BLUESY AND BALLSY, JAZZ CHANTEUSE Joanna Dong was perhaps never meant for the mass market. Even after she found region-wide fame competing on Sing! China 2017, she continued to make music the way she wanted to, reworking harmonies and rhythms into her own vision, complicating popular tunes with odd metres and sharp tempo shifts.

And though she's attracted her share of detractors - remember last year's controversy over her cover of Mavis Hee's Moonlight In The City? - she's also earned the love and devotion of sophisticated music listeners, as well as the respect and support of Singapore's jazz community.

This being the Year of the Tiger, Dong is fearlessly taking on the genre of Chinese New Year songs in an upcoming concert, giving it a swing and phrasing all her own. She knows it might court trouble. But she also knows her lifelong goal of taking Chinese jazz to a wider listenership was never going to be easy.

''I have to do the music that I like, and hope that others like it too,'' she says. ''The one thing I've learnt over the years is that the market is fickle and unpredictable. And no one really knows what it'll take to next. As an artist, I must push towards something new or risk being irrelevant.''

The concert at Marina Bay Sands on Jan 21 and 22 features festive standards such Gong Xi Gong Xi (Congratulations), He Xin Nian (New Year Greetings) and Da Di Hui Chun (Spring Returns to Mother Earth) - all given new shapes and pillars, of course. There are also covers of beloved classics such as Wakin Chau's I Truly Give My Love To You and Jacky Cheung's Love You More Each Day; as well as original compositions such as Wait Till We're Awake and The First Chapter.

She says: ''Some people think of Chinese New Year music as being somewhat tacky, somewhat dong dong chiang. It isn't recognised as being legitimately great music, because it's played in malls so much.

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''But I've always found some CNY songs to be very lovely. And I want to show just how beautiful they are with these jazz-infused arrangements… CNY music is the most misunderstood genre in Chinese music, and I want to change some of those misconceptions.''

FROM HEARTBREAK TO HOPE

Indeed, before Dong became a household name in 2017, she'd spent years performing in shopping malls during the Chinese New Year and Christmas seasons: ''They'd set up a band on a stage and I'd be singing all the popular CNY songs for shoppers. So I'm not coming in cold - I actually have a very extensive CNY repertoire. It's only now that I can elevate it to a larger stage with fuller arrangements.''

Beyond her desire to reimagine seasonal songs, however, is a bigger goal at hand - to finally return to the stage after two years of cancelled gigs, lost income and making music online.

Covid-19, she says, has all but obliterated the live music industry in Singapore. Production managers have switched to Grab driving. Stage technicians have had to become food delivery men. Costume designers have taken on home-sewing work. ''It's been heartbreaking for so many of us on so many levels.''

Printed silk blouse & trousers, Max Mara. Red leather heels, Tod's. 

Hence the concert title You Must Believe In Spring, which is borrowed from the beautiful Michel Legrand song about holding out hope during a bleak winter that spring is around the corner.

For Dong, the melancholy lyrics carry an even heavier import: ''We're going through what I would call a Covid winter. And it feels as if a return to normalcy is still a long way away. But that day will surely come - just as spring would surely come. And when that happens, we will find ourselves reborn, rejuvenated and emotionally stronger than before.''

Dong will co-direct the concert with her theatre practitioner husband Zachary Ho. And to convey a sense of joy and hope for the future, she has asked the floral designer favoured by the cultured set, John Lim of This Humid House, to adorn the stage with beautiful bouquets and botanical arrangements.

''John is a polymath and an interdisciplinary artist who appreciates everything from fashion to architecture. I have complete faith in his vision.''

SINGING SINCE SIX

Dong grew up the only child of a Chinese language teacher-mother. (Her parents are separated.) When she was 6-years-old, she would take part in karaoke contests in community centres and top most of them. She sang in the choirs of Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School, Raffles Girls' School and Victoria Junior College. And in National University of Singapore, she was in the NUS Jazz Band.

Upon graduation, she competed in the first Singapore Idol contest, but was voted out by the public the very first week for singing the mellow jazz standard Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered - a song unfamiliar to most local TV viewers.

But that experience only strengthened her resolve to be a bridge between jazz and mainstream music. ''The true spirit of jazz,'' she says, ''is that it is not elitist. It's music meant to be enjoyed by everybody.''

She spent over a decade singing in bars, malls, weddings, anniversaries and corporate events, and acting in a range of Mandarin and English theatre productions.

In 2017, she finally got her dues competing in Sing! China, where she was mentored by superstar Jay Chou. There, she continued to promote her brand of Chinese jazz and won third place. Many doors swung open in the post-victory years of 2018 and 2019 - but then the pandemic struck and shut those doors.

''I've to ask myself so many times: Is singing really something I still want to do? Do I still want to be a musician? But deep in my heart, the answer is still yes. I need to believe in my decision. And this upcoming concert - my first Chinese New Year concert ever - is an affirmation of that faith.''

AN AUSPICIOUS YEAR

She chose Chinese New Year to mark her first solo concert since Covid struck, as it has always been an exceptionally joyous time for her. She says: ''I'm the kind of person who really enjoys the holidays. And despite missing a lot of Christmas family gatherings because I was always performing somewhere, I've almost never missed a Chinese reunion dinner. It is one of those things that's close to my heart, and I value the time with my extended family.''

As it is for most Singaporean families, food is central to the festivities: ''When my grandma was alive, we had the most glorious traditional Cantonese dinner. Now that she's passed on, my mother and mother-in-law - both of whom are also excellent cooks - would put out these gorgeously sumptuous feasts, each prepared in their own style. My mother does a lot of fusion dishes, while my mother-in-law leans towards traditional Cantonese.''

Knitted cardigan, trousers and scarf, Tod's.  

Although Dong was born in a Rooster year (1981), she looks forward to the Tiger years, which are supposedly auspicious for her, promising career success and financial well-being. But Dong says these past two years, though very rough, have also been rewarding in their own ways.

''For artists, we often make better art when we are struggling. And I've certainly made progress in different ways, such as producing music online, learning digital tools and collaborating with people I'd never collaborated with before. That's just how the artistic process is. It's like a pupa pushing against the chrysalis before it breaks free and becomes a beautiful butterfly. All growth needs some kind of resistance for it to succeed.

''When all this is over, I expect a bumper crop of creative output from musicians trying to make sense of the pandemic years. There'll be a lot of wonderful art looking back at how we were and how far we've come. There'll be a lot of butterflies.''

You Must Believe In Spring: Joanna Dong Lunar New Year Concert runs at the Sands Theatre in Marina Bay Sands on Jan 21 and 22 at 8pm. Ticket available from marinabaysands.com.