Serene Koong (born 21 September 1988) is a Singaporean singer, songwriter and producer. She is a three time Global Chinese Golden Chart Award, three time Singapore Hit Awards, Star Awards winner, and Asian Academy Creative Awards National Winner.
In May 2010, Koong released her debut Mandarin album, 55:38:7, composed of ten original compositions. Her single "æÂÂçÂ¥æÂÂæÂÂä½ " peaked at number 3 on YES 933 éÂÂå¿Âé¾ÂèÂÂæ¦Â. The single was nominated for Best Local Composition at the 2010 Singapore Hit Awards; Koong received four nominations total and won the Most Popular Newcomer award and the Meritorious Newcomer award.
Koong was also involved in song production for television series and films with "å¨æÂÂå·¦å³" for Mediacorp Channel 8's television series New Beginnings and "æÂÂä¸Â线" for the film Love Cuts starring Zoe Tay and Kenny Ho. Same year, Koong had filmed two advertisements with Fraser and Neave, one of which featured her original song "Lala" performed with Jiahui Wu.
In March 2012, Koong made her debut in Taiwan with the album è².é«Â.輿è¨Â, distributed by Warner Music Taiwan. In the same year, she performed at the Esplanade's Huayi Chinese Festival of Arts.
In 2013, Koong formed her music company, GoodGirlMusic, to manage her career. She produced, wrote, and performed the theme song "Happiness IsnâÂÂt Hard" (幸ç¦Âä¸Âé¾) for Mediacorp Channel 8's television series The Dream Makers. Her song was selected from 55 musicians who submitted their work to Mediacorp. That year, Koong was named "Top Downloaded Female Artist" by MeRadio at the for the song "Happiness isnâÂÂt Hard".
In 2014, Koong won the Best Theme Song at the Star Awards for "Happiness Isn't Hard." The song was also named the Top Dedicated Hit Song by UFM1003 and reached number one on the Singapore iTunes Mandopop chart. Koong received two Global Chinese Golden Chart Awards including "Outstanding Artiste Award" (Singapore, UFM1003) for the song and a nomination for Best Theme Song at the 19th Asian Television Awards. Koong was the Mandarin lead singer for the theme song, "ç½Âç»ÂÃ¥ÂÂå¿Â" (Knit with One Heart), of the Singapore Chingay Parade 2014, which was presented at the parade with Lee Wei Song as music director.
In July 2015, Koong wrote a song "Precious" (å¿ÂèÂÂ) for Kelvin Tong's film (Grandma Positioning System) in the SG50 anthology film 7Letters. She was inspired by the eulogy of Lee Kuan Yew to his wife Kwa Geok Choo. She was the producer, vocal producer, songwriter and performer of the song, which peaked at number five on the Singapore iTunes Mandopop chart. In December, her single "All Alone" (å½Âä¸ÂçÂÂåªå©ä¸ÂæÂÂä¸Â个人), which she wrote, produced, and performed for The Dream Makers II, peaked at number two on the Singapore iTunes Mandopop chart.
In August 2016, Koong was among the three Singaporean artists whose works charted on the Global Chinese Golden Charts TOP 20 (first half of 2016). On 7 May 2017, Koong received the Outstanding Artist of The Year presented by UFM100.3 award at the Global Chinese Golden Chart Awards.
On 9 August 2018, Koong appeared on the prelude episode of SPOP Sing!, a singing competition the search for the next homegrown talent. She also served the series as a vocal and performance Mentor to the Top 20 contestants.
In 2021, Koong served as the Vocal and Performance Mentor on SPOP Wave!. On 30 September, Koong was announced as the National Winner for Best Theme Song / Title at the Asian Academy Creative Awards, with her work "When It Leads Me Back To You", which she wrote, performed and produced for Mediacorp Channel 5's drama series Slow Dancing.
In 2023, Koong wrote, performed and produced the ending theme song for All That Glitters which began airing on September 18.
In 2024, "TENDER", written by Koong, Lai Zhenming, and Ferry, was presented on Melody Journey by Lai. The song was chosen and performed by Shan Yichun.