BANGKOK: A member of Thai girl group Girly Berry went viral after videos of her performing while heavily pregnant both concerned and amazed netizens.
The 40-year-old singer, who is known by her stage name Belle, began posting videos of herself singing and dancing - with a protruding belly - alongside her group members to her Instagram page on Oct 26. One of the posts amassed more than 250,000 views.
But the videos only recently found their way to Chinese social media platform Weibo, with a few posts receiving more than 7,000 likes.
Her husband Win Inthara, chief executive of a sports tour agency, expressed his admiration for his wife on Instagram on Oct 29 for “still rocking it like a pro” on stage despite being 36 weeks pregnant. The couple tied the knot in 2023.
Belle announced the birth of her baby boy through Instagram on Oct 29.
On Nov 7, she uploaded on Instagram a video of her prancing on stage while heavily pregnant, along with a video showing her husband rocking their sleeping baby.
The four-member Girly Berry debuted in Thailand 22 years ago with the self-titled album Girly Berry in 2002. They reportedly disbanded in 2014 but would still appear at events together.
Many netizens praised Belle’s commitment to performing despite being so close to her due date.
“It’s not easy (dancing with a) big belly. I’m tired just walking. My feet are swollen,” said one Instagram user.
Several other users commented that the videos would be a nice keepsake of the performance for Belle’s child to look back on in the future.
But other netizens expressed concern about the singer and her then unborn child’s health.
“There must be something wrong with this company. They don’t care about the health of pregnant women and foetuses at all. This kind of dedication is really unnecessary!” said one Weibo user, referring to the label which manages Girly Berry.
But the new family of three appear to be happy and healthy.
Since welcoming their son into the world, Belle and her husband have been sharing regular snippets of their parenting journey to their Instagram pages. - The Straits Times/ANN