“They asked me to be on the show last year but I turned it down ’cos I was busy filming. It was impossible to fly back and forth between Singapore and China. They asked me again this year, and I thought it was really nice of them to ask a second time. I decided to give it a shot. Why should I turn down the opportunity, right?”

“It’s my biggest hurdle, personally. I want to be able to communicate fluently in Mandarin, and this is a good time to sharpen those language skills. I’ve been watching a lot of Chinese TV series and variety shows to improve. The rate of my learning has been kicked up by, like, 1,000 times. I used to learn one Mandarin song every two to three days, but these days, I learn Mandarin songs in one to two hours.”

“The craziest thing is the public attention. ’Cos of the show, I have people stopping me randomly on the streets in Singapore to wish me good luck. This morning, I was going for a jog, and two older ladies stopped me to get a picture. People wish me luck at the grocery store, at the bank, everywhere. It’s been a surreal past few days.”

On singing a mash-up of Desperado by the Eagles and Mandarin classic Love Without End: “We wanted to approach a classic because so far, we’ve done newer songs, so we wanted to try something evergreen, but make it a bit modern. ‘Desperado’ is also quite a well-known song in China and I’ve been doing pretty obscure things. When the results came up, I started to get nervous. It took five minutes for everything to sink in.”

“It would be a waste not to (expand into China) but it’s been so busy and kind of hectic lately, I’ve been ignoring a bunch of offers. I just want to wait for everything to cool down first. I’m also working on new English music which should be out by the end of the year. I’m still an indie musician now, but this year’s plans may change rapidly after this. We’ll see where it all goes.”

“It’s not like I’m not making friends with the other contestants, but with the communication issue, I tend to hit a wall with the relationships over there. I can’t have a conversation like I’m having here now. I can convey basic ideas and describe things, but it’s missing the nuance, personality and character. I always feel like I’m lost in translation and half of me is somewhere else, so I appreciate the short trips home where I can let off some steam.”

“I was a little terrified because I had lost my voice and was completely unable to sing the week prior (to the “battle” round of the show). Thankfully, on the day itself, everything kind of fell into place. I had my voice, I didn’t forget the lyrics, which is a huge deal for me as it’s in Mandarin, and I did what I set out to do on stage.”

“The first interaction I had with him was on FaceTime and Skype because he was on tour. I was a bit apprehensive at first because I wondered if (our sessions) would be like this the whole time. But once things really got rolling, I got to see him more often. He’s very collaborative. He would always ask for my opinion first and he would make song suggestions. But if I disagreed, he would be cool and try to cater to me based on my choice.”

“I expected it to be more intimidating but when I was on stage, I didn’t feel a huge amount of pressure. The judges are very warm and nice. It was scarier when they hadn’t pressed the buzzer and I couldn’t see them yet. Na Ying is very sweet. I didn’t know what to do (when she hugged me). Yeah, Jay Chou wiped the sweat off my forehead. I’ll keep that tissue forever!”

“I’m having a blast and it has been a real education. I can’t wait to come back and share how much I’ve grown through my music. (My chances of winning are) not very high. I honestly didn’t think I was going to get this far and it blows my mind. That said, I’m still going to go up there and do all I can to kill it. If I win, I will rent a fleet of Milo vans and treat everybody to Milo peng (iced Milo).”