Why former Campus Superstar Bonnie Loo cried on stage while auditioning for The Voice of China?

OHMYGOSSIP — Singer Bonnie Loo ( 羅美儀) has a habit of crying after she sings on stage. She recalls how nerves got to her 10-year-old self and she bawled her eyes out after singing onstage for the first time.

Earlier this year, she cried after auditioning to represent Singapore in the popular Chinese television singing contest The Voice Of China. But it was not because she failed to make the cut. “It’d been a while since I sung onstage. I cried because I felt glad to have the opportunity to sing onstage,” Loo, 21, says in Mandarin.

After winning TV singing contest Campus Superstar in 2013 and recording her self-titled debut album, which topped music retailer CD-Rama’s regional releases chart when it was released last year, she had done more acting than singing.

She starred in Channel 8 dramas Tiger Mum (2015) and C.L.I.F. 3 (2014). This month, she will be seen in new shows, the long-form drama Life – Fear Not and the music- themed drama Crescendo.

Her role in Crescendo – that of a teen who loves singing – is close to her heart. Campus Superstar, a singing competition for students, was just one of more than 300 contests she had taken part in since the age of 10. Through the years, she has won more than 100 trophies.

“Standing in front of an audience to perform is when I feel the most confident. I do get nervous, but I savour the feeling of performing and the audience’s applause,” says the Malaysia-born Singapore permanent resident, who is the older of two children born to a housewife mother, 45, and construction contractor father, 49.

Crescendo – which revolves around the xinyao, or Singapore Chinese folk-pop music, scene that emerged in the 1980s – will feature snippets of a ticketed full concert, in which Loo will perform along with xinyao stalwarts such as Liang Wern Fook and Lee Wai Shiong.