Toggle, it was mentioned that she set up her own music production company GoodGirlMusic in 2013 to handle all stages of music production on her own. Although there were responsibilities and stress that came with producing her own work, it has made her work more personal.

On 9 August 2018, Koong appeared on the prelude episode of SPOP Sing! (SPOP 听我唱！), a singing competition which sees the involvement of prominent Singaporean artists, songwriters and producers in the search for the next homegrown talent. Koong served the series as a mentor (歌唱导师) to the Top 20 contestants, while their performances were judged by well-known music veterans Billy Koh and Lee Shih Shiong. The grand finals of the competition was held at the Padang on 4 November 2018.

Koong was announced as the National Winner for Best Theme Song / Title at the Asian Academy Creative Awards on 30 September 2021, with her work "When It Leads Me Back To You", which she wrote, performed and produced for Mediacorp Channel 5's drama series Slow Dancing.

Discography

Studio albums and singles

Other songwriting credits

Awards and nominations

References

1. "《第4届全球流行音乐金榜颁奖典礼》得奖名单". MY FM. Archived from the original on 27 May 2014.
2. "The Singapore Hit Awards 2013: The winners". Today Online. 23 November 2013.
3. "Star Awards 20: 'Show 1' Winners List". MSN. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
4. ^ "Felicia Chin, Gurmit Singh, Mind Jumper Among Singapore Winners In Asian Academy Creative Awards 2021". TODAYonline. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
5. "Singapore Hit Awards 2010 Winners List unveiled!". MSN. Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
6. "聲.體.與言 | 華納線上音樂雜誌". 1 March 2012. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
7. "in::music Serene Koong 龚芝怡". Huayi Festival. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
8. "Karen Mok, Wilber Pan, Alien Huang win big". TodayOnline. 23 November 2013. Archived from the original on 4 January 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
9. "Jeanette Aw, The Dream Makers win big". 22 April 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
10. ^ "《第4届全球流行音乐金榜颁奖典礼》得奖名单：". MYFM. Archived from the original on 27 May 2014.
11. "Serene Koong 龔芝怡 – JUST IN! 《幸福不难》 Nominated for Asian Television Awards 2014 "Best Theme Song"! Thank you MediaCorp, 感恩, Thank you so much ATA for the nomination! 喜欢《幸福不难》的朋友们，好开心能和你分享这个好消息呀！ :*) ❤️ ＃zzsf | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
12. "Pay-as-you-wish for SG50 movie '7 Letters' – inSing.com Movies". movies.insing.com. Archived from the original on 19 June 2015.
13. "Tickets to SG50 film 7 Letters snapped up – Channel NewsAsia". www.channelnewsasia.com. Archived from the original on 6 July 2015.
14. "All directors turn in top grades for SG50 film project 7 Letters". The Straits Times. 22 July 2015.
15. "7 Letters, the acclaimed SG50 film project, to get theatrical release for one week". The Straits Times. 3 August 2015.
16. "《7封信》汇集爱心". 优1周 – UWeekly.
17. "7 Letters to screen at Busan film fest in October". The Straits Times. 27 August 2015.
18. hermesauto (8 October 2015). "7 Letters is Singapore's entry to the Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category". The Straits Times. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
19. "《全球流行音乐金榜》上半年20大 孙燕姿、林俊杰上榜". 优1周 – UWeekly.
20. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: 【HITO LIVE線上直播】-2016全金榜上半年20大金曲公布. YouTube.
21. "Serene Koong writes sub-theme song for Dream Makers 2 in half a day- Toggle". Toggle. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
22. "SPOP Sing! Prelude SPOP听我唱 SING 乐飞扬". Toggle. Archived from the original on 24 August 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
23. https://www.facebook.com/asianacademycreativeawards/videos/272209418091231
24. "Singapore Hit Awards 2010 Winners List unveiled!". Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
25. ^ "Nomination list for Singapore Hit Awards 2010 announced!". Archived from the original on 27 May 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
26. "The Official Star Awards 红星大奖 2011 Nominations List". Archived from the original on 1 July 2012.
27. "第五屆 Freshmusic Awards 2011 Part 1 @ Freshmusic 音樂雜誌 :: 痞客邦 ::". Freshmusic 音樂雜誌. 3 July 2011.
28. "The Singapore Hit Awards 2013: The winners". Today Online.
29. ^ "Nomination List for Singapore Hit Awards Announced". Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
30. "五月天、狮子合唱团High翻"全金榜"". 联合早报网. 9 May 2017. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
31. "23rd COMPASS Awards Presentation 2018 | Compass". COMPASS. Retrieved 16 March 2020.

External links

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

• 1988 births
• Living people
• 21st-century Singaporean women singers
• Singaporean singer-songwriters
• Singaporean women singer-songwriters
• Singaporean people of Chinese descent
• Singaporean Mandopop singers
• Mandopop singer-songwriters