Fresh from “Sing! China,” Singaporean singer Nathan Hartono remains a Singapore boy at heart.

    He told Channel NewsAsia’s “First Look Asia” program the Singapore market is still an important one to him and he expects exciting things to happen on the little red dot.

    Hartono said he will not do anything differently and that his experience at the singing competition has been enriching.

    His biggest challenge though was the language.

    “I can speak Chinese and it’s functional, but it’s not as effective as my English,” he said. “A lot of things get lost in translation. So I constantly feel like half a person over there, cos the other half of me is just lost.”

    Hartono described his mentor, singer, songwriter and record producer Jay Chou as chilled, laid-back* , down to earth and a huge nerd*. And the one surprising thing about Chou, Hartono said, was that he genuinely* cared about his charges.

    The past few weeks have been intense, he says, but he tried his best during the finals, as did the other contestants. “We left our heart and soul on stage that night,” he said.

    Hartono posted a picture of himself on stage in an oversized T-shirt from 2005 on his Facebook page over the weekend.

    “Kanye West stole my look,” he said. “You know how Kanye West dresses nowadays? This was his reference. I want to dress like that boy from Singapore.” Hartono also said there might just be a meet-and-greet* with him, organized by Milo soon.

    (SD-Agencies)