Cambodian princess Jenna Norodom has amassed close to three million followers on TikTok, and another million on YouTube. - Photo: NORODOM JENNA/WEIBO
PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Princess Jenna Norodom is no ordinary 12-year-old. Known for her good looks, multilingual chops and performing talent, the charismatic royal who joined showbiz when she was six has amassed close to three million followers on TikTok, and another million on YouTube.
Besides being well-liked in her home country, Jenna also enjoys celebrity status in China after performing a repertoire of Chinese songs on state broadcaster CCTV in late 2023.
Her Weibo account – just opened in September – already drew more than 20,000 fans.
Jenna recently captured headlines again after Taiwan’s SET News on Oct 14 reported that her next move is to be a K-pop idol trainee.
The news was widely republished in South Korean entertainment websites, with some suggesting that the talented royal from South-east Asia could potentially become the next Lisa of Blackpink, the megastar who was born in Thailand.
But Jenna’s management team has since denied that she is eyeing K-pop fame. In a Weibo post on Oct 15, which is now deleted, her team said Jenna had received an invitation from a Korean entertainment agency in 2023, but had declined the offer.
“Jenna has not, does not, and will not become a K-pop trainee in South Korea,” the post read.
In her own message, Jenna said she loves music and is working on her first Mandarin album. Besides singing, she said she also wants to focus on her studies, and has no plan to become a K-pop trainee in Korea.
Born in 2012, Jenna is the great-granddaughter of the late Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia’s former king who had lived in China. Her parents are Princess Norodom Bophary and a French businessman.
Jenna studied opera at the Music Arts School in Phnom Penh, and can speak French, Khmer, Thai, Chinese and English, according to South China Morning Post.
At six years old, she entered Cambodia’s showbiz, acting in several Khmer television dramas.
She won the Best Newcomer Actress award at the 2nd Cambodia-Asia Film Festival for the Cambodian horror film, The Night Curse Of Reatrei (2024).
In 2022, Jenna signed with K’ve Entertainment, a K-pop entertainment agency in Cambodia.
Her dance covers of girl group aespa’s Next Level and Blackpink’s Pretty Savage garnered half a million views on YouTube.
In 2022, she also performed a K-pop style song she wrote, The First Day Without You, at a Korea-Cambodia music festival.
“While watching K-pop idols sing and dance, I loved everything about it... I like K-pop because it is modern and unique, bright and dynamic,” she told South Korean media YTN in 2023.
Several videos of Jenna singing in different languages also went viral on YouTube.
Her 2022 cover of At My Worst by American singer Pink Sweats has racked up 23 million views.
Another cover of You Exist In My Son, a song by Chinese singer Qu Wanting, earned her almost 300,000 views. - The Straits Times/ANN
