How Hong Kong singer-actress Ivana Wong blazed trail to stardom - but 'success comes at a price'
First as a singer, now more of an actress, Ivana Wong is at the top of her game, and, as Vanessa Yung writes, it's all a big surprise to her
Ivana Wong Yuen-chi is clearly on a roll as both a singer-songwriter and an actress. At her sold-out Coliseum concerts last year, the usually demure Wong impressed fans with a sexy pole dance routine, and then went on to pick up best supporting actress and best newcomer gongs at the Hong Kong Film Awards in April for her convincing turn as a mainland prostitute in Golden Chickensss (one of the four movies she appeared in last year). Last month, she brought the house down in W Theatre's stage musical Little Hong Kong Season 5. And on Thursday (September 3), she will return to the big screen, playing an undercover police officer in Love Detective.
As if that weren't enough, Wong will make her debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra on October 16-17 for a pops concert that reunites her with long-time collaborator and former classmate Alex Fung Hon-ming. Wong, 36, has grown into that rare artist who can shuttle comfortably between acting and singing and between pop, classical and other musical forms. She is as confident in front of a movie camera as she is commanding on a stage.
But if she's conscious of her growing versatility - and popularity - there's no sign of it. For the moment, Wong, whose parents are both classical singers, is more focused on preparing for her concert with the Philharmonic than charting her rise to stardom.
The singer was so thrilled when the orchestra suggested a collaboration, she said yes straight away. She quickly called Fung to see if he could join her on the project. Wong, celebrating her 10th year in show business, says she and Fung have created much of the music in her repertoire together.
She describes her upcoming show with the Philharmonic as "a dream coming true"; that's because, for the first time, her compositions will be performed by professional musicians in a proper setting and scale. Titled Fragrance of Music, the concert aims to take audiences on a journey down memory lane.
"Music is therapeutic, just like flowers. Flowers bring you memories, and I believe music does the same thing," says Wong. "We're going to divide the concert into chapters, and each is represented by a scent. The audience won't actually smell anything, but I believe all senses are connected in a way.