“Crazy Rich Asians” didn’t just launched Henry Golding in Hollywood, it also featured another fellow Malaysian on an international platform for the first time. Her name is Cheryl Koh (or Cheryl K).
The KL-born singer and songwriter, who is now based in Los Angeles, first submitted her audition tape in February last year. Little did she knew that she’ll be singing the opening and closing song of “Crazy Rich Asians“.
The cover track that Cheryl is featured on is titled “Money (That’s What I Want)”. The 22-year-old from Shah Alam said, “‘Money’ talks about how badly you want and need money, despite having everything else. It’s actually a very old Motown song by Barrett Strong, written by Janie Bradford and Berry Gordy Jr and has since been popularised by The Beatles and Bruno Mars.”
So what’s the biggest difference between the new version versus the 1959 track? “The version I sing is written in Mandarin and English, which makes it special to Asian audiences,” she explained. In case you didn’t know, Awkwafina also raps on the song!
“Awkwafina recorded her rap separately from me because she was in New York at the time for ‘Oceans 8’. I only got to finally meet her in person during one of the photo shoots. Jon (the director) was so fun to work with in the recording studio! He gave me a lot of pointers and tips. I remember him saying, ‘Cheryl, I want you to growl as much as you can and sing with your greatest energy because I want people to feel like they want to jump out of their seats during the Opening of the movie’,” Cheryl told Female Mag.
Listen:
1. Solo version
2. Featuring Awkwafina’s rap
“It has always been on my bucket list to hear my voice in a film and see my name scroll up during the end credits – never would I imagine it would come so soon. I’ve never been more proud to be Asian and sing in two languages with such soul,” Cheryl was quoted as saying.
“Crazy Rich Asians” debuts in Malaysian cinemas 22nd August 2018.
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