Star Awards 2016: Top 10 loss leaves Romeo Tan ‘disappointed but touched’

SINGAPORE — For every single week since voting began, Romeo Tan has successfully found himself in the weekly Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes rankings, which gave us enough confidence to place him in our prediction feature’s “shoo-in” section.

This is why we — and many others — were shocked when the beloved duke failed to take home a trophy last night.

In an interview during the Star Awards Post-Show Party, Tan was candid about his disappointment. “Since I knew I wouldn’t win Best Actor, I placed my hope in the Top 10, so to not win makes me feel quite sad,” he admitted.

His loss was made even more painful by the fact that Romeo had planned to dedicate his award as a Mother’s Day present to his mum. “I won’t say anything when I go home, I’ll wait for my next chance (to give an acceptance speech),” he said.

However, a silver lining came in the form of the overwhelming support from his fellow artistes, who rushed to comfort him. All-Time Favourite Artiste Qi Yuwu and his wife Joanne Peh, who is next to graduate after winning her tenth Top 10 trophy last week, told him not to worry as they have also experienced losing in this category.

“Tonight, I’m disappointed but touched at the same time,” he said, before paying tribute to his loyal supporters (who must be pretty upset right now). “My heart hurts when I think about my fans who have worked hard to vote for me, and I’m very thankful to them.”

Other hopefuls who failed to get into the Top 10 include Pornsak and Shaun Chen, who both won last year.

Romeo’s good friend Elvin Ng, however, has much to celebrate about, as he will finally join the ranks of the All-Time Favourite Artistes with his tenth Top 10 win.

“I feel like a load has been taken off my shoulders, and my fans don’t have to keep voting for me anymore,” he said. “I also feel a bit sad because I wish Romeo and Pornsak could have gone up with me because they’re both very popular as well. But if you look at it logically, it’s better that I get my last award to get it over and done with, then they can play the game!”

He did make sure to check up on Romeo when they met each other backstage. “I asked him if he’s okay and I told him, ‘It’s a game lah.’”

When asked if he worked extra hard to ensure his inclusion in the Top 10, Elvin revealed that he made ten calls for himself as a way of self-encouragement — not that he would have needed it anyway, given the proven tenacity and dedication of his fan club.

“In the past ten years, the overwhelming love from the audience has been exceptional,” he gushed. “The reason I said ‘thank you for loving the imperfect me’ on stage is because I’m not the most typical artiste, I dare to be raw and unpolished, so thank you for accepting me.”

To celebrate, Elvin prepared roses and chocolates for his fan club. “Last week they gave me 99 roses, and I was like, ‘Shouldn’t I be the one giving you flowers?’” TOGGLE.SG

The original story first appeared in http://www.toggle.sg