I may as well be the last Singaporean on earth to have heard of Olivia Ong. Â You know what it is like when you turn on your radio and people would ask, “Who’s that singer”? Â 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). Â There isn’t much musical arrangement in her tracks, simple and sparse, but yet some of the songs captivate me. Â Seriously, if I have a friend who can sing like Olivia, I wouldn’t mind hearing her sings every day. Â And if someone has a voice like Olivia, it really doesn’t matter how simplistic the music is. Â 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. Â 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 (å°æž—明å) 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. Â First of all, thanks for dropping by. Â Also through this blog entry, I managed to get in touch with one of her band O2Q member Alvin. Â And he has shared one set of the videos on their recent live performance in Singapore. Â Do check them out. Â Hope you enjoy as much as I do. Â The band is very professional too. Â Great stuff.
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