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Mediacorp actor Benjamin Tan really, really wants a Star Award.
He bagged his first Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes trophy at Star Awards 2024, which was held at the The Theatre at Mediacorp tonight (Apr 21), the first win for the 31-year-old after being in the industry for close to six years.
When 8days.sg speaks to Ben, he first confesses that he wasn’t confident “at all” about going on stage to receive the award from Taiwanese actor Chen Bolin and Ah Jie Zoe Tay.
“We were never told how many votes we have and the competition was tough,” he shares. “Especially against people like Romeo Tan and Desmond Tan [both of whom, indeed, won Top 10 trophies as well].”
Benjamin, who was the seventh name to be called, says he was losing hope by the time they’d reached the sixth winner.
But as we continue chatting with him, we realize how much effort had gone into this triumph.
While he is clearly thrilled about the victory, there are no immediate celebrations planned. “Go home toh, just sleep because the past few months have been torturous,” he gasps.
“Every day [my fan club and I] worry about whether there are enough votes, and I had to garner votes as well,” he tells us, adding that he intends to spend time with his fan club to “repay them for everything they did” after today.
Turns out the actor has himself to thank for the award too.
When asked if he’d voted for himself, he proudly declares: “Of course I did! Like [American drag queen] RuPaul said: ‘If you don’t love yourself, how can you love someone else?’ So you have to love yourself first.”
How much did he, er, love himself?
“I got 10 accounts only lah,” he laughs. “10 accounts so that’s 100 [votes] only ah! I had to [do that for myself],” admits Benjamin with refreshing candour, referring to the rule that each e-mail account was only allowed a maximum of 10 votes a day. Voting constitutes 80 per cent of the final result, while a nationwide Popularity Survey conducted by a market research company makes up 20 per cent.
Benjamin plans to take his trophy along with him when he next pays respects to his late mum, who passed away in 2022 after being in a coma for two years.
“I don’t know if it’s a bit showy to do so, but I’ll definitely take it to her niche and present it to her,” he says.
He adds: “I think the first one is always special so I hope she can see the hard work I’ve put in and continue to look after me.”
The actor also reckons his new Chinese name might have contributed to his win as well.
If the name ‘Chen Feng Yan’ sounded alien when it was announced, it’s because the actor had changed it from Chen Zheng Xu this January for fengshui reasons. The name is so unfamiliar to many that even Ben himself isn’t entirely used to it.
“I was joking before that: ‘What if they call my name and I forget that’s my new name?’”