Star Awards
The Star Awards is an annual ceremony held in Singapore where the media organisation Mediacorp recognises entertainers under their employment for outstanding performances of the year. Mediacorp first presented in 1994 took place at the Caldecott Broadcast Centre, MediaCorp TV Theatre hosted by Chen Shucheng and Yvette Tsui.
The 25th Star Awards ceremony, honoring best Television of 2018 will be held on April 14, 2019, at the Mediacorp Campus, MES Theatre @ Mediacorp. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Toggle, Mediacorp Channel 8 and Mediacorp Channel U. The Nominees were announced on February 8, 2019, Friday.
History
The 1st Star Awards presentation was held on 26 February 1994, took place at the Caldecott Broadcast Centre, MediaCorp TV Theatre with an audience of about 500 people. There have no other pre-show and post-awards ceremony held in that year. Winners were announced during the presentation of the ceremony, the ceremony also presented a popularity contest, with Li Nanxing, Chew Chor Meng and Zoe Tay winning the Most Popular Actor and Actress award, respectively.At the Inaugural Star Awards ceremony in 1994; Chew Chor Meng, Li Nanxing, Terence Cao, Sean Say, and Desmond Sim received the award as the Top 5 Most Popular Male Artistes award while Chen Liping, Chen Xiuhuan, Pan Lingling, Aileen Tan, and Zoe Tay received the award as the Top 5 Most Popular Female Artistes and it is given in honour of Mediacorp artistes who were deemed as the top five most popular among the television audience. The nominees and winners are determined and selected by a majority vote from the public via telephone and SMS text voting. Between 1994–1996, only the top five male artistes were given the award.
Also, The Unbeatables received the award and it is given in honour of a Mediacorp drama serial which has delivered an outstanding overall performance. The nominees are determined by a team of judges employed by Mediacorp; winners are selected by a majority vote from the entire judging panel.
Since 1994, the ceremony used a sealed envelope to reveal the name of the winners, as in tradition of most award ceremonies.
Institutions
The first Best Actress awarded was Fann Wong, in her performances in Chronicle of Life as Fang Ling 方玲 in the drama. Fann Wong is the first leading actress who have won this award since the awards was introduced in the 1995 ceremony. At the same ceremony; Li Nanxing received the award for his role in Wounded Tracks and it is given in honour of a Mediacorp actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role. Also, Zhu Xiufeng received the award for her supporting role in Chronicle of Life and it is given in honour of a Mediacorp actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role in the 2nd year of the Star Awards ceremony.Between 1995 and 2003, the Special Achievement Award is given to one artiste who have made significant contributions in the performance of his/her respective field of profession over the past few years. The award was discontinued in 2004 until it revived again in 2018 with Marcus Chin receiving the award. Also, each ceremony ends with the Best Actor and Actress award, but recent ceremonies' last award would be Top 10 Most Popular Male or Female Artistes award, a popularity contest open for all nominated Mediacorp Artistes.
Beginning in the 1998 ceremony, the variety categories were introduced in the awards, and variety programmes, as well as the artistes playing a role in these programmes were now made eligible; these includes Sitcoms, Variety Programme Hosts, and Variety Special. For the first time in the awards' history, Technical Categories were also presented, but they were taped outside the ceremony on a separate date, and presented on a clip montage due to time constraints; these practice would later be done on later years except for 2010-15, where it was done on a single show instead. The 2000 ceremony further added awards in recognition to News and Current Affairs team and the Top Rated Drama Serial and Variety Programme.
Beginning in the 2004 ceremony, the All-Time Favourite Artiste Award was introduced in the place of Special Achievement Award. Chew Chor Meng, Li Nanxing and Zoe Tay received the award after winning the Top 10 Most Popular Male or Female Artistes award from 1994–2003. It is given in honour of an artiste who has won the Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes or Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes for ten times. Artistes who receive the award will no longer be eligible for the running of the respective Top 10 Most Popular Male or Female Artistes awards from that particular year onwards, allowing younger MediaCorp artistes have a chance to win the popularity awards as well. 21 artistes had won the All-Time Favourite Artiste award since its award inception, and it have been awarded in almost every year except 2007, 2013 and 2018.
