In a phone interview after the press conference announcing the Top 40 Most Popular shortlist, Chantalle Ng, 26, shared that she’s “really, really grateful” to have received multiple nominations for this year’s Star Awards.

The actress is up for a total of five, to be exact — the Best Actress award, Best Theme Song award, Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes award, as well as the Favourite CP and The Female Show Stealer awards, the latter two part of the newly launched MY PICK! Awards, held exclusively during Backstage Live.

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  1 of 4Let the voting begin!

  Oh, and did we mention that she’s actually nominated twice for the Favourite CP award, having landed nods for My Star Bride alongside Xu Bin, and Live Your Dreams alongside Glenn Yong ?

  Whew. And this is only the second Star Awards ceremony she’s attending.

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  2 of 4She's got youth

  Nonetheless, after last year’s upset, where Chantalle walked away empty-handed despite being a favourite to win her first Top 10 trophy, the actress is just a little more cautious when asked about her odds of winning.

  "Honestly, I think after last year, this year, if there's a chance to go up, I'll be very happy,” she said modestly.

  Chantalle should also be glad to know that she’s already earned the distinction of being the youngest artiste to make the Top 40 Most Popular nominee list.

  When we helpfully pointed it out to her, her first reaction was shock. “Oh, even when you include the male artistes [as well]?” she asked rather incredulously.

  "I think that, you know, actually,” she mused, “[Being the youngest nominee this year] might be to my advantage.

  "'Cos maybe my fans would be around my age, and more familiar with online voting? I don't know, I'm just throwing out my thoughts here," she laughed.

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  3 of 4From left to right: He Yingying, Bonnie Loo, Ayden Sng, Zhang Zetong

  Chantalle also expressed surprise after realising that a number of her peers were absent from the nominee list.

  “I noticed that a lot of my friends, the ones who are my age, they're not in [the nominee list]. A lot of them, like [He] Yingying, Bonnie [Loo], Ayden [Sng], [Zhang] Zetong," she said.

  "I'm also aware that this… [list] it changes every year, and even for myself, I wouldn't think that it's a guarantee for any of us to be nominated. And so I just hope that you know, in the near future, maybe, next year, they would have the chance to get nominated too,” she said.

  Aside from notable snubs and surprises, another observation that media and netizens alike made was that this year’s list seemed to be very respectful towards veteran artistes.

  Over at 8days.sg, we did some number crunching and we realize the Star Awards is certainly not ageist:

  The average age of the Top 40 nominees is 47.2.

  For the Top 20 Most Popular Female Artistes, the average age evens out at 44.65, while the average age for the Top 20 Most Popular Male Artistes ended up a little higher, at 49.75.

  Here’s wishing Chantalle the best of luck at making it to the Top 10 among the Top 40s.

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  4 of 4Chantalle at the Star Awards last year

  Photos: Chantalle Ng/Instagram, Ayden Sng/Instagram, Bonnie Loo/Instagram, He Yingying/Instagram, Zhang Zetong/Instagram

  Online voting for the MY PICK! Awards will commence here on March 11, 12pm and end on April 10, 11.59pm.

  Catch the Backstage LIVE event of Star Awards 2022 from 3.30pm - 10.30pm on meWATCH or Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube Channel on April 24 (Sunday).

  The Walk Of Fame will be from 5pm - 6.30pm, on meWATCH, Ch 8, Ch U, and Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube Channel on the same day.

  It will be followed by the main Star Awards 2022 Awards Ceremony from 7pm - 10pm on meWATCH, Ch 8, Ch U, and Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube Channel.

  The repeat telecast for the Walk of Fame and Award Ceremony will air on Ch 8 from 2pm - 6.30pm on May 1 (Sunday).