Surprise Top 10 winner Chen Ning says DJs are at an advantage during Star Awards “because they [can] get people to support [them] every day”

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“I don’t have outstanding looks and I don’t have any exceptional talent, I’m just a regular girl who really likes radio broadcast,” said YES 933 DJ Chen Ning, 31, during her humble acceptance speech for her first Top 10 Most Popular Female Artiste Award at Marina Bay Sands last night (Apr 9).

The jock, along with her The Daka Show co-hosts, Jeff Goh and Gao Mei Gui had an extremely fruitful night at the awards show, where they all walked away with an award each.

When 8days.sg caught up with an extremely bubbly Chen Ning after her win, we of course had to ask her about how she was planning to celebrate the special occasion - firsts are always memorable, after all.

“I’m going to drink some red wine! Immediately! I got it in the hotel room already,” she said with a hearty laugh.

We totally understand why Chen Ning appeared so relieved, though. Both Mei Gui and Jeff had already received their awards by the time the Top 10 Females list was announced, so one could only imagine the pressure she faced to also clinch hers.

“I hate [being last], I was very nervous,” sighed Chen Ning. “To be honest, I was pressured, because I had a bad feeling that I wouldn't get [the award] and I’ll be the only one of the three without a trophy. Oh my gosh, I didn’t wanna be sore about it, I’d be happy for them, but a little sad as well [if I was left out]. So it’s really nice that all three of us got this.”

Though Chen Ning did not have high expectations for the win, she reveals that the support from her listeners have been “enough to [make her] feel like [she] is already a winner”.

When asked if she was aware of her popularity prior to receiving the award, she let out another loud chuckle as she said: “No, of course not!”

“I mean, I think ‘popular’ is quite subjective right? I think we are [popular] among our listeners, but I’m not too sure if that’s the case for people [who don’t really listen to the radio]. But this is actually a good chance for them to know that radio can be fun, and it’s not like the traditional media that we all know, it’s really interesting!” the champion advocate (we must say) continued.

Chen Ning is one of two female DJs who made it into the coveted Top 10 spot, with the other being Love 972’s Chen Biyu. So what does she think this will mean for other DJs in the future?

“This is just very evident that radio is very much alive and I’m very thankful for that. I think we are also at an advantage because we [can] get people to support us every single day. Yeah, I think it’s great. I think we’re very fortunate to have such a platform to let people know more about us,” she said with a grin.

Watch Chen Ning's winning moment below:

Photos: Mediacorp Photo Studio, The Daka Show/ Instagram

Catch up on the Star Awards 2023 on meWATCH here.