Three years to find himself after existential crisis

MALAYSIAN singer Nicholas Teo (pic) has revealed the reason behind his three-year hiatus from the music scene before returning in 2015, saying that he was “unhappy” despite his fame, China Press reported.

The 41-year-old, who propelled to stardom after starring in the 2006 romcom Smiling Pasta alongside Cyndi Wang, said his music career would have ended had he not taken a break.

“At that time, I wanted to give up on everything. I felt unhappy. Terribly unhappy.

“I don’t know what I lost, but I just know I lost something,” he said during an interview on the Chinese variety show Music Warehouse 17.

Teo said that in 2012, after being with the same record label for 10 years, he had trouble expressing himself in an authentic manner.

“Do you know what is it like to be a person without a soul?

“It is not as if I want to discredit my successful songs in the past or all that has happened.

“However, I feel at some point, I want everyone to see an image of myself which belongs to me entirely,” said Teo, who is originally from Kuching, Sarawak.

He took a break from the music scene and went to pursue his studies in New York for three years before making a comeback in 2015.

“After coming back, my entire outlook changed. I felt as if I knew what I wanted to do,” he said.

Teo won his first music contract after winning the 2002 Astro Talent Quest competition.

He is also known for his acting roles in dramas such as Invincible Shan Bao Mei.

In 2022, he saw a resurgence in popularity after reuniting on screen with his former co-star Wang on the reality TV series Sisters Who Make Waves and Promise of the Stars.

> The daily also reported that Taiwanese sensation Mayday has a fan in Deputy Communications and Digital Minister Teo Nie Ching.

The band held a concert at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium on Saturday night and lead singer Shin posted a message on Facebook before the show began, prompting a response from Teo.

Teo later left a message after the concert saying: “Thank you, Mayday, for bringing such a wonderful performance to Malaysian fans.”

● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.