There are many people — 94, to be exact — up for the Top 10 Most Popular Male & Female Artiste awards at this year's Star Awards.
This is because of the new set of rules Mediacorp put in place in 2023 for its popularity awards in order to "better engage audiences and reflect their views
Even with close to 100 nominees, there are still some names which didn't make the cut, and we try our best to explain why.
The overqualified
Photo from Zoe Tay's Instagram
Photo from Fann Wong's Instagram
Say what you like, but there's just something about Ah Jies Zoe Tay and Fann Wong. Which led to some people leaving such comments under one of our Star Awards articles:
This one's pretty straightforward: After winning 10 Top 10 trophies, artistes are promoted to join the ranks of what's called an All-Time Favourite Artiste.
Once celebs hit this milestone, they are no longer in the running for popularity awards in subsequent year (to give others a chance, we reckon).
The list includes those like Rebecca Lim, Rui En, Jeanette Aw, Mark Lee and Christopher Lee.
The qualified, but not-enough-experience-for-Top-10 bunch
There are also some folks who are under the Most Popular Rising Stars Award, a new category which was created in 2023.
Those who would have been eligible for the Top 10, but have been in showbiz for five years or fewer will fall under this category.
This is where names like Zhang Zetong and Ayden Sng will be competing against each other for the three trophies to be handed out under this category.
Photo from Zhang Ze Tong's Instagram
Photo from Ayden Sng's Instagram
In case you're wondering, a Most Popular Rising Stars trophy is the equivalent of a Top 10 Most Popular Male/Female Artistes nod, at least when it comes to becoming an All-Time Favourite Artiste.
In other words, there are multiple ways to becoming an All-Time Favourite Artiste, such as:
- 10 Top 10 Most Popular Male/Female Artistes awards
- Nine Top 10 Most Popular Male/Female Artistes awards + one Most Popular Rising Stars award
- Five Top 10 Most Popular Male/Female Artistes awards + five Most Popular Rising Stars awards
You get the picture.
The somehow under-qualified
Now for the most complicated part: why some artistes didn't make the cut altogether.
We noted one major change in the eligibility criteria for the popularity awards, which was made in 2023.
For the 2022 edition of the Star Awards, artistes would only need to fulfil one of these four criteria:
- Have a valid term contract with Mediacorp during the qualifying period (Jan. 1 - Dec. 31 of the year before the awards are held)
- Had a lead role or main host in at least one eligible programme
- Had a supporting role or was an episodic host in at least three eligible programmes
- Appeared in a total of 30 episodes across all eligible programmes
The first option, as bolded above, was removed since 2023.
Instead, artistes would have to be actively involved in Mediacorp productions to qualify for this year's awards.
Here are some objectively popular artistes who didn't make the list:
Jin Yinji
Photo from Jin Yinji's Instagram
Many have started looking forward to seeing Jin Yinji at Star Awards after her emotional win at the 2018 edition of the Star Awards.
Unfortunately, she didn't work on enough Mediacorp projects last year to make the cut. Neither did Paige Chua and Xu Bin.
Paige Chua
Photo from Paige Chua's Instagram
Xu Bin
Photo from Xu Bin's Instagram
Lawrence Wong & Glenn Yong
Photo from Lawrence Wong's Instagram
Photo from Glenn Yong's Instagram
It's been a while since we've seen Lawrence Wong and Glenn Yong on local TV, despite their respective levels of popularity both in Singapore and abroad.
They didn't make the list because they weren't in any Mediacorp dramas which aired in 2023.
We said this last year, and we'll say it again: mayhaps the rules will change again next year — there's only one way to find out.
Top photos from Zoe Tay, Rebecca Lim & Lawrence Wong's respective Instagram accounts