Star Awards 2021 (

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

: 红星大奖2021) is a television award ceremony that was held in Singapore on 18 April 2021. The ceremony honoured the best Singaporean television released between January 2019 and December 2020. The ceremony was originally scheduled for April 2020, but due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Mediacorp announced that the ceremony would be postponed for a year until 2021. Period drama ''

A Quest to Heal ''A Quest to Heal'' (Chinese: ) is a 2020 Singaporean Chinese-language drama series. It tells the story of a heroine (Carrie Wong) and an imperial guard (Qi Yuwu) who accidentally travels from the Ming Dynasty to modern Singapore, and together th ...

'' won five awards including Best Drama Serial, Best Lead and Supporting Actors, Best Theme Song, and Best Director, the last of which was awarded in an unaired Backstage Achievement Award. Other winners include

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 ...

of ''My Guardian Angels'' and

Kym Ng Kym Ng Kwee Khim (born 1 July 1967) is a Singaporean television host and actress. She is known as one of Mediacorp's Variety Ah Jies (综艺阿姐). Ng has received numerous accolades locally and regionally. At the Star Awards, she was rec ...

of ''Daybreak'', who won Best Lead and Supporting Actresses respectively, the former breaking a winning record of four wins. The drama with the most nominations, ''A Jungle Survivor'', won only one award, with Zhang Ze Tong clinching the Best Newcomer. In the Variety category, ''

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 ...

'' reclaimed a record-breaking eighth win for a Variety Special while ''Hear U Out'' became the biggest winner for a variety program with two. In popularity awards,

Dasmond Koh Dasmond Koh Chin Eng (; born 22 February 1972) is a Singaporean actor, television host, radio DJ and businessman. He was a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 1995 to 2015. In 2015, He left Mediacorp to concentrate on NoonTalk Media which he co-found ...

was named the year's All-Time Favourite Artiste.

Dennis Chew Dennis Chew Chong Kheng (born 15 August 1973), also known as Zhou Chongqing, is a Singaporean radio deejay, actor, variety show host, businessman and singer. Chew is known for playing Aunty Lucy, a character which requires him to cross-dress ...

and

Zheng Geping Zheng Geping (born Edmund Tay Kok Peng on 27 May 1964), formerly known as Zheng Guoping, is a Singaporean actor, executive producer and businessman. He has appeared in several MediaCorp Channel 8 television series. He left MediaCorp in 2023. ...

won their tenth Top 10 Most Favourite Artiste, while

Marcus Chin Marcus Chin On Kang (born 22 September 1953) is a Singaporean host, actor, comedian, singer, radio DJ, and businessman. Career Chin joined the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation during the 1970s. During the 1990s, he was mainly known for star ...

, Hong Ling and

Bonnie Loo Bonnie Loo (born 12 July 1994) is a Malaysian actress and singer based in Singapore managed by The Celebrity Agency. Early life Loo was born in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, and is the elder of two daughters. She began to take singing lessons whe ...

won their first Top 10. The ceremony also drew several controversies, notably on the results for the Top 10 Most Popular Artistes after

Felicia Chin Felicia Chin Foong Ling (born 24 October 1984) is a Singaporean actress, host and content creator who was named as one of the Seven Princesses of Mediacorp in 2006. In 2013, Chin decided to use her given Chinese name instead for her acting c ...

fell short on winning her tenth award, as well as social distancing measures leading to Mediacorp clarifying about the measures taken.

Programme details

Winners and nominees

Awards

The nominees were announced on 4 February 2021. Winners are listed first, followed by boldface.

Drama series with multiple awards and nominations

The following Series received two or more awards and nominations:

Programmes with multiple awards and nominations

The following Programmes received two or more awards and nominations:

Sponsors awards

Bioskin Most Charismatic Artiste Award, alongside Best Theme Song and Best Radio Programme, are awards eligible via online voting. Voting began on 10 March and ended on 9 April at 11.59pm. The Best Radio Programme was introduced in this year Star Awards to honor the best in local radio The results are announced on the Walk-of-fame.

Special awards

Top 10 Most Popular Artists

The top 10 nominations were announced on 9 March 2021 with several changes, with 60 artistes (30 of each gender) compete via a popular vote for the Top 10; for the first time in ''Star Awards'' history, there will be no

televoting Televoting (also telephone voting, phone voting, and call-in voting) is a method of decision making and opinion polling conducted by telephone. Televoting can also extend to voting by SMS text message via a mobile cell phone. Broadcast contest ...

