Minutes after her second-place win on Hunan Satellite TV’s “I Am a Singer,” Hong Kong singer G.E.M., also known as Deng Ziqi in Mandarin, saw her latest Sina Weibo post receive 180,000 likes and 10,000 reposts within 24 hours. G.E.M. is now one of the most familiar celebrity faces among Chinese audiences.

    In fact, she became a worldwide well-known singer a week ago when she won the most popular Asian artist award at the Kids Choice Awards in Los Angeles.

    “What a dramatic change for me just within the past three months...Mainlanders did not know me few months ago, but now I have so many fans,” she wrote. “Wining second place is amazing for me, and thank you for the support. I am a singer, and I love to communicate through music.”

    She also made a comment on her first international award earlier, saying that she was thrilled to hear the news and felt honored to win the award as a Chinese singer.

    Born in Shanghai in August 1991, G.E.M. moved to Hong Kong with her family when she was 4. She learned to compose and play piano at a young age and made her music debut in 2008.

    As a singer-composer, she has won several influential awards, including the highest sale female singer of the year in Hong Kong in 2012 and best female singer at the 24th Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan. She held five consecutive solo concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum when she was 19 years old, which broke the record.

    Her hit songs include “What Have U Done,” “Cheer Up!” and “Someday I’ll Fly.”(Tan Yifan)