Joanna Dong's Thriving Music Career

Joanna Dong’s thriving music career is the culmination of years of relentless experiments, hard work, and honest conversations with herself and her loved ones.

- Chong Seow Wei

We are in the dressing room of the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC) with Joanna Dong. Looking suitably chic in head-to-toe Gucci, the jazz-pop singer, actress and television host is in front of the mirror adjusting the beret on her head.

“Many people see me as this wholesome character with a girl-next-door image, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” she declares when we ask how the public Joanna differs from her private self. Her stage persona is decidedly more theatrical and feminine, marked by the bold colours and prints of her outfits. “I also smile and laugh a lot on stage because I’m genuinely enjoying myself, but sometimes in private, I may not be as confident as I publicly appear to be,” admits the 37-year-old, who became a household name when she came in third in the hugely popular Chinese reality talent show, Sing! China, in 2017.

And there is a compelling reason behind this stark difference: “I’m still learning how to present myself when I’m on stage, but deep down, I also care about what others think of me. And as a musician, you need to find a balance between being yourself, and being relatable to your audience.” However, it has not always been this way for Dong. When she didn’t make it into the top 40 of the inaugural