. 50% of the votes are determined by online voting, while the other 50% are based on the initial polling results of 1,000 people representing a wide demographic across Singapore's population, conducted independently by an accredited market research company. With the combination of both years of ceremonies, 2020 and 2021, scores for both years for eligible artistes will be averaged by two; if the artiste is only eligible on either 2020 or 2021, only the scores that are tabulated on the eligible year is counted; artistes who are eligible in 2020 will only have their scores in 2020 tabulated; the reverse is true for artistes eligible only in 2021. Voting began on 10 March, 12:00pm and ended on 18 April, 8:00pm, during the ceremony. Additionally, each user was limited to one vote per day, but the restriction was lifted to allow unlimited voting during the final three hours of voting.

Ceremony information

The Star Awards 2021 centralized the theme of ''Connect'' (星起点), symbolizing the role media companies and other industry partners played in engaging television audiences during the previous year's

COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore The COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first case in :Singapore was confirmed on 23 January 2020. Early cases we ...

Event details

Event schedule

*Nominees Announcement: 4 February 2021 *Top 10 Nominees Announcement: 9 March 2021 *Walk-of-Fame, Awards Ceremony: 18 April 2021

Awards trivia

*This is the first time since

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

whereas the award ceremony was held outside Mediacorp studios, this time at the

Jewel Changi Airport Jewel Changi Airport (also known as Jewel) is a nature-themed entertainment and retail complex surrounded by and linked to one of the passenger terminals of Changi Airport in Singapore. Its centrepiece is the world's tallest Artificial waterfal ...

and on Terminal 4. Not counting double awards shows (with the first show held at the studios and a second show at another location), this is the first time since

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

to have this situation organically. *Due to the expanded period of eligibility (see ''Impact of the COVID–19 pandemic'' below), this is the second ceremony to have more than the typical five nominations for most of the awards categories (except Best Radio Programme and Best Entertainment Special), with seven nominations. **This was previously used in the 2009 ceremony where each category have six nominations due to the revision of the eligibility period. Coincidentally, both ceremonies' preceding year do not have a ceremony. **This is also the third ceremony overall to have an increase of the usual number of nominations (20) for the Top 10 Most Popular Artiste award, with 30. The first two ceremonies with an increase were in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

(21) and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

(24).

Consecutive and records in award categories, first in Top 10

surpassed

Fann Wong Fann Woon Fong (born 27 January 1971), known professionally as Fann Wong, is a Singaporean actress, singer, businesswoman and model. She has been referred to as one of MediaCorp's ''Ah Jie'' for being one of the most successful actresses from Sing ...

's count for the number of nominations for the

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress award ...

, with 14. She also broke a record for the most number of wins with four, surpassing Huang Biren, Ivy Lee and Chen Liping with three. *'' C.L.I.F.'' became the first drama series to have been nominated for five occasions for Best Drama Serial (the other being

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and

), more than any other drama serials to date. *Out of the 31 artistes who did not receive a Top 10 nomination in 2019, 16 artistes were nominated for the first time, more than any number of artistes in a single year. This award also marks the first appearance of a number of artistes nominated in the Top 10 after long absences: ** Edwin Goh and

Yvonne Lim Yvonne Lim (born 28 September 1976) is a Singaporean actress. Early life and education Lim was born to Hokkien-speaking family. She studied at CHIJ St Theresa's Convent and graduated with a Diploma in Electronic, Computer, & Communication E ...

who both last nominated in

, seven years ago. **

Ann Kok Ann Kok (born 11 January 1973) is a Singaporean businesswoman, singer and an actress who film on an ad-hoc basis. During the 1990s, Kok was ranked the "Third ''Ah Jie''" by the local media, which defined her as the third most prominent actre ...

who last nominated in

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, eight years ago. **

Henry Thia Henry Thia Hiok Hui (born 25 February 1952), also known as Alamak and Hui Ge (), is a Singaporean actor and comedian. Career Thia was a member of the main cast of ''Comedy Nite'' throughout its run, having the opportunity to work with both Ja ...

who last nominated in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, 12 years ago. **

Darren Lim Darren Lim (born 30 September 1972) is a Singaporean actor and television host, who was a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 1997 to 2016. Career Having left school at age 15, Lim began his career as a singer before joining the Television Corp ...

who last nominated in 1999, 22 years ago. ***Of these, Lim hold the record of having the longest gap between his two nominations for any of the Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes, and is tied along with

Lina Ng Lina Ng Su Fang (born 6 May 1974) is a Singaporean actress and host. She was a full-time Mediacorp and SPH MediaWorks artiste from 1993 to 2004, but currently films on an ad-hoc basis. To date, Ng is the first and only actress to win both an ...

for the second longest gap for any artistes, behind

Chen Xiuhuan Chen Xiuhuan (born 10 October 1965), also known as Sherry Tan, is a Singaporean actress. She is a Mediacorp artiste from 1984 to 1997, and from 2018 till present. Career Chen started her acting career at the age of 18 after attending the Sin ...

