SINGAPORE — With her popularity exploding in the past year, young Hong Kong pop star G.E.M. has legions of fans all over the world. But the ones who amuse her the most are her “auntie” fans. After all, we must assume anyone would be thrilled to see a posse of aunties line-dancing to their songs.

When she started out at the age of 16, she said the people she was influencing were young fans or students. “And I’ve always hoped to be able to give them positive energy through my music. Now that I’ve grown up a bit, my fan base has widened; 40- and 50-year-old aunties listen to my music, too,” she said.

Known as the “Chinese Taylor Swift” for her catchy tunes and penchant for writing breakup songs, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter shot to fame after her stint in last year’s Chinese reality singing competition show I Am A Singer, which pits established singers against each other. G.E.M. stands for Get Everybody Moving; her real name is Gloria Tang.

So, are her auntie fans especially rabid? “They are very enthusiastic,” she said with a chuckle. “Sometimes I run into them — at the airport, for example — and they go, ‘Oh, are you G.E.M.? Come take a photo with me! I sing your songs every time I go to the KTV’. I’ve also seen them line-dancing in a public square to my cover of I Like You.”

She finds their demonstrativeness “cute”, she said, laughing. “Young people can be quite shy, actually. When you’re young, you have a bit of ‘idol baggage’ (an expression referring to the excessive self-consciousness usually displayed by celebrities). Idol baggage isn’t just limited to idols, you know — everyone has it. But aunties — they really don’t care!”

And since she has cast aside the idol baggage she used to have, we supposed that puts her on the right side of auntie-dom. “I used to be afraid that people would find me different from my stage persona, but now I feel that both are me. So, I no longer care if people see me for who I am. I’m just a normal person,” she said.

G.E.M. had performed at Mediacorp’s Lions Charity Show 2016 on Sunday, in aid of the Lions Home for the Elders and the volunteers who work with the needy elderly. Her segment alone, during which she performed two of her hits, raised S$161,100 in telepoll donations.

“I hope that by coming here to perform, I can encourage people to show concern for the elderly in their lives,” she said. “They really need (this), and that can be as simple as lending them a listening ear.”

So would she still be Getting Everybody Moving when she is 80 years old? “Yeah, I hope so. If I could still be getting my grandchildren moving, that would be quite nice,” she said with a laugh.

For now, though, with her whole life ahead of her, there are two things she’s waiting to try: Diving in Iceland and beatboxing. The latter is something she has always wanted to learn. “The similarity between beatboxing and singing is that you are using your vocal cords as an instrument, but the hard part is to be able to have a beat and sing at the same time.” May Seah