Ling Kai


Ling Kai, is a bilingual Singaporean singer-songwriter. She won the Indie Artist Of The Year at YinYueTai 2nd Annual V Chart Awards in Beijing.

Biography

Ling Kai was born in Singapore to an office-worker father and a housewife mother.
When she was in Victoria Junior College, she was taught by Geoffrey Haris, and he inspired her to read poetry. She composed her first original song when she was 21, "Larkin Step" which was inspired by English poet Philip Larkin. The song reached more than one million views on YouTube.
She went on to study in Nanyang Technological University Wee Kim Wee School of Communications and worked for DDB on graduation.
Ling Kai won the Red Bull Singer-songwriter contest and get to shoot and release her first official music video “一个人” in year 2013.

Music career

After Ling Kai uploaded her first original song which is "Larkin Step" on YouTube, the video achieved more than one million views. Ling Kai released her first English language EP "Honestly" in 2009 with Australian indie label and toured around Brisbane.
On July 23, 2011, Ling Kai performed at Singapore Heritage Festival, one of the song that she performed is her original song titled Growing Old.
In September 2012, Ling Kai was invited by YinYueTai which is one of the major music video sharing sites in China to attend FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL as a special host in Japan. At the same time, Ling Kai took part in a major music programme, Red Bull Singer-songwriter contest 《红牛新能量音乐计划2012成长纪》 in China.
Back in Singapore performing for Mosaic Music Festival 2011 at the Esplanade, Lee Shih Song chanced upon the outdoor public performance of Ling Kai and her experimental band Ling and the Kings, and signed her under his Beijing-based label, Wise Entertainment. They produced Ling Kai's first bilingual and full-length album "LinK", which was released in 2013 in Beijing, Malaysia, and Singapore and featured "Larkin Step" as well as several new works. After Ling Kai released her first album《LinK》, she did her live showcase in various regions of the world including Singapore, Malaysia and China.
In 2014, Ling Kai was invited to compete on Chinese reality TV singing show Sing My Song :zh-tw:中国好歌曲|《中国好歌曲》which aired on CCTV. She appeared as the only one Singaporean and the only female singer-songwriter candidate to make it to the finals, and she was mentored by singer-songwriter Tanya Chua.
On April 15, 2014, Ling Kai attended YinYueTai 2nd Annual V Chart Awards at 10,000 seater Mastercard centre Wukesong in Beijing. She won Best Singer Songwriter 2013 which is her first awards since starting her music journey in China. She performed with Chinese artistes Li Rong Hao, and .
On September 1, 2014, Ling Kai was invited as the musical guest for Project Superstar Season 3. She performed "随机播放" which is one of the song in her new album "LinK" in.
In year 2014, Ling Kai was nominated as the best newcomer in :zh-tw:第十九屆新加坡金曲獎|YES 933 Singapore Hit Awards 2014. Other than that, Ling Kai won SPH Media Award - Best New Artiste from Singapore E-Awards.
On June 18, 2016, Ling Kai was invited to perform at "AL!VE SINGAPORE" 2016 which is presented by IMC live. It is a charity concert featuring 13 music acts from Singapore and one guest performer from Hong Kong.
On Aug 27, 2016, Ling Kai performed with Diya as a duet at Singapore Rhapsodies - The Concert 2016.
On Aug 5 2017, Ling Kai performed in the SKETCHERS Sundown Festival 2017.
On October 5, 2017, Ling Kai held her EP "Unlearn" Launch Party with a live showcase.
On November 4, 2017, Ling Kai was part of the lineup for Starker Music Carnival 2017 which headlined Taiwanese vocal powerhouse, A-Lin.

TV appearance and live performances

TV Appearances

EP

Album

Awards and nominations