The ceremonies were held annually in April to honour television talents from works from the previous year; prior to the 2007 ceremony, the ceremony were held at the end of the year while there is no ceremony in 2008 due to a format change.
In the 2010 ceremony, held in 2010, introduced the six awards, Favourite Male Character, Favourite Female Character, Most Unforgettable TV Villain, Male Media Darling, Female Media Darling and Rocket Award. The first three awards were decided by online voting with the results being announced during the first ceremony. The Rocket Award was also introduced, which mainly focuses on the artiste who contributed the most improvement throughout the past year.
In 2014, the 20th Star Awards ceremony was held. The title of the Star Awards also short-formed to Star Awards 20 as a remarkable awards night. The first ceremony was held at the MediaCorp TV Theatre with the veteran artistes; Chen Shucheng who was the first Star Awards hosts came back as a co-hosts after 20 years hosting the first ceremony. Samuel Chong, Dasmond Koh, Vivian Lai, Lee Teng, Pornsak, Zhang Wei and Zhou Ruzhu and was held at the MediaCorp TV Theatre. Social Media Award and The Most Popular Regional Artiste Award were introduced at the ceremony. The second ceremony was held at Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre with hosts Guo Liang and Quan Yi Fong. As of the most recent ceremony, it was the last time the ceremony was held outside Mediacorp Studios.
2014 also saw a revision of quota towards the category, as categories requires at least ten nominations in order to be presented; this caused three awards, Best News Presenter, Best Current Affairs Presenter, and Best Newcomer, to be temporarily suspended. However, despite 8World had fulfilled the minimum quota of 10 nominations, these awards have yet to be presented since its last presentation in 2013, while Best Newcomer returned except for 2016 and 2017, both of which were not presented due to the same reason.
In 2015, both ceremony was held in 19 April 2015 and 26 April 2015. It's the last year that Mediacorp presented the awards at the venue of Caldecott Broadcast Centre, MediaCorp TV Theatre. Both ceremonies were held in the venue before moving to MediaCorp campus at 1 Stars Avenue for the next ceremony.
At the 2016 ceremony, the Professional and Technical awards have been moved to a backstage awards and also the last time it held a double ceremony. The online Favourite award categories were held for the final time, with Jeanette Aw nominated again for Favourite Female Character and Favourite Onscreen Couple. Aw won six voting-based awards in Show 1 in 2015 including three Most Popular Regional Artiste Awards, Social Media Award and Favourite Female Character award for her role in . Aw expressed her intention to be removed from the voting, but was rejected as Mediacorp said that the awards were determined though online voting, and still requiring her to participate. There was a change in lineup of the awards streamlined to 19 categories. A new category, 'Best Programme Host', was created with a merger of two hosting awards due to a similar presentation style in both the variety and info-ed programmes, as well as similar eligibility criteria. 'Best Evergreen Artiste', which was based on the performances for drama veterans, was also introduced in 2016.
At the 2017 ceremony, online voting categories were also streamlined, by putting more emphasis placed on the Top 10 Most Popular Artiste awards, while the Favourite Male and Female Character, and Favourite Onscreen Couple awards, as well as Social Media Award were dropped due to the change. Due to the switch in measuring television viewership, the Top Rated Variety Programme and Top Rated Drama Serial awards were also suspended.
The 2018 ceremony saw revamps towards the Top 10 Popularity Awards, whereas a poll of 1,000 people representing a wide demographic across Singapore's population, were conducted independently by an accredited market research company, will be used to shortlist the nominations. The results of the poll weighed 50% towards the combined total, while the other 50% comes from the public vote. Eligibility criteria for performance and popularity categories were also revised; eligible artistes were now required to lead a role in a programme or play as a supporting role/assistant host in at least three eligible programmes or at least 30 episodes out of all eligible programmes, whichever applicable. Best Evergreen Artiste were also accessed on veteran artistes based on a full calendar year, as opposed to a single programme.
The 2019 and most recent ceremony, which celebrates the silver jubilee of the ceremony on 14 April 2019, introduced two categories to feature miniseries, which were the Best Short-form Drama Serial and Best Short-form Variety Programme.
