14 Singapore Idol Stars: Where Are they Now?

13. MJ Kuok

Season: 3

Kuok Meng Jun, or better known as MJ Kuok, withdrew from the competition after being voted into the top 13 by the public due to personal reasons. The Stanford graduate went into advertising and real estate development in Hong Kong for three years, but eventually felt that music was his calling.

During his days at Stanford, Kuok grew to love electronic dance music (EDM) after attending music festivals like Coachella.

Kuok eventually decided to carve a name for himself in Singapore instead of the US, and goes by the moniker MMXJ in the EDM world. In September last year, Kuok released his debut single Kings, featuring local singer-songwriter Gentle Bones. The DJ-producer founded his own start-up Oceana Label, and hopes to be able to release other artistes’ music under his label.

Fun fact: The heir is the grandson of Malaysia’s richest man, Robert Kuok, who has a net worth of $11.7 billion.

14. Jonathan Cheok 

Season: 3

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you — they’re the same person. We’re talking about former Singapore Idol Jonathan Cheok, now famously known for his YouTube channel CheokboardStudios.

Prior to his participation in Singapore Idol, Cheok was in SIA but felt that he was just a “high class waiter”. Although he managed to make it to the top 24 of the competition, he did not manage to get a breakthrough with MediaCorp in the entertainment scene, and decided to pursue a YouTube career.

This proved to be a right move as he has managed to successfully carve a name for his YouTube Channel. The channel now has over 178k subscribers, and is known for their comedy skits.

Life post-Idol

What a ride their Idol journeys must have been.

As Singapore Idol has proved to us, competitions are not necessarily the be-all and and-all. Some Singapore Idol alums have successfully managed to leave a deep enough impression for audiences to remember them, while others have fallen off the radar.

Nonetheless, most of them are still chasing after their music dreams — Singapore’s entertainment industry is still looking up.