'Do you want a shortcut?' Celest Chong back in Singapore, recalls being offered alternate path to success in the past

Success always requires sacrifice, but what kind of sacrifice will you choose?

Local singer-actress Celest Chong expressed to the media in April that she would be returning to Singapore for good after spending 13 years in Canada, and it has now become reality. Recently, she spoke to Shin Min Daily News about why she left Singapore, her past challenges, and opened up about her future plans.

"Do you want a shortcut? What are you willing to sacrifice?" she recalled that she was once asked these questions when she first became a singer.

Thinking it was meaningless to become a singer this way, she rejected the offer: "I still sleep soundly with my decision today."

Celest was previously signed to SPH Mediaworks and when it merged with Mediacorp in 2004, she joined the latter but left after three months.

She did not give a public explanation for her departure and later released her third and fourth album while in Taiwan.

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Since marrying a Canadian in 2010, Celest has lived in Toronto, but her marriage ended in 2021.

Celest elaborated: "When my contract (with Mediacorp) ended, it was not renewed, and I did not receive an explanation. I left not because I wanted to give up on everything in Singapore, but I needed to find a way to survive.

"Singapore is forever my hometown, the place in which I had grown up and been nurtured, so my heart has always been here!"

She added that she is currently in discussion for different modes of performances like hosting and acting.

Sharing that she is not picky about the script either, she said: "There is no bad script, most importantly I care about whether my performance is up to standard."

'Whether an artiste is popular or not, they may still get picked on'

Celest also recounted hurdles in her career.

"I had to deal with things calmly when I encountered unreasonable parties. Whether an artiste is popular or not, they may still get picked on," she expressed thoughtfully.

Once, she remembered that she was filming on a cliff and the crew asked her to go as close to the edge as possible, yet they had not bought insurance for her, and she felt that it was risky as she might have fallen down the cliff.

Celest also shared that on another occasion, when she was a model, she soaked in the water for up to 18 hours - first the swimming pool then the sea - and could only return to the shore when the crew gave her permission, and didn't have rest time. As the water was shallow, her body suffered abrasions against underwater rocks.

"When I got up, my arms and legs were full of injuries," she said.

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Celest had also hurt her spine and neck during the filming of a charity show, but was asked to remain quiet about it: "I even paid for my own medical bills."

"There are many challenges in life, and failures just make us stronger. Even if I cried, I refused to let my tears affect the filming," she concluded.

Celest's acting debut was in local director Eric Khoo's Stories About Love (2000). Subsequently, she appeared in local dramas like You Light Up My Life (2001), Together Whenever (2003), Zero (2004) and Your Hand in Mine (2009).

She also appeared in the DC series Titans (2018) and Netflix series The Umbrella Academy (2019). In November 2021, she received the best actress award at The Great Canadian Sci Fi Film Fest for her role in the short fantasy film Moore's Void.

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jolynn.chia@asiaone.com