The upcoming edition of the Star Awards 2020, initially scheduled to be held on 26 April 2020, would be postponed to the second half of 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This became the first ceremony in 13 years since the revision of the eligibility period in 2008 where the ceremony would not be held on the month of April.
Previously, technical category awards, newscaster and current affairs awards and, for a time, the Young Talent Award were held separately at a gala dinner due to time constraints and results and clips from the event would be shown either during the ceremony, or live-streaming before the ceremony. Between 2010 and 2015, and again in 2017, those technical awards were presented in Show 1, while the Show 2 presented the main awards. Since 2016, the format was reverted with the technical category awards presented at an off-site ceremony.
Trophy
The Star Awards trophy has seen four different designs, since its inception in 1994. In the first ceremony, The trophy was designed with a circular column and a star-shaped circle capping the top. This trophy only been used in only in this 1994 ceremony. Between 1995 until 1997 ceremony, the trophy was designed with a straight column topped and a gold star. This trophy had been used in three ceremonies. The trophy was changed to a cone-like shape with a bigger star in the ceremony of 1998 and 1999.Since 2000, A new trophy made in Shanghai was designed, weighing 4 kg and cost S$1,000 each. It is designed with a crystal body shaped in the letter "S", and from another angle, shaped in the letter "A", forming the initials of the "Star Awards". The trophy used to come in different colors every year.
Awards Ceremonies
Lists of award ceremonies
To date, 25 ceremonies were held, as summarised below:Multiple ceremonies hosted
The following individuals have hosted the Star Awards ceremony on two or more occasions.| Host | Number of Ceremonies |
| Guo Liang 郭亮 | 12 |
| Timothy Chao 曹启泰 | 8 |
| Quan Yi Fong 权怡凤 | 8 |
| Lee Teng 李腾 | 6 |
| Yvette Tsui 崔丽心 | 6 |
| Pornsak | 5 |
| Dasmond Koh 许振荣 | 4 |
| Vivian Lai 赖怡伶 | 4 |
| Dennis Chew 周重庆 | 3 |
| Chen Shucheng 陈澍承 | 2 |
| Chun Guek Lay 曾月丽 | 2 |
| Patty Hou 侯佩岑 | 2 |
| Michelle Chia 谢韵仪 | 2 |
| Kym Ng 鐘琴 | 2 |
| Wendy Xiaoying 曾晓英 | 1 |
| Cheng Di 程笛 | 1 |
| Matilda Tao 陶晶莹 | 1 |
| Sharon Au 欧菁仙 | 1 |
| Michelle Chong 庄米雪 | 1 |
| Bowie Tsang 曾宝仪 | 1 |
| Bryan Wong 王禄江 | 1 |
| Mark Lee 李国煌 | 1 |
Telecast
The major awards are presented at a live televised ceremony, commonly in April following the relevant calendar year in order to focus on the full calendar year; prior to the 2007 ceremony, the ceremony were held at the end of the year while there is no ceremony in 2008 due to a format change.2007 was the first ceremony to have a double ceremony, one that paid tribute to the 25th Anniversary of television, and a second ceremony being the normal ceremony. Between 2010 and 2015, the Professional and Technical awards were telecast and presented in the first show, and the main awards on the second, airing the following week. While the first show was still held at MediaCorp TV Theatre, the second show was, for the third time in Star Awards history, being held on the new location of Resorts World Sentosa, after 1996 and 2006. Both of the ceremonies were broadcast live on 18 and 25 April 2010. The post-show was held after the second ceremony at 10pm on Channel U.
In 2016, although the show was a two-part program, the technical awards was, for the first time since 2009, presented in an off-site non-televised presentation instead of being presented live in show 1. In their place, the main ceremony was also split into two shows, allowing to put more emphasis on mostly variety/info-ed award categories and drama award categories, for shows 1 and 2, respectively. The Post-show Party, airing after show 2, focuses on online voting award categories. For the first time in Star Awards history, the awards for the Top 10 Artistes were presented in separate shows instead of single show, with the female artistes awarded in show 1, and the male artistes on show 2.
