Fred Cheng

**Frederick "Fred" Cheng** (Chinese: 鄭俊弘; born 10 November 1983) is a Canadian-born Hong Kong actor and singer. He has starred in numerous Hong Kong series including *Shine On You*, *Love Bond*, *The Charm Beneath*, and *Forensic Heroes*. He rose to fame after competing in the 2013 Hong Kong singing competition, *The Voice of the Stars*, subsequently winning first place. In November 2013, Cheng signed with TVB Music Limited's subsidiary Voice Entertainment, and released his first album, "Story of a Panda" on September 15, 2014.

## Early life and career beginnings

Cheng was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He lived with his mother, older sister, and younger brother. From his uncle's influence, at an early age he already developed a love and interest for music, singing, and playing the guitar. Since the age of six, he has also been learning Choy Li Fut and picked up martial arts and boxing in high school. Upon graduating from Eric Hamber Secondary School, he returned to Hong Kong for the summer.

In 2001, Cheng's mother persuaded him to compete in the TVB New Talent Singing Awards, in which he won second place.[*citation needed*] Cheng was offered a contract to the record company Capital Artists, but after two months of training, the company stopped producing music, abruptly ending his singing career.

## Acting career and return to singing

In 2003, TVB offered Cheng an artist contract and offered him a major role in the TVB drama *Shine On You*. Well received in his performance, Fred was continued to offer roles that were similar to his youthful role in *Shine On You*, such as the younger brother of Kenix Kwok and Bernice Liu in 2004's *Love Bond* and the younger brother of Yoyo Mung in 2006's *Forensic Heroes*.

In 2010, Fred appeared on the variety talent show *Fun with Liza and Gods* and performed Ronald Cheng's song, "無賴" (Rascal), receiving critical claim for his performance and imitation of Ronald Cheng. In 2011, Fred signed a management contract with TVB.

In July 2013, Fred was encouraged by friends and family to compete in the inaugural season for the singing competition, *The Voice of the Stars*. Fred appeared on the first episode, performing Eason Chan's "Song of the Era" (時代曲). Fred earned 174.9 points, delivering the highest performance points on the show. On the second episode, Fred performed "Angels" by Robbie Williams and earned an even higher 179.9 points. *The Voice of the Stars* judge, Eric Moo, took Fred in as his student and offered him to appear on his Hong Kong concert as a guest performer. Throughout the season, Fred consistently stayed in the top two places. He is known by his fans as "Fred Panda Baby".

Fred went on win the competition, winning 68% of the votes. Immediately after winning, Fred was announced that he would be singing the theme song with Kristal Tin for the upcoming Hong Kong drama, *Return of the Silver Tongue*. On November 15, 2013, he signed with TVB's newly established record company Voice Entertainment and is expected to release his debut solo album in the summer of 2014. He has released his first single, "Nobody", on March 24, 2014 and within 5 hours it became the top selling single on Hong Kong iTunes and held the record for seven days. Subsequently, he was given a chance to sing another two theme songs for TVB Drama, *The Ultimate Addiction* and *Ghost Dragon of Cold Mountain*.

## Career after winning The Voice of the Stars (VOS)

After winning the VOS, Fred has been given more job opportunities by TVB in acting, singing and commercial advertisements. Due to his sudden rise in popularity, Fred now has a group of fans ranging from age 5 to 80. Fred also has fans in Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada and USA. In addition to that, Fred has become the new darling in Hong Kong, as he is well liked due to his positive and persistent attitude. Many big companies such as Towngas, Hopewell Holdings, New World Development, Shanghai Commercial Bank, AIA Group Limited, Swatch Group, Zung Fu Company Limited, Grand Lisboa, P&G and Amway Hong Kong Limited invited him to perform in their companies’ events such as Annual Dinner or Spring Dinner from October 2013 till around Chinese New Year time of 2014.

Besides that, Fred has taken part in the filming of a number of commercial advertisements of big companies such as Wellcome, P&G and Magic Smile B1. His first commercial is Wellcome where he filmed with Wu Fung, Yao Bin, Corinna Chamberlain and Hoffman Cheng which aired on 5 January 2014. Subsequently, Fred was selected by P&G to work with Jin Au-Yeung (MC Jin) in the P&G advertisement which was aired 19 March 2014. Both commercial advertisements received good responses from the public. As a result, Fred was chosen to partner with Sisley Choi to appear in a new series of commercial with veteran TVB artistes such as Wu Fung and Law Lan in a new commercial for Wellcome. In the commercial Fred and Sisley Choi portray the younger versions of Wu Fung and Law Lan, an elderly couple. Though the stars filmed in front of a plain backdrop, they were extremely into their character. Fred and Sisley Choi were praised for their romantic chemistry. Fred’s first commercial by himself is MagicSmile B1, which was first aired on 21 June 2014 on MagicSmile B1's Facebook.

