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Country Folk & Jazz Music Reviews

Best of Olivia Ong – Didn’t Know That She Is a Singaporean Singer, Gasp!

I may as well be the last Singaporean on earth to have heard of Olivia Ong.  You know what it is like when you turn on your radio and people would ask, “Who’s that singer”?  I got that a lot (from non-Singaporeans) when I put on Olivia’s compilation album, in a positive way.

I confess that I am not that into local music talents.  “Best Of” is my second Singaporean CD (read on to see what the first one is!) and I couldn’t resist such a crisp, soothing, and seemingly innocent voice.  Who’s that girl?!

You may have already known how much I am not into cover music, set aside oldies (I was however in love with oldies when I was really young, when MJ and Madonna ruled the chart).  There isn’t much musical arrangement in her tracks, simple and sparse, but yet some of the songs captivate me.  Seriously, if I have a friend who can sing like Olivia, I wouldn’t mind hearing her sings every day.  And if someone has a voice like Olivia, it really doesn’t matter how simplistic the music is.  Though it wouldn’t hurt if her further releases raise the level of sophistication in terms of music arrangement as well as perhaps to add more soul into the songs.  Totally head to the Jazz direction and I could be a huge fan.

When I first listened to the opening track of “Best Of”, I thought Olivia is a Japanese.  Half of “Sweet Memories” is in Japanese and I happen to like that a lot.  Not sure about the authenticity of the pronunciation.  But she sounds convincing enough to me.  If you are a native Japanese, please tell me how off my observation is.  Olivia is also the only Singaporean who is entering into the Japanese music scene.  Impressive.

I love Simply Red‘s “For Your Babies” and her interpretation works for me.  Probably one of the strong reason why I bought this album together with that half-Japanese-half-English song originally by Akiko Kobayashi (小林明子) called “Fall In Love”.  And for some unknown reasons, I also love the upbeat and playful Jazz-feel track “Feelin So Good”.  Does that bonus half-Chinese-half-English song “Butterfly” sound like a good old Shirley Wong (later known as Faye Wong) song?  Certainly to me.

Now, back to the first Singaporean CD I have bought, it was recorded by Min Lee the classical violinist quite a number of years ago.  I just realized that Min Lee has released her second album.  I hope I can find it in a store nearby.  Time to lend the local industry some support!

Update 07.01.2009

Since Oct, 2008, there has been lots of comments and keen inquiry on Olivia Ong.  First of all, thanks for dropping by.  Also through this blog entry, I managed to get in touch with one of her band O2Q member Alvin.  And he has shared one set of the videos on their recent live performance in Singapore.  Do check them out.  Hope you enjoy as much as I do.  The band is very professional too.  Great stuff.

Part 1 of 4

Part 2 of 4

Part 3 of 4

Part 4 of 4

69 replies on “Best of Olivia Ong – Didn’t Know That She Is a Singaporean Singer, Gasp!”

i have this album too! just bought it last weekend, and am loving it. i love “sweet memories” too (it’s my favourite song on the album), and her rendition of “sometimes when we touch”.

but i really dislike how she did “my favourite things”. that’s one of my favourite songs from “the sound of music”, and imho, she butchered it. well, to each his own! haha.

the song “butterfly”… i couldn’t tell it was mandarin at first – her mandarin must be really bad! hahaha.

It reminds me of a recent DJ from a Mandarin music station commented that she had in the past played songs from local young artists but didn’t realize they are Singaporeans until now. In fact many released a max of 2 albums and faded into oblivion, which is quite sad.

Daphne Maia – You bought that recently too? Good choice! Ah, bad Mandarin eh? No wonder I couldn’t figure out some of what she said.

Not that I can speak Mandarin anyway … ha ha ha.

Ghim Seng – I agree. That is pretty sad. Maybe the local support is just not enough to sustain the talented ones. Maybe that’s why Singaporean musicians have to head elsewhere to make it big.

I actually prefer Corrine May to Olivia.

I find Olivia too boring. If you are interested in Corrine I can pass u some of her CDs to sample

Kiat – Your observation is certainly valid. By boring I would suppose the combination of the vocal texture and the music arrangement. I personally don’t think Olivia is the type of vocal powerhouse and the music arrangement – like I mentioned could be much improved – does bring out the essence of what her voice is like – soothing and crisp. Much like Rimi Natsukawa‘s music (another friend of mine also find her music boring), I find Olivia’s type of music falls under the category of “comfort music” – one that I can keep listening to and one that helps me to relax.

Alvin – Wow … thanks for dropping by. You are in the band with Olivia? Must be the luckiest dude in town! The new sound is awesome. If you guys come out with an album, I would love to review that and blog about that!

Speechless still …

Is this the first time I leave comment on your blog? Wow, I really didn’t know that you posted since 1996…
That was before my 20s…. wow, I didn’t know such thing called “www” back when.

Anyway, I have one of Olivia’s album. Admit that her voice is nice. But she lack the “power” in her voice, sometimes it sounds flat. The emotion is just not there. I would say, one of the singer who is very good at this is…. Christina Aguilera!!! He he he he.. dun underestimate the power of POP!

I know it’s supposed to be jazz, but take a look at Jane Monheit. Her jazz is different, and unique.. So, something that she can improves, Olivia needs to find her niche in the sea of jazz.

Wieke – Erm … yes, this is your second comment on my website on the same day … ha ha ha. My early days of blogging though took on a different shape but conceptually the same. In fact, I am pretty sure that at least 3 persons I know have been with my online-exhibitionist-madness-obsession since the very beginning, the very first post.