At the 2017 ceremony, in a gap of eight installments since 2009, the ceremony was revert to one show, and the post-show party was scrapped. In-lieu of the "3+1" change, a three-episode weekly preludes aired on Sundays before the main ceremony. The preludes were removed in 2018.
With the merger of MediaCorp with SPH MediaWorks on 1 January 2005, nominees now include artistes and shows from MediaCorp Channel U, formerly MediaWork's Chinese language channel, and were broadcast for said channel since. Between 2010 and 2014, xinmsn provided its first online Live streaming for both the ceremony as well as backstage, and since 2013, Toggle. However, these streams were only viewable exclusive to Singapore. Starting from the 2019 ceremony, YouTube will also broadcast live streaming for the awards as well, and is viewable to the world.
Venues
In 1994, the first Star Awards were presented at the Caldecott Broadcast Centre, MediaCorp TV Theatre and the following year until 2015; however, seven ceremonies were held outside the studios: in 1996, the venue of Star Awards changed to World Trade Centre, Harbour Pavilion and was hosted by Guo Liang and Yvette Tsui. In 2006, the ceremony was held at St James Power Station, near VivoCity and Sentosa. Between 2010 and 2014, the ceremony was also held outside location while the show was split into two, with the first show held at Caldecott Hill, while the second show was held at Resorts World Sentosa, Marina Bay Sands and Suntec City.In 2016, the awards had since held at the new Mediacorp Campus, MES Theatre @ Mediacorp, and it became the presentation's current venue with incredibly spacious interior and stunning architectural designs, the 1,500-seater performance venue features tiered seating in its stalls and two circle levels, including removable seats at the lower stall and additional audience sitting space at the orchestra pit for your special needs.
Awards Categories
Current categories
Judged CategoriesPopularity Categories
Note: Before 1997, the number of recipients for the Most Popular Artistes were five.
Technical Categories
Note: All the categories were introduced in 1998, and these awards were presented outside broadcast except for 2010-2015, where it was presented on one show.
Discontinued Categories
A number of awards have either suspended or retired throughout the years, including some that have been replaced by similar award categories in other areas of recognition:Retired Categories
One-off Categories
- 40th Anniversary Evergreen Achievement Award 电视40长青奖
- Talented Artiste Award 多才多艺红星奖
- Honorary TV Award
Records
As of :Overall wins/nominations by a performer, program, etc.
;Most wins by a drama serial in a single year- The Dream Makers II 志在四方 II - 12
- The Dream Makers II 志在四方 II - 26
- Holland V 荷兰村 and The Dream Makers II 志在四方 II
- Chen Hanwei 陈汉玮 - 6
- Huang Biren 黄碧仁, Ivy Lee 李锦梅, Chen Liping 陈莉萍 and Zoe Tay 郑惠玉 - 3
- Christopher Lee 李铭顺 - 14
- Fann Wong 范文芳, Zoe Tay 郑惠玉 - 13
- Huang Yiliang 黄奕良 - 3
- Xiang Yun 向云 - 4
- Chen Shucheng 陈澍城 - 10
- Xiang Yun 向云 - 11
- Regene Lim 林咏谊 - 3
- Kelvin Tan 陈伟联 - 4
- Fann Wong 范文芳 - 6
- Love On A Plate 名厨出走记 - 4
- Black Rose 爆料黑玫瑰 - 7
- City Beat 城人杂志, The Joy Truck 快乐速递, Say It If You Dare 有话好好说 and GeTai Challenge 歌台星力量 - 2
- City Beat 城人杂志 - 6
- Tuesday Report 星期二特写 - 5
- Tuesday Report 星期二特写 - 21
- Star Awards 红星大奖 and NKF Charity Show 群星照亮千万心 - 7
- Star Awards'' 红星大奖 - 19
- Sharon Au 欧菁仙, Mark Lee 李国煌 and Kym Ng 鐘琴 - 4
- Quan Yi Fong 权怡凤 - 6
- Mark Lee 李国煌, Kym Ng 鐘琴 - 9
