SINGAPORE – First-time winners nabbed the top acting awards at the 2024 Star Awards.
Local broadcaster Mediacorp’s annual awards ceremony held at The Theatre at Mediacorp on April 21 gave out the Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor honours to Jeremy Chan, Kym Ng and Zhang Zetong respectively.
Fighting back the urge to cry on stage, Chan, 42, thanked his actress-wife Jesseca Liu for taking care of him during the filming of Best Drama Serial winner All That Glitters (2023).
He lost 16kg and followed a strict workout regimen to achieve a toned physique for his role as a muay thai fighter in the series.
Sporting a white suit that showed off his sculpted chest, Chan gave a shout-out to Liu in his acceptance speech: “Thank you for boiling eggs for me. I know you loved the chubby Jeremy of the past, but now you have to get used to a more fit Jeremy.”
The celebrity couple took home three awards that night.
Liu, 45, received her All-Time Favourite Artiste award alongside Ann Kok, 51. The award is bestowed on stars who have garnered 10 Top 10 Most Popular Artiste trophies. Both actresses received their 10th trophy in 2023 and will no longer compete in the popularity categories.
Chan won Best Actor and Top 10 Most Popular Male Artiste.
Also emotional was Zhang, 31, the youngest nominee in the Best Supporting Actor category in 2024. This was his first win in the category. He won Best Newcomer for A Jungle Survivor (2020).
The Star Search 2019 champion – who has only five years of acting experience – beat more established stars such as Zhu Houren, Peter Yu, Darren Lim and Andie Chen with his turn as the villainous Richard Mo in All That Glitters.
Zhang broke down in tears multiple times during his acceptance speech, repeating: “I really didn’t want to cry today.”
Backstage, he bowed and apologised to the other four nominees for pipping them to the post.
He said while the award has validated his skills and given him a confidence boost, the recognition he received before Star Awards from industry insiders and colleagues – who told him he did a pretty good job as Richard – is “invaluable and worth more to me than the award”.
Ng won Best Actress for playing a ghost in the supernatural dramedy Till The End (2023). The 56-year-old, who was the oldest in her category, thanked her fellow nominees Joanne Peh, Rui En, Jernelle Oh and Chantalle Ng onstage. While she has won for supporting roles in the series When Duty Calls (2017) and Daybreak (2019), this is her first win for a lead role.
“I want to tell the four mei mei (Mandarin for younger sisters) who were nominated with me: ‘You are all very talented and there’s always the future, but tonight, let this auntie take home the win,’” she said.
Backstage, Ng told the media she prayed hard for this recognition.
“I didn’t think I would win, but I really wanted it very much. I told myself I can’t keep thinking about it or I’ll have a breakdown if I don’t win, so I’m very excited that I did,” she said.
Best Supporting Actress winner Aileen Tan, 57, also joked about her latest accolade – a repeat win in the same category, having been awarded for the 2016 series Hero.
This time, the veteran actress played a villain in the female-led series about bodyguards, Shero (2023). She said to the media backstage: “I wasn’t nominated for Top 10 (Most Popular Female Artistes) this year, so maybe this is a pity win.”
Tan was omitted from that category as she played a supporting role in only two eligible dramas series in 2023, instead of the three required for nomination.
In the popularity awards, actress Yvonne Lim, 47, and host Pornsak, 42, won their 10th Top 10 Most Popular Female/Male Artiste award, which guarantees them the All-Time Favourite Artiste Award in 2025. Both were absent from the ceremony.
Some first-time winners in the popularity categories brought on surprised squeals from the audience and media room backstage.
Benjamin Tan, who starred in family drama Strike Gold (2023), won for the first time since joining Mediacorp in 2019. The 31-year-old, who recently changed his Chinese name, took a moment to realise his new name had been called. The actor thanked his late mother, who died in 2022 after being in a coma for close to two years, when he took the stage.
Actress, host and influencer Xixi Lim, 36, who was hosting Star Awards’ behind-the-scenes live stream which aired on mewatch, had to run out from her backstage gig to the main ceremony hall to receive her first Top 10 Most Popular Female Artiste award.
The plus-sized personality said in an interview backstage that she feels glad to have received such recognition, despite not fitting a cookie-cutter image.
“It’s never easy being different compared with other female artistes and artistes in general. When I told my friends and family I wanted to enter this industry, a lot of them told me to think twice. But I told myself, I want to give it a shot.”
While many of the 2024 Star Awards winners were first-timers, old hand Quan Yifeng is still going strong.
She won Best Programme Host (Entertainment and Infotainment) for Season 4 of talk-show series Hear U Out (2020 to present) and now has nine hosting wins, making her one of the most decorated artistes in Star Awards history.
The 50-year-old, who lost the category in 2023 to Christopher Lee’s cooking programme Dishing With Chris Lee (2022) after a five-year winning streak, said she feels blessed to be able to return to the top.
She added: “I’m lucky to win the award back this year because this season of Hear U Out ventured out and interviewed stars from overseas. I’m very proud that we have managed to bring this brand out of Singapore.”
List of main winners
Best Actor
Jeremy Chan – All That Glitters
Best Actress
Kym Ng – Till The End
Best Supporting Actor
Zhang Zetong – All That Glitters
Best Supporting Actress
Aileen Tan – Shero
Best Programme Host (Entertainment and Infotainment)
Quan Yifeng – Hear U Out 4
Special Achievement Award
Mark Lee
Most Popular Rising Stars
Ayden Sng
Zhang Zetong
Jernelle Oh
Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes
Romeo Tan
Marcus Chin
Jeff Goh
Zhang Yaodong
Pornsak
Desmond Tan
Benjamin Tan
Shaun Chen
James Seah
Jeremy Chan
Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes
Chantalle Ng
Ya Hui
Carrie Wong
He Yingying
Chen Biyu
Tasha Low
Chen Ning
Yvonne Lim
Xixi Lim
Hong Ling
