KUCHING, Jan 14: The prestigious 23rd Asian Television Awards (ATA) ended in style as various top Asian artistes took to the stage for ATA’s Sundown Concert at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) here on Sunday (Jan 13, 2019).
The exhilarated crowd of more than 1,000 filled the main hall at the convention centre to witness these artistes perform on Sarawak soil for the first time.
The ATA Sundown Concert began with a performance from local Sarawakian band Pinanak Sentah.
Pinanak Sentah is a family band comprising mostly of students. The youngest in the group is 12-years-old.
“Pinanak” means family in the Bidayuh language, while “Sentah” is the name of a place in Siburan, some 30km from Kuching City.
Their aim is to educate the younger generation on traditional style music through contemporary modern fusion style, while assuring the older generation that tradition is still very much alive among the young.
Then, it was renown Malaysian singer Winnie K who took to the stage to belt out one of her popular songs.
Full name Winnie Kok Mui Kuan, she was born on March 16,1982 in Raub, Pahang, and was a Good Asian Champion in 1992.
She has produced three Mandarin music albums and her first Malay album was produced with Ajai recently.
K-pop boyband SF9 who followed after sent the crowd wild.
SF9 (Sensational Feeling 9) is a South Korean boy group formed by FNC Entertainment. SF9 is the company’s first dance boy group and debuted on October 5, 2016 with the release of their first single album, Feeling Sensation.
Its members are Youngbin, Inseong, Jaeyoon, Dawon, Zuho, Rowoon, Taeyang, Hwiyoung and Chani.
The next performer who took to the stage was Indonesian singer Via Vallen, who performed three of her best songs including “Sayang”.
Via, real name Maulidia Octavia, was born on October 1, 1991. She is a well known Dangdut singer in Indonesia. Her stage name Vallen is derived from Evanescence’s first album ‘Fallen’.
Her single “Sayang” is her most popular song having reached more than 100 million views on YouTube, making it the second most viewed Indonesian music video of 2017.
She also sang the 2018 Asian Games theme song “Meraih Bintang”.
She handed the stage over to Trong Hieu from Vietnam, who became famous following a stint in Germany.
Full named Nguyen Trong Hieu, he was born on July 4, 1992 in the city of Bad Kissingen, Germany. He is not only is a singer but also a dancer and actor.
He won Dance4Fans in Germany and Europe, and won Vietnam Idol 2015.
Next, Qu Wanting showcased her multiple talents on the ATA stage, alternating between playing piano and guitar while singing.
Born on October 10, 1983 she is a Chinese-born singer-songwriter and pianist who is now based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
In 2009, she became the first Chinese artist to be signed to the Nettwerk label. Her first album “Everything in the World” (produced by Winston Hauschild and jointly released with Universal Music China in 2012) went platinum in China within its first week on sale, and her singles “You Exist in My Song” and “Drenched” were used in the soundtrack for the Hong Kong film ‘Love in the Buff’.
In 2013, she became the first ever tourism ambassador for Vancouver, with the intention of raising Canada’s profile among destinations for Chinese visitors.
Qu appeared on the 2013 CCTV New Year’s Gala, where she performed “You Exist in My Song”. The song “Star in You” from the album ‘Everything in the World’ was featured in ‘Degrassi: The Next Generation’ in the episode “Bitter Sweet Symphony, Part II” on February 22, 2013.
On October 26, 2015, while making her third album, Qu released her new English single “Love Birds” on her YouTube channel.
Following Qu was renown Malaysian singer-actor Alvin Chong.
Alvin Chong Chean Wah, born on January 23, 1991 became famous after being featured in a reality singing show Astro Star Quest.
He is now signed under 360 Universal Music Malaysia recording studio.
The closing of the concert was graced by the Philippines’ father-daughter artistes Gary and Kiana Valenciano.
Edgardo Jose “Gary” Santiago Valenciano, born on August 6, 1964, also known as Gary V and Mr Pure Energy, is a multi-award winning Filipino-Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, musician, actor, music producer and TV host.
Valenciano has released 39 albums and won the Awit Awards (Song Awards) for “Best Male Performer” twelve times. In 1998, he became the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Philippines’ first National Ambassador, a title he continues to hold.
He is currently part of the ABS-CBN stable of contract artists, having been a mainstay of the Sunday noontime musical variety show ‘ASAP’ and the noontime, weekday singing contest segment of ‘It’s Showtime’. He is frequently tapped to sing theme songs for the network’s soap operas and in-house film arm, Star Cinema.
Valenciano was given the ASAP Elite Platinum Circle Award several times for his achievements in the local music industry. In his 34 years in the music industry, he has been awarded multi-platinum recording awards for most of his full-length studio albums.
His daughter Kiana, born on December 21, 1992, is a social media star popular on Twitter and Instagram.
Before fame she made her first appearances in 2012 on episodes of ‘The X Factor Philippines’ and ‘Sarah G Live’.
In 2012 she launched her self-titled lifestyle blog and in 2015 moved to the new blog Kiana Vee.
She learned the tricks of the music trade — singing — from her father, and produced several singles over the last five years including ‘Caught U’, ‘Misfits’, ‘Buzz’n’ and ‘Grey’. — DayakDaily