Ah … somehow Olivia works for me. I kind of like the soothing and crisp nature of her voice. But you are right, she is not a vocal powerhouse. Not meant to be I think. I do like Christina’s voice but I can’t listen to her album on repeat the entire day. As for Olivia, yes I can.

Hi wilfrid, yes, I play for her and do some other coordinating work with regards to the band. Thanks again for your kinds words.

And Wieke, thanks for taking the time to listen! I believe Olivia appreciates every bit of anyone’s time devoted to listening to her music.

As for her sound/timbre, wilfrid just hit it right on! She is not a Christina and never will be and will not even attempt to be. Comparing Olivia to Christina is like comparing green apples to red apples…same kind of fruit, but never will taste the same!

Comparing her to singers with similar timbre will more meaningful…eg. Frente, The Innocence Mission etc…

Anyway, we usually update our show schedules on our myspace site. Do check it out! As for now, we do have a tentative show coming up on 6th Dec. Do check out our myspace for more details soon.

Cheers!

Alvin – Oh dear. I am officially very envious of you! OK. I will keep a look out for your show schedule and am looking forward to seeing your band on stage. Perhaps we can work out some kind of behind-the-scene coverage eh?

🙂

Have fun with the practicing!

Exalandra – Thanks for dropping by. You could either visit the MySpace address as posted by Olivia Ong’s band in one of the comments or look up the sample music clips on YouTube. Hope this helps!

hi,

this is the first time i posted on this blog
nice to meet ya, wilfrid!

i just hear olivia about 2 months ago, and since
then, i always play it on my ipod.
i have all of her albums, except tamarillo and precious stone, coz’ theyre don’t sold it here in indonesia and my favourite is “i’ll move on” , i like that because that’s her original song and the lyrics are amazing

i have checked the band’s myspace profile, but why there is no schedule and band profile? the profile is too simple! as a one of the olivia’s fan, i hope they can fix this

Ivan – Thanks for dropping by! I guess her band is still working on the details. If I was her, I would hold a concert in Indonesia. Possibly Bandung. The music scene in Indonesia is so much more vibrant, don’t you think?

hahahahaha…

but i think we still have to learn
there is many good artist here in indonesia,
but they seems to be abandoned, because mostly people in here have a bad taste in music

but i think, the indonesian will like olivia, she just lack of promotion and support. there’s many indonesian blog with her topic on it, and mostly, they give positive response.
maybe she wants to held a concert in indonesia shortly? singapore and indonesia is very near,after all

Ivan – Yes, many good artists in Indonesia. I do visit your country quite regularly (Bandung in fact). If my band “No Eye Candy” does take off, I would love to do a concert in Indonesia.

Anyway, let’s see where Olivia is heading …

can i have another source about olivia besides the myspace profile?
i have checked her website (oliviaong.com) but it seems expired
if you get another information about her please let me know.

thanks!

I just bought the disc on Saturday night (22 Nov), her japanese was definitely very authentic, when I was younger I worked in Japan for 2 yrs. She definitely sounded like a native japanese in her song, I was surprised that how come a young “Japaneses girl” like her could pronounced all the english words with tremendous accuracy!! (Japs are known to be horrible in their english) It really came as a surprise that she is our local talent, Bravo!! Banzai!! 頑張ってね～！！！

Jedi Master – You know, I have quite a huge Japanese collection and I too had the same first impression as you! That’s why I didn’t know that she is indeed a Singaporean … ha ha ha.

Amazing. I wish to hear her to sing more Japanese songs. That would be lovely.

for your information, she also sings in Bahasa Melayu, when she sings singapore national anthem in a football match, kinda surprise, and funny too! hahahaha…..

maybe she wants to add a Malayan songs in the next album? that’ll be great!

Hmm, I’ve listened to her song, “Sweet Memories”.
Even though I’m not a Japanese or anything related to it, I am currently learning the language and had been to Japan.
And as what you’ve said, you’re kinda convinced about the authenticity pronounciation in the song.
But to say the truth, actually some, only some of her pronounciation isn’t really correct, but I guess as long as she’s got a good voice, it’s okay. (:
Support local artist!
WOOHOO! 😀

no comments for her ‘little nonya’ theme song? Will it be out for her next album? its simply beautiful. And she certainly improved her pronunciation 100 folds. great job and effort!

I just heard her sing on the local variety show, the kiddy Superstar competition. She performed the Little Nonya theme song. Very nice jazzy voice. She looked pretty on TV too. She was actually signed up by a Japanese company at the age of 15!

Hi guys, does anyone knows when’s olivia’s next concert? The previous one i went to was the one at NUS centre for the arts during NUS arts fest. Maybe O2Q should peform for this year’s NUS arts fest too!

yo dude, i was curious how the singer of the theme song for little nonya looks like, so i decided to put a face to the name. Yahoo searched it, and presto! your website was in the first page of search results !! power !!!

Vickiro – I have contacted one of her O2Q band members and see if we can hear a response from her or from her contact! Stay tuned.

I wonder if I could sneak into NUS and pretend I am a student for the NUS Arts Fest if she does appear at NUS 🙂

Hey wilfrid, thanks for the video upload.
NUS arts fest is open to the public. Some performances need $ while some are free. It’s between feb to march each year. The programme schedule isnt out yet. So keep your fingers crossed!

hi wilfrid!
thanks for the video,
hope her next concert always recorded like that, hahaha…..
anyway, nice upload! thanks again!

am fine dude. trying to expose my 1 year old to music at a tender age. she seems to like beats and rhythm! and enjoy clashing things together between both hands to make …. what is better defined as noise!

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