There’s a saying that goes, “One bad apple can spoil the harvest“. As the latest guest on the Singapore Mandarin-speaking podcast “R U OKAY!? 你OK吗”, Lingyi Xiong (熊令仪) got candid about life as the founder of Wah!Banana and being a female boss in a male-dominated industry.
During the 31-minute session, the China-born content creator talked about how Wah!Banana initially started off as a passion project and eventually grew into one of the top 3 YouTube channels in Singapore. When it comes to content creators and influencers, of course it’s inevitably that some would stand out from the rest. While that benefits the company and its brand image, what happens when the person is the center of a huge scandal?
Back in 2018, Wah!Banana’s star talent – Eden Ang – was involved in a series of sexual harassment allegations. “He’s super talented in acting. He can break dance, rap, good in music, (and can also converse well) in English and Mandarin,” said Lingyi. “When it (the scandal) happened, 3 clients us and I had to reshoot and replace him. The situation was very bad and it affected our brand greatly. It caught me off guard as we were absolutely clueless.” Since his fall from grace, the handsome internet personality has stayed clear of
Similar to Eden Ang, Night Owl Cinematics (NOC) founder Ryan Tan says that he can also relate to Lingyi’s situation. Although Dee Kosh was directly signed under NOC, he was a frequent collaborator and was heavily involved in the successful Food King series. “In the span of 10 years, a lot of people would ask me if he was straight,” Ryan recalled. Dee himself had since admitted that he lied to everyone – even those closest to him, about his sexuality. Although it was obvious from the get-go, Dee was trying to play the “bi” card for the longest time. When the sex scandal went viral online, clients of Food King wanted zero association with Dee Kosh, and they eventually parted ways. “Nobody will know the repercussion when our talents get into trouble,” Ryan added.
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Unlike Eden Ang though, Dee Kosh has been relatively active on Instagram (unfortunately, he’s been banned from YouTube). The former radio DJ also released a series of podcast, detailing the interesting incidents that happened during his time in prison.
