00:00 Can you remember and recite the Singapore Pledge?
00:03 Hello everybody, I'm Celeste Chong and I am here at Asia 1.
00:16 Well, joyous, you know, like listening to my mother laugh and how much she loves my dog.
00:28 It's pretty incredible watching her and my dog becoming bestest friends and buddies.
00:34 And my puppy being truly happy that she has found my mom, her newest bestie and family.
00:43 And they have jelled so much that it warms my heart every time seeing my mother call him.
00:50 And, you know, she fussing over him. It's just been really, truly beautiful.
00:54 What is your biggest fear?
00:58 I have moved to so many different countries that in the beginning, I think the fear was always to start from zero again.
01:09 You have to work your way around, you know, you have to, you get to know new people,
01:13 you get to know the production there, how things function, how things click.
01:19 Moving to Canada was also a brand new experience because the whole entire scene is different,
01:26 how self tapes were being done.
01:28 And during that time when COVID hit, it also changed the way casting was made.
01:34 Instead of going into a room where you have your executive producer, your director, your casting directors,
01:41 now you have to do self tapes. So you have to become self tape savvy.
01:46 Self taping and auditioning, I find becoming an actor in that way is weird because they give you a script,
01:53 they give you a character breakdown, but really it's up to you to create that character.
01:59 It's been so much fun. I've gotten so good at auditions that, yeah,
02:04 that I landed really, really great roles in very big productions.
02:09 So that was a real good experience for me.
02:15 How has the pandemic changed your life?
02:19 Truthfully, I've only been back for the month of November until now.
02:25 So now it's March, so it's only been about four months, I think.
02:30 When I came back, actually, I really wasn't expecting anything.
02:34 Like I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't know what I was going to do.
02:40 I just knew I had to come home and it was time.
02:44 And so far, I'm actually pretty blown away.
02:48 It's like all the seeds I'd sown for so many years before leaving have grown tremendously.
02:57 I mean, people are still listening to my songs.
03:00 I've got about 38,000 people a month listening to me on Spotify now, which I didn't think was still going on.
03:10 My one particular song has like 50 million people just listening to it on one China site.
03:17 So it's incredible how everything you sowed, somehow other grows into seeds and flowered while I was away.
03:28 So, yeah, it's a very interesting career.
03:31 I feel you grow things, you make things happen, and they keep people company for years and years and years.
03:38 And you still get new audiences.
03:40 I kind of believe in just life, you know, and this unpredictability.
03:56 Like you never know who you're going to meet that is going to create something or create something else or work with you in a different way.
04:04 The only thing predictable about it is change and to embrace the changes and to meet the people that I've met.
04:12 I met Michael Goh because I was doing an interview, a radio show, and given the opportunity to do my own concert here.
04:21 My first concert in Singapore, finally.
04:23 The last single concert I did was in Taiwan.
04:27 So it was, I think, 15 years ago, but I find that a lot of Singaporean people want to hear me sing live this time.
04:37 I think they're really welcoming.
04:39 It seems like my music has gone through many journeys with many different peoples and in many different ways.
04:47 You know, like it has kept them company through some of their hardest times.
04:51 I brought them some really warm memories and I feel a lot of Singaporeans prefer the first album.
04:59 So I was just seeping through all my songs and good grief, do I have like too many songs?
05:06 And to actually just only choose 15, I decided, you know what, fans, you guys decide.
05:12 Give me your votes, cast me your votes.
05:13 Whoever gets the most votes on the most songs, I will perform the songs live for you.
05:18 So that's so far what's been going on.
05:21 I would love to.
05:28 I think ultimately it's, like I said, it's a beautiful thing to create a character.
05:36 Whatever they give you, it is up to you how you act.
05:42 The character, how you say the lines, where you put nuances, where you put a part of yourself,
05:49 your decision of what this character is into the role that makes this character memorable or likeable.
05:57 Every single role is like your own baby.
06:00 It's like, oh, OK, great, now I'm cuddling this baby.
06:03 So does this baby like to be cuddled this way, you know, or some other way?
06:09 I don't know. So it kind of depends on what you do with it.
06:12 It really is ultimately a baby that's given to you.
06:16 And then how do you want to dress this baby?
06:19 You know, are you going to allow this baby to cry all the time?
06:22 How are you going to, you know, take care of this baby?
06:24 How are you going to teach this baby to become your own?
06:28 [Music]
06:41 Uh, no.
06:47 I remember, but I refuse to recite it.
06:53 School.
06:54 [Music]
07:00 ERP, electronic pricing system, electronic, ERP, electronic rated pricing.
07:10 Oh, well, yeah, I was going to get that for the second one, electronic road pricing.
07:15 Ta-da, OK.
07:17 [Music]
07:22 There is one kampong left in the Singapore mainland?
07:25 I didn't even know that. I thought they were all gone.
07:29 Kampong Glam? It's not considered a kampong.
07:34 Yeah, I know, but yeah, it's not a kampong.
07:37 [Music]
07:42 After being in the industry for 30 years, I finally have my own concert in Singapore.
07:48 To come on down, you know, because this is such a rare opportunity. It's three decades in the making.
07:53 So I would really, really love to see everybody because it's a small little concert,
07:59 which means that we will have a lot of time to actually be closer together.
08:05 We would have time to talk to each other. We would have time to photograph.
08:09 It's going to be a really close, intimate event.
08:13 And I so look forward to it because this is the first time we're actually having an intimate event.
08:19 So, of course, the whole entire music direction, the whole entire feeling of it all, the musicians.
08:27 We won't have a big drum set. It will be percussions.
08:30 It might go more acristic, but it will definitely be powerful.
08:35 And that is one thing I'm working very hard toward.
08:38 So please come down and let's relive everything that we've heard and that we've grown up with
08:46 and relive all the good times that we've had and move forward and charge towards the future.
08:53 [Music]
09:01 [Music]
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