's 24. Lim also now hold the record of having a longest gap of nominations without a win. **

, Hong Ling and

won their first Top 10 after nine, three and four nominations, respectively. *''

'' won its eighth Entertainment Special award since 2017, surpassing the record of seven tying with ''NKF Charity Show''. *

Quan Yi Fong Quan Yi Fong (born 1 March 1974) is a Taiwan-born Singaporean host and actress, who has since taken up Singaporean citizenship and given up her Taiwanese citizenship. Career Quan joined the SBC in 1992. In 1996, she was fired by TCS over a ...

won her fourth consecutive Best Programme Host, and her seventh hosting role including Info-ed Hosts prior to 2015.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The

saw postponements in television production and Mediacorp had since suspended studio audience starting 7 February. The ceremony was first announced to be held on 26 April 2020, but in an announcement on 19 February 2020, the ceremony was delayed to the second half of the year, and that the original date falls on the period of "

Circuit Breaker A circuit breaker is an electrical safety device designed to protect an Electrical network, electrical circuit from damage caused by current in excess of that which the equipment can safely carry (overcurrent). Its basic function is to interr ...

" (between 7 April and 1 June). On 7 August, Mediacorp announced that the ceremony will not be held in the 2020 year and delaying it to 18 April 2021, and the eligibility periods for the television series would be extended through 31 December 2020. Despite having options on conducting ceremonies virtually, Mediacorp chose to combine both the 2020 and 2021 ceremonies into a single ceremony as a 'bigger celebration', adding that the decision was to "continue to place the health and safety of our artistes, crew and guests as a top priority." This postponement resulted in 2020 being the second calendar year to not host a ceremony, after 2008 (which was postponed due to the revision of eligibility criteria). On 6 April 2021, the show confirmed that the ceremony will take place at Changi Airport Terminal 4 and

, and additional changes are made such as walking on a tarmac against the backdrop of a

Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines (abbreviation: SIA or SQ) is the flag carrier of Singapore with its Airline hub, hub located at Changi Airport. Considered to be one of the world's best carriers, the airline is ranked as a 5-star airline as well as ranked ...

Airbus A350-900 replacing the traditional red carpet. Overseas guests are still featured but they are broadcast by

teleconferencing A teleconference or telecon is a live exchange of information among several people remote from one another but linked by a communications system. Terms such as audio conferencing, telephone conferencing, and phone conferencing are also sometime ...

from either Hong Kong or Taiwan due to the travel restrictions, which was also seen in several other award ceremonies globally. The ceremony would also be conducted closed-doors, a first in ''Star Awards'' history without a live audience. Additionally, during the ceremony, there are no handover of awards (similar to the 2007's Award (25th Drama Anniversary)), as the award is collected by the recipient itself. Furthermore, hosts and along with the ceremony procedures were separated across different parts of Terminal 4 to maintain

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...

. For example, the Backstage were hosted by

Jeremy Chan Jeremy Chan Ming Yuew (born 17 July 1981) is a Singaporean actor and host. Early life Chan was educated in Zhangde Primary School and Saint Thomas Secondary School. He graduated from ITE College West (Dover Campus). At the age of 25, bef ...

, Juin Teh and Hazelle Teo in Changi Terminal 4, Heritage Zone, while the Walk of Fame was held at the main entrance of Terminal 4 and were co-hosted by Lee Teng,

Vivian Lai Vivian Lai Yi-ling (born 18 December 1976) is a Taiwanese-born actress, television host and businesswoman based in Singapore. Life and career Born in Taiwan, Lai migrated to Singapore with her Taiwanese family when she was still a student. She j ...

Desmond Ng Desmond Ng (born 5 October 1987) is a Singaporean actor, singer, presenter and businessman. Ng debuted in 2009 as a getai singer and in 2015, became the champion of the Mediacorp ''Getai Challenge''. He then signed with Mediacorp The Celebrity ...

