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Nathan Hartono unfazed by hate on Chinese social media

Over the last few months, Nathan Hartono has received overwhelming support from his fans in Singapore on his progress at Chinese reality singing competition Sing! China. But netizens on Chinese social media have not been as kind.

Singaporean singer-songwriter Nathan Hartono is working hard with Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou to prepare for the biggest show of his life, which willl include a rap in Mandarin. Photo: Hon Jing Yi

Singaporean singer-songwriter Nathan Hartono is working hard with Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou to prepare for the biggest show of his life, which willl include a rap in Mandarin. Photo: Hon Jing Yi

SINGAPORE — Over the last few months, Nathan Hartono has received overwhelming support from his fans in Singapore, who have cheered him on as he made it through each round of Chinese reality singing competition Sing! China. But netizens on Chinese social media have not been as kind.
“Chinese social media is very, very interesting. The amount of hate online I get is very very...it’s an overwhelming amount of hate,” the Singaporean singer said in a phone interview with TODAY from Beijing. “Well, not overwhelming — it’s equal parts support and hate, but it’s expected when the show is broadcasted to so many people, you’ll have a few bad apples.”

“It doesn’t really affect me, and I don’t look too deeply into it,” he continued. “If anything, it’s kind of interesting to see the difference in internet culture. In Singapore, you get a bunch of haters, and you get a lot of people putting out hate comments, but they tend to be more on the tame side. Over here, it’s more of like you are trash, go back to Singapore, you’re horrible, or you paid to get in. It’s really imaginative stuff, but I personally enjoy internet hate, because I understand where it comes from,” he said.

“I don’t believe they are out to hurt people — I don’t believe they are malicious or anything. I think it’s more of a response to the world around them and they just want to be noticed. I reply them every once in a while, I like their comments every once in a while, but it doesn’t really faze me that much.”
Rather than focus on negative comments online, Hartono says he will spend the next few days preparing for his last performance on the show, where he will perform a song with Mandarin pop superstar Jay Chou, who is Hartono’s mentor and one of the judges in the competition. The 25-year-old, who attained the highest score during the semi-finals episode of the show, is the only member of Chou’s team to qualify for the finals, and will face off against five other finalists at the finals held at Beijing National Stadium on Friday (Oct 7).

“I can’t say too much of the song (we will be performing together) but I can tell you that I have to do a rap in Chinese, so that is a huge challenge. That part I am a bit shaky on but I am working very hard on it,” Hartono said. “One thing with Jay is he is very easy-going and very chill, so you forget that he is one of the most famous people in the world. It’s just a really fun time on stage with him.”

Over the next few days, Hartono will be focusing on memorising lyrics for the songs he will be performing at the final, getting enough rest and readying himself for a venue that has “seats beyond the eye can see”.

“To be honest, I am usually very relaxed (when I perform on the show), mostly because I always think it’s my last time on stage,” Hartono said. “It’s like, why be nervous? It’s a waste of time to be nervous on stage. The amount of time on stage as opposed to the rest of your life is the tiniest fraction, so why waste time being scared? Just go up there and try whatever — it could mess up and people might not like it, but at least you tried something.”

And hopefully when he comes back to Singapore, he will be able to celebrate a job well done with a round of Milo for everyone.

“That is still hilarious to me,” said Hartono, who had said jokingly in an interview that he planned to treat Singaporeans to iced Milo if he won, prompting Nestle to respond that the company would give out free Milo regardless of whether he wins. “Just tell us where, we bring the van,” it said on its Facebook page.

“I have no idea what is going on with that thing. I figured I am just going to leave it until I take proper action. I am just going to let it grow by itself and see what happens,” he said.

“I need to strategise a bit, but (I’ll probably ask Nestle to put the truck) at places with a lot of foot traffic. You want to get the people to go there.”

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