If you are a hardcore fan of Project Superstar 2 female winner Tan Diya and somehow landed at this Youth.SG article because you googled her, it’s okay, it’s never too late to start coming to Youth.SG!

Tan Diya is one of the seven ambassadors for Youth.SG’s own self-awareness campaign on what motivates you in life: FEED ME (hint: click campaign name for more information). The other six ambassadors are director Boo Junfeng, idol Joakim Gomez, 98.7FM deejay Rosalyn Lee and indie bands The Fire Fight, West Grand Boulevard and King Kong Jane.

Each week, we will feature each of the seven ambassadors just so you get a clearer picture of who they are, where they are coming from and what their motivation means to them.

This campaign is all about reaching out to youth, urging them to spend some time to think of what it is that truly motivates them in life. Oh boy, and have we been reaching out! You can find evidence of us reaching out to you(th) at tertiary institutions here.

The girl with the big voice (Diya, not me) trekked down to Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s open house a couple of weeks back along with the Youth.SG team. While the team was busy manning the booth and enticing youth with freebies in exchange for their motivation, Diya sang her heart out on stage (and in our humble and totally biased opinion, outsinging another prolific SuperStar that day!) and directing traffic in the direction of Youth.SG’s FEED ME booth.

An interesting observation the Youth.SG team made from the many roadshows is that some of us seemed rather reluctant to pen down your motivations. So are we clueless or shy? 

Our petite ambassador reasons: “I think a lot of people are very worried to share their motivation. They think it’s like very cliché, like it’s nothing philosophical. Every little thing can motivate you. Just simply the fact that ‘I like to eat’, or ‘Oh I want to earn a lot of money’.

Just share it and nobody’s going to laugh at you for it. Just spend a little bit of time to just think (about) what motivates (you) in life? It’s very important. It’ll bring you through a much longer journey ahead.”

It seems pretty obvious right off the bat that the 23-year-old singer knows just what motivates her in life. She spent quite some time thinking about the single motivation that she wanted to share with the rest of the youth out there:

“Sometimes I feel weak and unable to carry on. But when I think of the people who have placed their hopes in me, my feet feel lighter and I walk with more gusto.”

This motivation is one that she feels will stick throughout her entire life. Diya is a strong believer of always looking at the positive. She always finds that single white lining among the dark clouds: “Whenever I have a setback, I think it’s very important that I receive positive feedback at the same time. So because of this positivity, I feel that there’s something more that I can believe and hold on to, (so) I will push on.”

Even with all her fame and fans waiting round the block just for a picture with her (Writer’s note: we witnessed that!), Diya not only has no airs, her warmth and friendly-level makes you instantly feel at ease with her.

When this writer asked her about her plans after the campaign, she replied, “I’m thinking of settling down with my boyfriend and getting married and probably giving birth to two kids,” in all seriousness before bursting out laughing.

In the eyes of the public, the singer might come across as bubbly and cheery all the time but Diya claims that, “Only my close friends know that I’m not really who people think I am.” She also added that she “draws a lot of energy from crowds,” which is why she is horrible in karaoke and phenomenal on stage as “the energy level onstage is way up.”

That was probably why Diya never knew she could sing until she joined a singing competition in Junior College and breezed her way to the top. It also helped that she has a bunch of really supportive friends who believed in her and encouraged her to join Project SuperStar and even went to the extent of standing in line for her.

“I never went there thinking that I will get in, I just went there and I enjoyed every moment of it. How far I could have gone, I think it really is just thank god la. And I met a lot of good friends in SuperStar and I think I will never forget this experience.”

As much as Project SuperStar was a huge success two years back, Diya is well aware that her “shelf life is only going to be this long.” She is also constantly working hard and doing “stuff that sets (her) apart from just being a Project SuperStar contestant.” Someday, she hopes that people will not only remember her as “Project SuperStar Chen Diya” but also as something else.

Perhaps, as she puts it, “a full fledged singer”? JS
 
See more of Tan Diya on our official FEED ME page, click.
To download wallpapers of our 7 ambassadors, click.

Catch the interview with West Grand Boulevard next week.

joyce[a]youth.sg

 

Joyce says go to FEEDME.youth.sg now!