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 Star Awards (Chinese: 红星大奖) are awards for artistic and technical merit where Mediacorp recognises entertainers under their employment for outstanding performances of the year. The awards are given annually in a ceremony. The various ca ...

winner, and

Asian Academy Creative Awards The annual Asian Academy Creative Awards are presented every December as part of the Singapore Media Festival. They recognise excellence in the film and television industry across 16 nations in the Asia-Pacific region. History The inaugural ...

National Winner.

Career

2010-2013

In May 2010, Koong released her debut Mandarin album, ''55:38:7'', composed of ten original compositions. Her single "明知我愛你" peaked at number 3 on

YES 933 YES 933 is a Mandarin Chinese radio station in Singapore. Owned by the state-owned broadcaster Mediacorp, it primarily broadcasts a contemporary hit radio format focusing on Chinese and Korean pop music. The station has historically been one o ...

醉心龙虎榜. The single was nominated for Best Local Composition at the 2010 Singapore Hit Awards; Koong received four nominations total and won the Most Popular Newcomer award and the Meritorious Newcomer award. Koong was also involved in song production for television series and films with "在我左右" for

Mediacorp Mediacorp Pte. Ltd. is the state media, state-owned media conglomerate of Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the investment arm of the Government of Singapore—it owns and operates television channels, radio, and digital media properties. ...

Channel 8's television series ''New Beginnings'' and "手中线" for the film ''

Love Cuts ''Love Cuts'' ( zh, 割爱) is a 2010 Singaporean drama film directed by Gerald Lee. Commissioned by the Health Promotion Board of Singapore to encourage women of a certain age to get screened regularly for breast cancer, the film is among the ...

'' starring

Zoe Tay Zoe Tay Hui Gek (born 10 January 1968) is a Singaporean actress and former model. She has been referred to as the "Queen of Caldecott Hill" and "Ah Jie". To date, Tay has received four Star Awards for Best Actress. Early life Tay is the s ...

and

Kenny Ho Kenny Ho Kar-king (born 29 December 1959) is a Hong Kong actor and singer. He was best known for his role as Zhan Zhao in the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese television series '' Justice Bao'' from 1993 to 2012, and is also known for his roles in ...

. Same year, Koong had filmed two advertisements with

Fraser and Neave Fraser and Neave, Limited (F&N) is a Thai-Singaporean food and beverage and publishing and printing industries conglomerate. It is owned by Thai Chinese billionaire business magnate Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi. Listed in Singapore, the group's sub ...

, one of which featured her original song "Lala" performed with

Jiahui Wu Jiahui Wu (; born August 19, 1981) is a Malaysian singer, songwriter, and producer. He is an exclusive writer at Warner/Chappell Music. Career Early career Wu started writing songs in middle school and began performing in music restaurants a ...

. In March 2012, Koong made her debut in Taiwan with the album 聲.體.輿言, distributed by

Warner Warner can refer to: People * Warner (writer) * Warner (given name) * Warner (surname) Fictional characters * Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner, stars of the animated television series ''Animaniacs'' * Aaron Warner, a character in '' Shatter M ...

Music Taiwan. In the same year, she performed at the

Esplanade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...

's Huayi Chinese Festival of Arts. In 2013, Koong formed her music company, GoodGirlMusic, to manage her career. She produced, wrote, and performed the theme song "Happiness Isn’t Hard" (幸福不难) for Mediacorp Channel 8's television series ''The Dream Makers''. Her song was selected from 55 musicians who submitted their work to Mediacorp. That year, Koong was named "Top Downloaded Female Artist" by MeRadio at the for the song "Happiness isn’t Hard".

