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