Apart from that, Fred was also invited to be a guest singer in a number of concerts. On September 15, 2014 Cheng released his first album "Story of Panda". It reached number one on multiple sales charts within one week. On November 1, 2014 he held his first concert at the Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre. He invited his band, HOME, to perform as well as singers from his record company, The Voice Entertainment.

## Music career

Fred has officially signed with Voice Entertainment on 15 November 2013 as a singer. His new album will be released in September 2014. On 24 March 2014, he has released his first single - "Nobody" on HK iTunes. The song was on #1 on the Hong Kong iTunes for seven consecutive days. His second single - "Panda" was released on 31 July 2014 and the song went to #1 on Hong Kong iTunes after one hour release. Fred Cheng's first album was released on 15 September 2014 and he held his first concert - "Welcome to My Dreams" on 1 November 2014 at the Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre.

## 2) Other Songs

* 2013 TVB 46th Anniversary Celebration Theme Song - "Always Getting Better" [*citation needed*]
* 2014 FIFA World Cup Theme Song - "We Are the Only One" (Various Artists Chorus)
* 2014 TVB J2 Channel Song - "Vibrant Heart"

## Awards

Fred has won numerous awards for his singing in 2014 and 2015 as a newcomer in the singing industry.

## 1) Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards

The Jade Solid Gold Songs Awards Ceremony(十大勁歌金曲頒獎典禮) is held annually in Hong Kong since 1984. The awards are based on Jade Solid Gold show on TVB.

 Jade Solid Gold 2nd Half Season Selection 2014

## 2) Hong Kong TVB8 Awards

The Hong Kong TVB8 Awards (Chinese: TVB8金曲榜頒獎) are given annually by TVB8, since 1999, a Mandarin television network operated by Television Broadcasts Limited.

 - Best Newcomer

## 3) TVB Star Awards 2014

TVB Star Awards Malaysia (Traditional Chinese: TVB 馬來西亞星光薈萃頒獎典禮), organised by TVB to present awards to actors and actresses for their achievements. This event is held in Malaysia once a year and as a token of appreciation of continuous support, voting is open to all Malaysian fans. Astro, a broadcasting company founded in Malaysia has held this award since 2004, previously known as Astro Wah Lai Toi Drama Awards (Astro華麗台電視劇大奖) [2004-2009] which later changed to My AOD Favourites Awards (MY AOD我的最愛頒獎典禮) [2010-2012]. TVBI Company Limited took over the production of this award presentation in 2013 and since then it is named as TVB Star Awards Malaysia (2013–present). The event regard as a prelude to the TV Anniversary Awards of TVB.[1][2]

## 4) Commercial Radio Hong Kong Ultimate Song Chart Awards

The Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation (叱咤樂壇流行榜頒獎典禮) is a cantopop award ceremony from one of the famous channel in Commercial Radio Hong Kong known as Ultimate 903 (FM 90.3). Unlike other cantopop award ceremonies, this one is judged based on the popularity of the song/artist on the actual radio show.

## 5) RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards

The RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards Ceremony(zh:十大中文金曲頒獎音樂會) is held annually in Hong Kong since 1978. The awards are determined by Radio and Television Hong Kong based on the work of all Asian artists (mostly cantopop) for the previous year.

## 6) Metro Showbiz Hit Awards

The Metro Showbiz Hit Awards (新城勁爆頒獎禮) is held in Hong Kong annually by Metro Showbiz radio station. It focus mostly in cantopop music.

 2015

## 8) IFPI Hong Kong Sales Awards

IFPI Awards is given to artists base on the sales in Hong Kong at the end of the year.

## Commercials

Fred has been involved in many commercials since he started his career. The following list shows the commercials he involved.

## References

1. ↑  (in Chinese)*IHKTV*. 14 October 2013. http://www.ihktv.com/voiceofstars-winners.html. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Fred Cheng to be first Voice Entertainment artiste to release new album" (in Chinese). *HK Yahoo! News*. 2013-11-16. http://hk.news.yahoo.com/%E6%98%9F%E5%A4%A2%E5%A8%9B%E6%A8%82%E5%A4%A7%E6%99%92%E5%86%B7-%E9%84%AD%E4%BF%8A%E5%BC%98%E8%BA%8D%E5%8D%87-%E5%93%A5%E5%85%88%E5%87%BA%E7%A2%9F-223000627.html. Retrieved 2013-12-18.