First awarded 1994 | ||
 | ||
Awarded for Excellence in Chinese Language entertainment in Singapore Network Mediacorp Channel 8Mediacorp Channel UToggle.sg | ||
The Star Awards (Chinese: 红星大奖) is an annual ceremony held in Singapore where the media organisation Mediacorp, recognises entertainers under their employment for outstanding performances of the year. Unlike similar entertainment ceremonies, the ceremony also celebrates how popular individual entertainers are based on how much fans are willing to collectively spend through a voting system that elevates their popularity.
Contents
History
The first ever annual Star Awards event was held in 1994. In the first three years of the Awards, MediaCorp handed out just 10 Most Popular Artistes awards (five for each gender) instead of the current 20 (10 for each gender).
The Best Actor and Best Actress awards were only introduced in 1995. Prior to that, it was more of a popularity contest, with Li Nanxing, Chew Chor Meng and Zoe Tay winning the Most Popular Actor and Actress award.
In 1995, a top gun of Hong Kong's TVB was one of the guests at the Star Awards. When giving out the award, he commented on the significance of the awards in recognizing television talents. He wished that Hong Kong will have similar television award ceremony in future. In less than 2 years after his return to Hong Kong, the TVB Anniversary Awards was born.
The Star Awards has traditionally been held at the TV Theatre on Caldecott Hill. Though there were some exceptions, the first being in 1996 where this annual event was being held at Harbour Pavilion, and 2006, when it was held at St James Power Station.
Previously, technical category awards (e.g. Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Variety Show Producer, etc.), newscaster and current affairs awards and, for a time, the Young Talent Award (for child actors) were held separately at a gala dinner due to time constraints and results and clips from the event would be shown at the ceremony. From 2010 to 2015, all awards were presented at the ceremony proper and the awards ceremony had been split into two shows. For Show 1, it was held at Caldecott Broadcast Centre throughout the above-mentioned period. For Show 2, it was held at Resorts World Sentosa in 2010 and 2011, at Marina Bay Sands in 2012 and 2013, at Suntec City in 2014 and at Caldecott Broadcast Centre in 2015.
In 2016, technical category awards were reverted to being presented at an off-site ceremony. Despite this, there still were two shows, where the programme and performance category awards were split equally. Both shows were held at the new Mediacorp campus at 1 Stars Avenue.
From 2017 onwards, everything is back to what it was like up till 2009, whereby technical category awards are presented at an off-site ceremony and there is only one main show.
The award ceremonies were held in end of the year from 1998 to 2007. From 2009 onwards, the Star Awards would be held annually in April to honour television talents from works from the previous year. Hence, there was no ceremony in the year 2008.
With the merger of MediaCorp with SPH MediaWorks on 1 January 2005, nominees now include artistes and shows from MediaCorp Channel U, formerly MediaWork's Chinese language channel. The ceremony was broadcast on Channel U in 2005 for the first time.
Trophy
The Star Awards trophy has seen four different designs, since its inception in 1994.
List of ceremonies
Colour key
Recipient of Special Achievement Award Recipient of All-Time Favourite Artiste Award Recipient of Rocket Award Recipient of Honorary TV AwardPerformance categories
1) Best Actor: since 1995
2) Best Actress: since 1995
3) Best Supporting Actor: since 1995
4) Best Supporting Actress: since 1995
5) Young Talent: since 2002
6) Best Evergreen Artiste Award: since 2016
7) Best Programme Host (Variety, Info-Ed & Infotainment): since 2016
8) Rocket: since 2010
9) All-Time Favourite Artiste: from 2004 to 2006; 2009 to 2012; 2014 to 2017
Programme categories
1) Best Drama Serial
2) Best Theme Song
3) Best Variety Programme
4) Best Variety Special
5) Best Info-Ed Programme
Voting categories
1) Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes: since 1994
2) Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes: since 1994
Backstage Categories
1) Best Director
2) Best Screenplay
3) Best Variety Producer
4) Best Variety Research Writer
5) Best Editing for Drama Programme
6) Best Set Design for Drama Programme
7) Best Cameraman for Drama Programme
8) Best News Story
Sponsored categories
1) i-Weekly Most Stylish Award
2) Slender Body Award
3) YES 933 Best Speech Award
4) Systema Charming Smile: from 2011 to 2012
5) BottomSlim Sexiest Legs: from 2013 to 2015
6) Asian Skin Solutions Most Radiant Skin Award: from 2014 to 2015
7) London Choco Roll Happiness Award: since 2014
8) Tokyo Bust Express Sexy Babe Award: 2015 only
9) Toggle awards: since 2015
10) Bioskin Flawless Skin Award: since 2016
Suspended categories
1) Best News Presenter: from 2010 to 2013
2) Best Current Affairs Presenter: from 2010 to 2013
3) Best Newcomer: from 1994 to 2002; 2004 to 2009; 2012 to 2013; 2015
4) Top Rated Drama Serial
5) Top Rated Variety Programme
6) Best Cameraman (Entertainment Programmes)
7) Best Set Design (Entertainment Programmes)
8) Best Editing (Entertainment Programmes)
9) Best Costume & Image Design
10) Best Music & Sound Design
Discontinued categories
1) Special Achievement Award: from 1994 to 2003
2) Best Comedy Performer: from 1998 to 2005.
3) Best News/Current Affairs Presenter: from 2000 to 2009
4) Unforgettable Villain: 2010 only
5) Favourite Onscreen Partner (Variety): 2011 only
6) Favourite Host: from 2012 to 2013
7) Honorary TV Award: 2013 only
8) Best Variety Show Host: from 1998 to 2015
9) Best Info-Ed Programme Host: from 2009 to 2015
10) Most Popular Regional Artiste Award: from 2014 to 2015
11) Favourite Male Character: from 2010 to 2016
12) Favourite Female Character: from 2010 to 2016
13) Favourite Onscreen Couple (Drama): from 2011 to 2016
14) Social Media Award: from 2014 to 2016