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Veteran actress Jin Yinji is among the top 30 Most Popular Female Artists for the upcoming Star Awards.

The Top 60 Most Popular Artistes was announced by Mediacorp on Mar. 9, 2021 via a live showcase hosted by YES 933 DJs Kun Hua and Chen Ning.

Helper did not tell Jin about TikTok

During the showcase, Kun brought up Jin's recent appearance on TikTok, "Recently I’ve seen you’ve been playing with some videos?".

Jin: "No, it's not me who played, I don't know how to do it. It was my family's-"

Kun: "Yes, those two [helpers] helped you do it together."

Jin: "She lied to me, telling me to sit down, I thought it was to take pictures. Then they suddenly turned around in a circle and asked me to dance, it turned out to be some 'di dou' (TikTok). I don’t know how to press that 'di dou'.

Jin's response drew laughter from Kun and fellow actresses Jayley Woo and Kimberly Chia, who were present on stage.

The host then asked Jin, "Have you figured out what TikTok is now?"

"No, I don’t," Jin maintained firmly, "I don’t know how to press the 'di dou.'"

Kun remarked, "So, people just stumbled upon your video and you unexpectedly became famous," and Jin nodded in agreement.

When Kun mentioned that she "even appeared in the news", Jin expressed her bewilderment, "Yeah, the news, aiyo, really!"

Jin disclosed, "Our two cute [helpers]... Their fans rose to over 8,000, that’s a lot!"

The TikTok account belonging to one of Jin's helpers, Mhabell Estilloso, has garnered 2,289 followers and 18,900 likes at the time of writing.

Kun subsequently joked, "It’s close to your popularity, right? It’s a bit dangerous, you need to be careful!"

No plans to start own account... yet?

When we asked Jin during a post-showcase interview if she had any plans to start her own TikTok channel, the actress laughed and replied,

"Nah, I'll be busy, aiyo. If I want to do it, I have to think of a really good and complete [idea] for the audience to watch. I don't want do it in a haphazard way."

Nonetheless, she acknowledged that many viewers enjoyed the "haphazard style" of the past TikTok videos, although a tad perplexed by such an outcome.

Breakout star on helper's TikTok channel

Jin's has appeared in four TikTok dancing videos on Estilloso's TikTok channel since Oct. 2020.

One can see Jin getting better at the dance:

In another video, Estilloso expresses her affection for Jin in her caption:

"her reaction 😂 she said why you suddenly turn and you guys didn't tell?and she follow us hahahaha we love you nai nai".

In their fourth video, Estilloso thanked her TikTok followers on behalf of Jin, "Hello!!my nai nai want to say thank you all 🥰 keep safe everyone and have a nice 🙂"

On Jan. 23, Estilloso posted a compilation of pictures to thank nai nai and yei yei for the food:

The most recent post on Feb. 25 also featured a photo compilation, with Estilloso expressing her affection for Jin in the caption:

"我爱你 nai nai, we are far to our family but you treated us like your daughter 🥰 thank you so much for the love and everything nai nai".

2-in-1 Star Awards

The annual Star Awards was cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Unlike previous years, Star Awards 2021 features 60 nominees instead of the usual 40.

This is the highest number of nominees to date to acknowledge the work that the artistes have put in over the past two years.

Free online voting starts from 12pm on Mar. 10, 2021 and ends at 8pm on Apr. 18, 2021.

To vote, you require a valid Mediacorp account and are limited to one vote per day for each award category.

Click here to cast your votes for your favourites.

Here are all the nominees for the Top 10 Most Popular Male and Female artistes:

Top images by meWATCH and @mhbaz_05 on TikTok.