SINGAPORE - If not for Covid-19, Mandopop superstar Stefanie Sun would be on her 20th anniversary concert tour right now.
However, instead of fretting over things beyond her control, the Singaporean is choosing to look at the situation positively. The singer made her debut in 2000 with the album Yan Zi and recently released a Mandarin single, What Remains.
Over a Zoom interview with local media on Monday (Feb 1), she said of the pandemic: "I feel it will teach us to be even more creative. It is like the more limitations are placed (on us), the more creative we will be."
Dressed in a flowing black-and-white patterned outfit, Sun was in a cheerful mood.
The forced hiatus gave her the time to ruminate on the things and people she had encountered in the last 20 years and it inspired her to pen both music and lyrics for a song.
Sun, 42, had last done so for her 2002 English song Someone, which she had once hinted was about people who had let her down.
She recalled: "I was very green, full of angst. I wanted to sing like my idol Alanis Morissette. Nineteen years later, it is obviously very different."
The new heartfelt tunedeals with the idea of what is left over, or extra.
She said: "You are talking about measuring what you have before you can move forward. During this period, when everyone is trying to make sense of what is happening, do I need to worry about my family, my finances?I feel it is quite a pertinent question during this moment."
The music star and married mother of two might look like she has it all, but she added: "I want to try my best at many things, be it in love, work or parenting. And because I want things to be done well, I sometimes wonder if I have the capacity to do these tasks properly.
"When I want 100 marks in everything, and want to keep moving forward, the moment I realise that I am spent is frightening."
Sharing how she feels is not always easy, she said. "Sometimes, you just do not want to talk about (something). You can't really explain why. But when you try to explain it, that is your lyric."
Despite the past year's inconveniences and challenges, she considered the period a "net positive".
"I am not thankful for this crazy period, but I am thankful that we found ways to continue to do what we can."
The pandemic gave her time to spend with her family. Sun is married to Dutch-Indonesian businessman Nadim van der Ros, and they have a son, eight, and a daughter, two.
She admitted that she often felt she was not good enough as a mother. "I do not know how to cook and I am not particularly kindly. I just know how to sing, dance and giggle with (my children)."
Her children are not very interested in her new song though. Sun said: "My daughter might not really understand the concept of a singer yet and my son prefers rock music."
Recently, she has been trimming her daughter's fringe and her son has taken to cutting his own hair.
She joked: "It is a disaster, but I think hairdressing is in our blood. So you see a boy with two holes (in his hair, that is him)."
What Remains is available on music-streaming platforms such as KKBox, Spotify and Apple Music.
