Singaporean CEO debuts as K-pop star
David Yong hopes to inspire young generation in Southeast Asia
On July 5, David Yong from Singapore burst onto the K-pop scene with his hip-hop-flavored debut track, “In My Pocket,” which features high-profile Korean rapper Kid Milli. Although there are plenty of non-Korean singers in the K-pop universe, Yong is unlike any other in terms of background. The 35-year-old is the CEO of Singapore-based Evergreen Group Holdings and runs more than 15 businesses ranging from timber to finance.
Born into a family that owned a timber trading company, Yong worked as a trainee lawyer until he joined the family business in 2014. Considering that he is an active businessman, the news about his debut took many people by surprise, who did not expect that he would branch out into a totally new field. However, according to Yong, it was his longtime dream to bridge K-pop and Southeast Asia by promoting the export of Korean content, while bringing some talented Southeast Asian musicians to the Korean music scene. The CEO believes he can further explore the K-pop world if he becomes a singer himself and hopes he can use his experience to expand his K-pop business.
This multi-faceted man dubs himself an “influencer CEO.”
“I think being an influencer CEO is like being a top leader who inspires the next generation,” Yong said during a recent Zoom interview with The Korea Times. “This allows me to share my experience with young people in Southeast Asia and [show] how we should not confine ourselves to only one boundary. We should open up our minds to try different things in life without limiting ourselves to just one role. Today, a doctor is not just a doctor and a lawyer is not just a lawyer. Things have evolved in this way and we should all become multi-players.”
But he did face some hurdles when he attempted to juggle multiple balls. When he was gearing up for his debut a few months ago, the biggest barrier was language.
“Most producers and artists only communicated in Korean,” he recalled. “When I first came here, it was pretty difficult to learn Korean fast enough to be able to communicate efficiently and properly with my producers. So I had to cram everything in a short period of time — maybe about two to four months. It was quite intense to train and learn the language and culture of Korea at the same time.”
In Korea, Yong is represented by RBW, a record label behind bigname K-pop acts like MAMAMOO. His company Evergreen also inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with RBW earlier this year.
“I and RBW first started off by discussing possible partnerships that we could do to target the Southeast Asian music market, as both of us were very keen on exporting Korean content,” Yong revealed. “As we talked about different business projects, RBW found that I had the potential to become an influencer CEO, instead of just handling the business. So I got to showcase my own music after signing a contract with RBW.”
Yong added that Kid Millie and Jeon Ji-yoon — the former member of now-defunct K-pop girl group 4MINUTE who appears in the music video of “In My Pocket” — helped him a lot. The “In My Pocket” music video has garnered more than 10 million views on YouTube as of Monday afternoon.
“Both Kid Millie and Jeon were really kind,” Yong said. “In the case of Jeon, who has many years of singing experience, helped me with some training, too. She guided me and taught me a lot of different techniques that I have to be aware of as a K-pop singer.”
At the moment, Yong has a lot of things on his plate.
“Next year, I will start a lot of entertainment-related projects,” he said. “I am planning to hold a K-pop music festival concert in Southeast Asia and open a pop-up for K-pop training in Singapore. I am also looking forward to doing more collaborations with established K-pop artists and putting out a new release in 2023.”
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I am planning to hold a K-pop music festival concert in Southeast Asia and open a pop-up for K-pop training in Singapore.
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