A Rising Star - Jasmine Yen Comes Into Her Own

Rather than following her parents' footsteps in acting and modelling, the singer-songwriter is choosing to make a name for herself in the music industry.

- Cheryl Lai-Lim

By her own account, Jasmine Yen is an introvert. Despite growing up in the spotlight her father is Donnie Yen, the prolific actor known for his roles as the titular character in the Ip Man film series as well as Hollywood blockbuster franchises Star Wars and John Wick, while her mother is former beauty queen and model Cissy Wang - she has always been "very shy, even from a young age".

"Even now, I can't have conversations easily with my parents' friends - I'm just that shy. I struggle to talk to them, and I'm practically wordless."

On stage, however, it's a different ball game. When an opportunity to hold her first live performance at this year's Majulah Music Night festival came, the 19-year-old singer-songwriter took it. She was in town in July this year for the performance, and there was no trace of shyness when she took the stage at the music festival, performing confidently without missing a beat.

And it's not just the technical perfection that sets her performance apart. By her third song, the crowd was chanting her name as Jasmine constantly engaged the audience with effortless charm and an aura of confidence - impressive for someone who was "kind of hyperventilating and crying backstage out of nervousness" before performing in front of a live audience for the first time.

"It was intense, but I forced myself to stop crying because I had a performance to deliver," she says. "I went on stage, and I was really nervous, but I slowly eased into it. The audience in Singapore is so friendly, and I love that they were interacting with me. Afterwards, when I went offstage, that's when the floodgates opened and I started crying again [this time out of joy]."

When we first met for this cover shoot, it was less than 24 hours after she debuted as an official singer-songwriter. Two weeks later, the reality still has not sunk in.