Monday April 7, 2008
Karen Kong is now bigger and better
By MICHAEL CHEANG
My, my, how Karen Kong has grown. When I first met the 23-year-old lass a year ago, she was still a sunny-smiled, doe-eyed, fresh-faced naïve girl, about to take a giant step into the unknown by releasing a Malay album titled Mulakan.
One year later, she is still the cute, charming girl I remember, but that sunny outlook has now been augmented by a distinct battle-hardened determination brought on by the tough reality of show business.
Part of that is because she is currently on the tail-end of a gruelling 50-show promo tour that has taken her all over Malaysia to towns like Changlung and Sungai Petani in Kedah and Bahau in Seremban to promote her Mandarin album Showtime. She will be wrapping up the tour with the 50th and possibly biggest show of the tour in Sungei Wang Plaza, Kuala Lumpur, on April 12.
Catching up with Kong recently, the Labuan native described the past few months as a whirlwind adventure – having been on the road almost every week since the end of October last year up till today.
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Karen Kong: "Nowadays, I can interact with the emcee better, I am more confident when communicating with the audience and when performing." |
“Physically, it’s been very tiring, especially with all the travelling, waiting and then performing,” she said, adding that she would sometimes do two or three shows a week.
Nevertheless, the support she garnered on the shows really pushed her on. She cites one particular show in Serdang, Selangor, as being particularly memorable.
“I had a bad sore throat and couldn’t sing well. I was very disappointed because I wanted to give my best performance in each show, but I really couldn’t sing that day,” she recalled. “But what was touching was that although I couldn’t sing, the audience sang along with me instead. That really touched me, while proving that all my hard work has paid off, and that there are many who support me out there.”
Inevitably, she feels like a veteran at performing live these days.
“In the past I used to just stand in the middle of the stage and sing, with my head bowed and speaking very softly,” she recalled. “Nowadays, I can interact with the emcee better, I am more confident when communicating with the audience and when performing.”
It's a far cry from all those singing competitions she joined when she was younger; and the rejection she faced when after being eliminated from the first round of the first ever Malaysian Idol competition back in 2004.
More importantly, she has also matured as a person and as an artiste. “I started out not knowing anything about being an artiste or even the music business, but now I can handle a lot of situations on my own,” she said. “An artiste faces a lot of pressure and a lot of unexpected things most of the time, and I’ve learnt to think on my feet and react accordingly.” The tour came about when Fred Chong, founder and director of Kong’s label Prodigee Media, decided not to distribute her album in retail stores, and to sell it on the road instead.
All the hard work has paid off with some 5,000 copies sold in the past two months (500 copies of which were eventually made available at record stores in January).
Five thousand copies may seem like peanuts compared to the tens of thousands of copies which more established singers like Michael Wong, Jay Chou, Fish Leong can move; but it’s quite an achievement for an aspiring singer with an independent music label with no backing from a major music label, trying to make it in the limited Malaysian Chinese market.
So has it been more satisfying selling and promoting the Mandarin album herself, as opposed to letting record stores do the job?
“It was definitely worth it. It’s one of my most satisfying accomplishments so far, because I was putting in my own effort. Of course, it was tough, but it was worth doing just to see all those people buying the album. And the best part of it is that I can thank the buyers personally!” she said.
The main reason that Chong decided not to make the album available in record stores was to create awareness on the effect piracy has on the careers of new artistes like Kong.
“We want all those fans that scream ‘I love you’ during shows to realise that supporting pirated goods could cost Karen and other indie artistes their careers,” said Chong. “In that respect, I’m really happy that many of her fans have written to us saying that although they couldn’t buy the original album in the stores, they also didn’t buy the pirated version from the pasar malam.”
Fortunately for Kong, one of her greatest assets is her massive online presence. Even before she cut an album, her Friendster blog already had a huge fan following not just from Malaysians, but even fans from the Philippines, Singapore and as far-reaching as the United States. She was even featured on Time magazine as one of the success stories of Friendster recently.
Media coverage of Kong has also helped tremendously, especially the substantial radio airplay of her songs and the announcements of her latest shows’ details.
But most of all, according to Chong, the most appealing aspect of the singer is that she represents what a truly Malaysian artiste can and should be like. The fact that even non-Chinese speaking fans are buying her Mandarin album and turning up for her shows is proof of this.
”If you’re an artiste here, you can’t survive on the Chinese market alone – you need the support of all Malaysians.
“I don’t think there is anyone in Malaysia who can be truly be considered a real Malaysian artiste – one that is recognised by all races, and whose music appeals to them as well,” said Chong.
So what’s next for Kong? She is looking forward to the upcoming Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) awards ceremony, where she is nominated in three categories – Best Chinese Album, Best Newcomer and Best Female Vocalist (in which she will be coming up against heavyweights like Datuk Siti Nuhaliza).
At the same time, Prodigee is also planning to repackage Showtime with one or two new songs, and Kong is also working on a new Malay single. And then there’s that ever-tempting carrot of breaking into the Taiwan market.
“Although nothing has been confirmed on how we want to approach the Taiwan market, we will still be going there (to Taiwan) as a small indie label,” said Chong. “We have to plan our move carefully because we are still a very small company, but I believe that as long as we have a good product, we just have to go for it.”
Catch the final show of Karen Kong’s Showtime promo tour on April 12 (3pm) at Sungei Wang Plaza, Kuala Lumpur. For more information, visit her website at http://www.karenkong.com.
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