Sole Singaporean contestant Yang Yan on idol survival programme ...

Updated

Nov 25, 2024, 06:27 PM

Published

Nov 25, 2024, 04:45 PM

SINGAPORE – The sole Singaporean contestant on streamer iQiyi’s international idol survival reality programme Starlight Boys has been eliminated.

Yang Yan, 23, departed from the show in the series’ pre-recorded fifth episode, which aired on Nov 23. He was one of the 20 eliminated contestants.

The show, available to stream on iQiyi International, began with 69 contestants from countries such as China, South Korea, Japan and Thailand competing to debut as part of a nine-member boy band.

Yang, who returned to Singapore after his elimination, had spent two months in South Korea where the show was filmed.

He told local Chinese news outlet Lianhe Zaobao in an interview published on Nov 24 that one of the first things he did after touching down in Singapore was to eat local food he missed, like wonton noodles and chicken rice.

The actor, who is signed to local television host and former deejay Dasmond Koh’s agency NoonTalk Media, and also represented by Thai label Insight Entertainment, said he never thought about how far he would go in the competition.

“It ends whenever it ends. I feel that as long as I’ve put in effort, then no matter how far I go, I won’t have any regrets. And I truly don’t because I gave it my all,” he added.

Over the course of the competition, Yang performed songs by famous K-pop boy bands such as Fantastic Baby (2012) by BigBang, and covered Chk Chk Boom (2024) by Stray Kids, alongside other contestants in a team.

Yang, who has loved performing since a young age, received two to three months of dance training before participating in the show. He also joined a two-week intensive boot camp in South Korea before the show began.

Still, he was an amateur compared with some contestants who had years – or even more than a decade – of background in dance.

What he lacked in experience, he said, he made up for in courage. “I like challenging myself. I aspire towards performing and shining onstage for everyone to see.”

Yang said he practised intensively during his time on the show so that his relative lack of experience would not affect his group’s performance. Some days, he danced for 12 hours. About 10 days prior to a showcase, he would get only two to four hours of sleep in order to practise more.

“I ate a lot, but my weight still fell to 58kg or 59kg from 63kg.”

Though he has only just wrapped up his pursuit of his idol journey in South Korea, Yang is not planning to take a break. He decided against going on a vacation in Thailand to recharge as he wants to focus on work and has plans to return to the stage by releasing his own music.

While he might have been eliminated, Yang said the show was a valuable experience, in which he got to interact with celebrity mentors such as boy band BigBang’s vocalist Daesung and balladeer Lee Seung-gi.

After performing Fantastic Baby for his first showcase, he said Daesung told his group that he could feel their love for the stage and how vibrant they were.

He recalled: “I realised you can’t just be good at singing and dancing. You must also enjoy your time on the stage so that audiences are as happy to see you as you are to perform.”

The show also made Yang more aware of how much he enjoys performing in front of others. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so happy before. Having an audience gives me motivation,” he said.

Yang likened his experience of being on the show to national service in Singapore, as all the contestants had to stay together in a dormitory, and mobile phone use was restricted.

The contestants could interact with only one another and Yang spoke to most of the international participants in English. He also picked up some Korean to interact with the South Korean competitors.

“It was quite tiring a lot of the time, and sometimes I felt really lonely,” he said, “I suppose it’s because you know that the friends around you might be eliminated. I’m someone who really cherishes friendships, so I cried when contestants left the show. I had very complicated emotions.”

But the closed environment was not all bad for Yang, who composed three songs during the two months he spent in the dormitory. He said: “It was something I might never have experienced in Singapore.”