Kelly Poon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 潘嘉丽 Kelly Poon |
|
|---|---|
| Country | Singapore |
| Years active | 2005-present |
| Genres | Mandarin pop |
| Labels | Universal Music (2005-present) |
Kelly Poon Kar Lai (Simplified Chinese: 潘嘉丽; pinyin: Pān Jīalì; born: July 11, 1983) is a Singaporean singer who emerged from one of the Chinese singing competition ever held in Singapore, Project SuperStar.
Kelly Poon graduated from Yishun Town Secondary School and Singapore Polytechnic. She took up Chinese folk dancing in secondary school, proving to be a good performer during the course of the competition. Her father is an architect and her mother is a housewife. Her younger sister is 17 and is currently studying at Singapore Polytechnic.
Music was Poon's biggest passion while she studied Maritime Management at the Singapore Polytechnic. Poon accompanied a friend to a singing competition and was impressed by the contestants' powerful voices. It inspired her to learn about music at the Lee Wei Song School of Music where she signed up for a singing course.
Later Poon came under the tutelage of Roy Loy, one of the Project Superstar judges. She took part in school singing competitions, and was often placed in the top three. She also began writing her own songs, which she equates to writing a diary. But her passion for singing took a break after graduation in 2004 when she became an air stewardess with Singapore Airlines.
However, she applied for Project SuperStar in April 2004, knowing she could not give up this chance.
During the course of competition, she was eliminated in the fourth quarter-final, but won in the revival round by public vote. During the entire competition, she impressed both the critics and the judges with her on-stage personality and versatility. Her consistent and impressive performance week after week won over many fans. A fan club was quickly setup and as of September 2005, there are over 4200 members in her official fan club, the Kelly Fan Club.
Because of the competition, she took two months no-pay leave from Singapore Airlines.
Poon's fame is due to the television show Project Superstar but she had previously taken part in several competitions, like the National Chinese Song Writing Competition and she did well in the competitions.
Poon's mother is her greatest inspiration and it is her mother that contributed to her success.
Poon lost in terms of votes to Kelvin in the Grand Finals of Project Superstar but, still managed to secure a recording deal with Universal Music.
