Nuntita Khampiranon (; ; born December 20, 1983), or nickname Art (อาร์ต), stage name Bell (เบลล์) and usually known as Bell Nuntita, is a Thai

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

actress, singer, entertainer, and radio DJ. Nuntita was part of a TV show called ''Venus Flytrap Search for the Missing Puzzle'' in 2007. As one of twelve contestants, she competed to take the place of two former cast members. Nuntita and another contestant named Mew won the competition and became part of the

kathoey ''Kathoey'' or ''katoey'' (, ; , , ; ; , ), commonly translated as ''ladyboys'' in English, is a term used by some people in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, whose identities in English may be best translated as transgender women in some cas ...

band

Venus Flytrap The Venus flytrap (''Dionaea muscipula'') is a carnivorous plant native to the temperate and subtropical wetlands of North Carolina and South Carolina, on the East Coast of the United States. Although various modern hybrids have been created ...

. She became popular after a performance during her audition on '' Thailand's Got Talent'' and became a YouTube hit when she first performed singing as a girl, and the crowd was amazed when she switched to a masculine voice.

Personal life

Although being

is fairly well-accepted in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, life as Bell was not exactly easy. In a Thai TV interview, she said it was very difficult to explain her gender identity to her family. As the only child of a military father, she faced many challenges to be accepted. However, today her family has accepted her and she is happy. She has

absolute pitch Absolute pitch (AP), often called perfect pitch, is the ability to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone. AP may be demonstrated using linguistic labelling ("naming" a note), associating mental image ...

''Thailand's Got Talent''

Nuntita was convinced to audition for '' Thailand's Got Talent'' by Anucha "Chi" Lanprasert, a talent scout. It was Nuntita's idea to surprise the crowd by first singing in a middleweight

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

voice before switching to a masculine

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

midway through the audition. In an April episode of the show, the judges picked Nuntita to be one of 48 semi-finalists. She received the second most votes in the semi-final round, and was thus subject to the three judges' determining votes. She passed to the final round by receiving "yes" votes from two of the three judges. Her first remixed song on the show's audition stage was a combination of "Yahk Roo Tae Mai Yahk Taam" by Calories Blah Blah and "Unlovable" by MILD, two popular Thai tunes. The three-minute song displayed Nuntita's choice of song style, mixing different genres and vocal ranges. After Nuntita's audition video appeared on YouTube and other sites, the video quickly went viral. She is sometimes dubbed as Thailand's version of Scottish singer

Susan Boyle Susan Magdalane Boyle (born 1 April 1961) is a Scottish singer who rose to fame in 2009 after appearing as a contestant on the third series of '' Britain's Got Talent'', singing " I Dreamed a Dream" from '. As of 2021, Boyle has sold 25 ...

. Nuntita appeared on multiple Thai talk shows and had many nationally televised performances. She has appeared in TV shows such as ''Mum Show'' hosted by

Petchtai Wongkamlao Petchtai Wongkamlao, (, , ; born 24 June 1965) is a Thai comedian, actor, martial artist and film director. He is best known in Thailand by his stage name, Mum Jokmok (, , ); and is a popular Thai television personality. He is credited as Mom Jo ...

where she spoke of her gender transition. She said she participated in the army conscription lottery but did not draw the commission to enlist in Thailand's army. Nuntita also performed the full versions of "Yahk Roo Tae Mai Yahk Taam" and "Unloveable" at a promotional event for Miss Tiffany Universe, Thailand's

beauty pageant. TV shows and other publicity outlets commonly interviewed her about her reaction to the sudden fame. Bell was also featured on the front cover of Who Weekly Magazine. In July 2011, she held a one-night concert for her fans in Singapore.

Discography

Filmography

Film

References

External links

Official site

Official blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuntita, Bell 1983 births Got Talent contestants Bell Nuntita Living people Bell Nuntita Bell Nuntita Bell Nuntita Bell Nuntita Contraltos Baritones LGBTQ DJs Sony BMG artists Bell Nuntita Bell Nuntita Bell Nuntita Bell Nuntita LGBTQ women singers Transgender women singers