Vince Chong

Vincent Chong Ying-Cern (, born 30 September 1979) is a Malaysian singer, internationally known by his stage name Vince, is the first reality TV star to issue from Malaysian Akademi Fantasia.

Chong is popular as a R&B-inclined singer-songwriter.

His popularity increased internationally after he teamed up with Nikki Gil and Alicia Pan to record the theme from High School Musical, Breaking Free (Asian Version).

Chong was born in 1979 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

His father was Chong Chen Kian, of Chinese ethnic origin, and mother Susan Ann Higgs from England.

He has four younger siblings: Pamela, Daniel, Ian and Sean and an older sister Vanessa.

His sisters Pamela and Vanessa competed in The Amazing Race Asia 2 and finished as runners-up.

His brother, Sean is also one of the singers of Budi Bahasa Budaya Bangsa (1 Malaysia version) as representing Pan-Asean in Malaysia.

He started entertaining people through singing when he was a child and was involved in several church plays, singing competitions and modelling advertisements with his sister Vanessa.

He once performed a solo opera at the age of 14 in front of more than 2000 people.

He had experience in several church plays and theatre as a director and script writer.

In college Chong formed a music band called IBNOT.

Since then he had written and composed numerous songs as part of his hobby.

The band played several genres of music including rock, R'n'B, jazz, alternative etc. Chong also had experience in recording back-up vocals for professional artistes, such as Ferhad in Anugerah Industri Muzik Awards in 2001.

Chong's first serious singing competition was in the 2002 edition of Astro Talent Quest (ATQ).

Not fluent in Mandarin (as he speaks Cantonese, English and Malay), Vince had a challenge to learn and memorise the Mandarin songs to remain in the competition.

Eventually Chong became the first runner-up to Nicholas Teo, who won the competition that year.

In 2003 after returning from his holiday in Gold Coast, Australia, Vanessa and Rueben (Burn AF1) encouraged him to join Akademi Fantasia (season 1) which would be in its inaugural season.

Chong and Rueben went to the audition in KL and successfully became part of the 12 AF finalists.

For nine weeks he and his AF friends had to live separately from their families and friends.

Week after week Chong was finally crowned the winner for Akademi Fantasia's 1st season along with Khai as 1st runner up and Azizi as 2nd runner up.

He received an offer to do a duet with Malaysian singer Nora a song titled Dilema'03 for her greatest hits album.

Upon "graduating" from Akademi Fantasia, Chong and his 11 classmates made a roadshow of Akademi Fantasia around Malaysia and Brunei.

The group were interviewed by Azwan Ali in his popular talk show Cit Cat Azwan.

The fans had voted them as the best newcomers interviewed in Cit Cat Azwan Award in 2003.

Chong made his final appearance in a group when they were performed road tour in Brunei.

Chong had decided to leave Maestro Talent to be an "independent" singer by joining EMI Malaysia to kick-off his singing career.

It was a "very hard" journey for Chong as independent singer when his best friend-cum-competitor Khai overshadowed him with his "Dambaan Pilu".

But he maintained determination as his first album self-titled Vince was also highly anticipated, featuring his single Mengapa Harus Cinta? entered several music charts.

Chong was selected as one of the artistes to have a song in Anugerah Juara Lagu.

Not only that, he was also placed third in the Asia New Singer Competition at Shanghai Music Festival 2004.

In 2004 and 2005 Chong's fame progressed after received several awards due to his achievement and he accepted an offer to be the lead actor for Yusof Haslam's new film Sembilu 2005.

His first appearance on the silver screen had received positive reaction from his fans.

In 2005 he was chosen to sing one of the song in the soundtrack for Puteri Gunung Ledang titled Keranamu Kekasih.

In 2005 his second album Janji Vince was released, receiving mixed reactions from fans and critics.

The album was said to be superior in quality compared to his first album, yet it sparked controversy when Vince pronounced the Arabic word Taala ("the one", as in one of the titles of Allah) in his song Berkobar-bokar.

Later, the composer of the song Yassin clarified that the Taala actually means "to come".

He had been invited frequently to perform in private function and gospel shows, was highly on demand for Christmas performances in television.

Chong represented Malaysia to sing the special Asian release edition of the hit Breaking Free (from Disney's High School Musical), alongside Singaporean Alicia Pan and Filipino Nikki Gil.

In 2007, Chong and Nikki Gil teamed up as a Host for High School Musical: Around The World which has been aired on Disney Channel.