- Belinda Lee 李心钰 - 2
- Guo Liang 郭亮, Bryan Wong 王禄江 - 5
- Zoe Tay 郑惠玉, Li Nanxing 李南星, Chew Chor Meng 周初明, Xie Shaoguang 谢韶光, Fann Wong 范文芳, Rui En 瑞恩 and Elvin Ng 黄俊雄
Awards and nominations
| Year | Show | Category | Nominee | Representation | Result |
| 1998 | Main | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | rowspan=7 | Star Awards 1997 红星大奖1997 | |
| 2002 | Main | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2001 红星大奖2001 | - | |
| 2003 | Main | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2002 红星大奖2002 | - | |
| 2004 | Main | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2003 红星大奖2003 | - | |
| 2005 | Main | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2004 红星大奖2004 | - | |
| 2007 | Main | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2006 红星大奖2006 | - | |
| 2009 | Main | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2007 红星大奖之戏剧情牵25 | - | |
| 2010 | Show 1 | Best Set Design 最佳综艺布景设计奖 | Mohd B Abdul Rahim | Star Awards 2009 红星大奖2009 | |
| 2010 | Show 2 | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2009 红星大奖2009 | ||
| 2011 | Show 1 | Best Variety Research Writer 最佳综艺资料撰稿 | Glen Lim 林祥平 | Star Awards 2010 红星大奖2010 | |
| 2011 | Show 2 | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | rowspan=3 | Star Awards 2010 红星大奖2010 亮闪八方 | |
| 2012 | Show 2 | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2011 银光闪耀 红星大奖2011 | - | |
| 2012 | Show 2 | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2011 金碧辉映 红星大奖2011 | - | |
| 2013 | Show 1 | Best Variety Research Writer 最佳综艺资料撰稿 | Lam Yen Fong 蓝燕芳 | Star Awards 2012 红星大奖2012 光辉大赏 | |
| 2013 | Show 2 | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | rowspan=2 | Star Awards 2012 红星大奖2012 光辉大赏 | |
| 2013 | Show 2 | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2012 红星大奖2012 颁奖礼 | - | |
| 2014 | Show 1 | Best Variety Producer 最佳综艺编导 | Lim Shiong Chiang 林雄强 | Star Awards 2013 红星大奖2013 | |
| 2014 | Show 1 | Best Set Design 最佳综艺布景设计奖 | Ahyak Yahya | Star Awards 2013 红星大奖2013 颁奖典礼 | |
| 2014 | Show 2 | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2013 红星大奖2013 颁奖典礼 | ||
| 2015 | Show 1 | Best Variety Research Writer 最佳综艺资料撰稿 | Lin Shih Han 林诗涵 | Star Awards 20 红星大奖20 前奏 | |
| 2015 | Show 1 | Best Variety Producer 最佳综艺编导 | Gan Bee Khim 颜美琴 | Star Awards 20 红星大奖20 第二场 | |
| 2015 | Show 2 | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | rowspan=2 | Star Awards 20 红星大奖20 第一场 | |
| 2015 | Show 2 | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 20 红星大奖20 第二场 | - | |
| 2016 | Backstage | Best Variety Research Writer 最佳综艺资料撰稿 | Jean Toh 卓金云 | Star Awards 2015 红星大奖2015 加利谷颁奖典礼 | |
| 2016 | Show 1 | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | rowspan=5 | Star Awards 2015 红星大奖2015 加利谷闪耀星光 | |
| 2016 | Show 1 | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2015 红星大奖2015 加利谷颁奖典礼 | - | |
| 2017 | Main | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2016 红星大奖2016 星光大道 | - | |
| 2017 | Main | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2016 红星大奖2016 颁奖典礼上半场 | - | |
| 2017 | Main | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2016 红星大奖2016 颁奖典礼下半场 | - | |
| 2018 | Backstage | Best Variety Producer 最佳综艺编导 | Gan Bee Khim 颜美琴 | Star Awards 2017 红星大奖2017 | |
| 2019 | Backstage | Best Variety Producer 最佳综艺编导 | Khow Hwai Teng 邱慧婷 | Star Awards 2018 红星大奖2018 | |
| 2019 | Main | Best Variety Special 最佳综艺特备节目 | Star Awards 2018 红星大奖2018 |
Each year is linked to the article about the Star Awards held that year.