2014-2017

In 2014, Koong won the Best Theme Song at the

for "Happiness Isn't Hard." The song was also named the Top Dedicated Hit Song by UFM1003 and reached number one on the Singapore iTunes Mandopop chart. Koong received two

Global Chinese Golden Chart Awards The Global Chinese Golden Chart Awards () is a music awards founded by China National Radio China National Radio (CNR; ) is the national radio network of China, headquartered in Beijing. CNR forms the national radio service of the state-owned ...

including "Outstanding Artiste Award" (Singapore, UFM1003) for the song and a nomination for Best Theme Song at the 19th

Asian Television Awards The Asian Television Awards, founded in 1996, is an appreciation to recognize and reward programming and production excellence in the Asian television industry. Held every December, it comprises 56 categories across news, documentaries and curre ...

. Koong was 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, Koong wrote a song "Precious" (心肝) for

Kelvin Tong Kelvin Tong Weng Kian (born in 1971 or 1972) is a Singaporean film director, screenwriter and producer. He was a former film critic for ''The Straits Times''. Career Kelvin's passion for theatre and filmmaking began in his secondary school d ...

's film (Grandma Positioning System) in the SG50

anthology film An anthology film (also known as an omnibus film or a portmanteau film) is a single film consisting of three or more shorter films, each complete in itself and distinguished from the other, though frequently tied together by a single theme, premise ...

''7Letters''. She was inspired by the

eulogy A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person, especially one who recently died or retired, or as a term o ...

Lee Kuan Yew Lee Kuan Yew (born Harry Lee Kuan Yew; 16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean politician who ruled as the first Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. He is widely recognised ...

to his wife

Kwa Geok Choo Kwa Geok Choo (; 21 December 1920 – 2 October 2010) was a Singaporean lawyer. She was the wife of Lee Kuan Yew, the founding Prime Minister of Singapore and the mother of Lee Hsien Loong, Lee Hsien Yang, and Lee Wei Ling. She was the ...

. She was the producer, vocal producer, songwriter and performer of the song, which peaked at number five on the Singapore iTunes Mandopop chart. In December, her single "All Alone" (当世界只剩下我一个人), which she wrote, produced, and performed for ''

The Dream Makers II The Dream Makers II (Chinese: 志在四方II, often abbreviated as ZZSF2) is a 32-episode Singaporean drama produced and telecast on Mediacorp Channel 8. It stars Li Nanxing, Zoe Tay, Huang Biren, Jeanette Aw, Rui En, Qi Yuwu, Romeo Tan, Jul ...

'', peaked at number two on the Singapore iTunes Mandopop chart. 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). On 7 May 2017, Koong received the Outstanding Artist of The Year presented by UFM100.3 award at the

2018-Present

On 9 August 2018, Koong appeared on the prelude episode of ''

SPOP Sing! ''SPOP Sing!'' () is a Chinese singing reality competition broadcast by Mediacorp Channel 8. Season 1 premiered on 9 August after the broadcast of National Day Parade and ended on the live finale on 4 November at Padang. During the live finals ...

'', a singing competition the search for the next homegrown talent. She also served the series as a vocal and performance Mentor to the Top 20 contestants. In 2021, Koong served as the Vocal and Performance Mentor on SPOP Wave!. On 30 September, Koong was announced as the National Winner for Best Theme Song / Title at the

, 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''. In 2023, Koong wrote, performed and produced the ending theme song for All That Glitters which began airing on September 18. In 2024, "TENDER", written by Koong, Lai Zhenming, and Ferry, was presented on

Melody Journey Melody Journey is an original Chinese reality show jointly produced by Jiangsu TV and iQiyi. The first episode aired simultaneously on both platforms on August 18, 2024. The program aims to match singers with songwriters in order to promote and ...

by Lai. The song was chosen and performed by

Shan Yichun Shan Yichun (, born 23 December 2001) is a Chinese singer-songwriter. Noted for winning season 5 of Chinese reality talent show ''Sing! China ''Sing! China'' (; formerly ) is a Chinese singing competition television series broadcast on Z ...

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Other songwriting credits

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
GoodGirlMusic Pte. Ltd.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koong, Serene 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 1979 births