. During the ceremony, Guo Liang and Quan Yifeng were stationed at the Rain Vortex inside Jewel, while

Cavin Soh Cavin Soh (born 17 November 1970) is a Singaporean actor, host, watch dealer and singer. Career Soh was formerly the lead singer of the band Dreamz FM (梦飞船) and a radio deejay on MediaCorp's Chinese language station Y.E.S. 93.3FM bef ...

, Lee, Lai and Chew were stationed at different parts of Terminal 4.

Reception and controversy

During the ceremony, artistes were seen neither wearing a mask nor a face shield throughout the ceremony and took them off during broadcast, as seen on other televised live shows. However, social media and netizens began querying to Mediacorp on the safety of mask wearing, contradicting any social distancing measures, and whether or not it is safe to do so. Other netizens compared the ceremonies that held earlier this year, such as the ''

TVB Anniversary Awards The TVB Anniversary Awards (), officially known as the TVB Awards Presentation, is an annual awards ceremony honouring TVB's programming achievements in Hong Kong television; despite claims that it is the region's equivalent to the American E ...

'', which they do wore mask during the ceremony. In a post-ceremony interview, celebrities such as Hong Ling, Bonnie Loo, Dennis Chew, Marcus Chin, and Chen Shucheng, revealed that the set has been adhered to social-distancing measures in which Mediacorp had been following with. Chen also revealed on an interview that he have wore a mask while making their way to the Walk of Fame, and removed it only when he arrived. The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) replied that the ceremony did not violate any rules, including a gathering of up to 50 people in a taping venue during filming; at anytime, no more than 20 artistes are permitted not to wear masks; following the safe distancing requirements with a minimum one-meter. IMDA announced that they will not take any action.

Lianhe Zaobao ''Nanyang Sin-Chew Lianhe Zaobao'', commonly abbreviated as ''Lianhe Zaobao'', is the largest Singaporean Chinese-language newspaper with a daily circulation of about 136,900 (print and digital) as of 2021. Published by SPH Media (formerly ...

, who also did separate commentaries during the ceremony, separately questioned Mediacorp on three claims, on the uneven airtime of certain celebrities, the handling of results, and the Top 10 Most Popular Artiste voting system, the last of which receiving headlines following frontrunner

failing to win her tenth Top 10 and thus preventing her to be conferred the All-Time Favourite Artiste next year, which

and Zheng Ge Ping were able to do so during the ceremony. The address was issued under the guidance of Mediacorp's Chief content officer Doreen Neo. Mediacorp first addressed on the airtime that the artistes appearing during the ''Walk of Fame'' is limited to 90 minutes (including commercials) and thus airtime are given priority to Mediacorp artistes. Mediacorp also announced that the ceremony was planned several months ago, and the list of artistes have been arranged, ending that it has no relation with the claim and will not exclude specific artists or brokerage companies. Mediacorp also emphasized that the Top 10 Most Popular Artiste voting system was announced prior on 4 February that 50% of the vote comes from the demographic of 1,000 people while the other 50% constitutes on online voting; these voting format was first introduced in the 2018 ceremony and was intact since. Mediacorp also announced that the "unlimited voting limit" (happening within the final three hours of the voting window) was implemented to encourage audience participation, as it was previously done in their web-streaming websites meWatch and its

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

's channel Mediacorp Entertainment. Finally, Mediacorp revealed that the increase of nominations from five to seven to accommodate the two-year format, was meant to affirm the qualifications for candidates and programs under the qualifying period (January 2019 to December 2020). All nominations went through a qualification criteria auditing under the

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alon ...

(PwC) film, and a judging panel (consist of 70% of professional critics and 30% of Mediacorp personnel). All of the results are final by the judging panel itself and to ensure professionalism and transparency, and that the awards are given out in excellence on the efforts and contributions of works and its production. The opinions that put forward in the comments must be true and free with no prejudice. Mediacorp concluded that they have dismissed the claims, ensuring that these refutes and its reports would not happen again.

Presenters and performers

The following presenters were announced on 6 April 2021.

Presenters

Performers

Related programme

A 10-episode talkshow, ''The Inner Circle'', was broadcast before the ceremony as a

spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...

series. It premiered on 17 February 2021 from 8:00pm every Wednesdays. The series, hosted by Guo Liang, discusses the inside stories of ten All-Time Favourite Artiste recipients in ''Star Awards'', leading up to the ceremony airing on 18 April. No episode was aired on 24 February due to the launch of

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

in Singapore and the launch event titled ''A Night of Disney+.''

Notes

References

{{Star Awards Star Awards Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on television Events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2021 in Singaporean television