The Star Awards for Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes is an award presented annually at the Star Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1994.
In 2023, the Most Popular Rising Stars award was introduced for artistes who have been in the entertainment industry for five years or less, regardless of gender.
History
Initially, the awards were 10 Most Popular Artistes with five male and five female artistes receiving it.
The category was introduced in 1994, at the first Star Awards ceremony; Terence Cao, Chew Chor Meng, Li Nanxing, Sean Say, and Desmond Sim received the award as five of the male artistes of the 10 Most Popular Artistes award. The winners are determined by a majority vote from the public via telephone and SMS text voting.
During 1994 and 1995, the Most Popular Actor award and Most Popular Actress were also awarded. It was a separate award from the 10 Most Popular Artistes award and was given out to the male artiste who topped the votes of the latter award. Li and Chen Hanwei were the recipients of this award in 1994 and 1995, respectively. In 1996, the Most Popular Actor award was retired.
Since 1997, the number of recipients for each category were expanded to ten and the award was renamed as Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes.
In 2023, the Most Popular Rising Stars award was introduce with similar eligibility requirements for the Top 10 Most Popular Artistes, aimed for artistes with no more than five years of career experience. The criteria for the "All-Time Favourite Artiste" was also modified such that wins for the "Most Popular Rising Star Award" will count towards the cumulative total of 10 needed to be conferred the "All-Time Favourite Artiste" award. Ayden Sng and Richie Koh were the first male recipients of this award in the ceremony.
Since the ceremony held in 2024, Romeo Tan remains as the only male artiste to have the most wins without achieving the All-Time Favourite Artiste award, with nine. Chan, Goh and Sng are currently the only male artistes who hold a winning streak that is uninterrupted since their first nomination, with Sng holding a streak for the Most Popular Rising Stars award.
In addition, Chen Shucheng have been nominated on 23 occasions, more than any other male artiste. Richard Low is currently the male artiste who has the most nominations without a win, with 16. Dennis Chew has the most nominations with All-Time Favourite Artiste award with 16.
Eligibility
Before 1997, only Mediacorp actors were eligible to be nominated for the award. This rule was removed in 1997 onwards to allow the Mediacorp male artistes from the variety sector to contest for the award.
In 2018, the rules were changed to allow contracted and project-based artistes to be nominated and/or receive the award.
In 2023, the Most Popular Rising Stars was added, which would be presented to three artistes (regardless of gender) who have been in showbiz for five years or less.
There are currently 13 male artistes have received the award for ten times and were given the All-Time Favourite Artiste award, and are no longer eligible for the running of the award.
Pornsak was not added in the list as he will be receiving the All-Time Favourite Artiste award in Star Awards 2025.
Recipients
Since its inception, the award has been given to 59 male artistes. Romeo Tan, Marcus Chin, Jeff Goh, Zhang Yaodong, Pornsak, Desmond Tan, Benjamin Tan, Shaun Chen, James Seah and Jeremy Chan are the most recent winners in the Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes category.
While Ayden Sng and Zhang Zetong are the most recent winners in the Rising Stars category.
Award records
References
