Jonathan Leong - Early Life

Early Life

Leong was born and raised in Singapore, he is the son of Joseph, an owner of a newspaper stand, and Mary an ex airline ticket sales executive. Leong was raised catholic and received his primary school education at Nan Hua Primary School, secondary school education at St. Joseph's Institution where he won his first singing competition in 1997 and junior college education in Serangoon Junior College. Leong finished his academic life graduating in 2007 from The National University of Singapore with a degree in Political Science(Leong was preparing himself for a career in Journalism and writing). Leong was very active in sports during his school days, notably so in the sport of fencing. He had earned himself the school colors from both his secondary school and junior college for his contribution to the respective schools through the sport. Leong had won many national fencing competitions and was part of the Singapore national team, representing the country in the sport from the year 2000-2001. From 2001 to 2003, Leong enlisted in the military, joining the Singapore Armed Forces. During his time in the military, Leong became part of the Airborne trained Commando unit in the Singapore Armed Forces Commando Formation.

Trained electric organ and classical piano from an early age, Leong developed a deep love with music. Leong often cites his father and his family as very strong musical influences in many interviews, saying that his father's one time stint as a singer for a band and the many musical jam sessions that surrounded the young singer-to be weaned him for his career in entertainment.

His first memorable experience on the stage was when he won a school singing contest at the age of 15 and got the opportunity to give a solo performance at a school event as a result. In an interview with Channel NewsAsia, he mentioned that he took part in the singing contest "in order to get out of detention, not to win and fate decided the rest." Towards the end of his military term, he formed the rock band Reverie, taking the role of lead singer with other members of his unit.

Leong fronted rock band, Reverie in the pub and club scene for four years as a means of income while attending university. The band was reasonably successful and they were often hired to play private events, the most notable being FHM Singapore's Girl next door competition finals and various university parties alongside other bands. The band also recorded an original song for a World Harmony Day event for the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Coming from a musical family, it was no surprise that Leong's singing style finds roots from a wide range of artists, the rocker cites his early influences to be a lot of old mainstream pop music, classic rock, heavy metal and hard rock. In many interviews, he has mentioned the vocal stylings of Rob Thomas, Elvis Presley, Dave Gahan, David Bowie, Scott Weiland, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Bono as strong influences.

In late 2004, Leong was signed on to Upfront Models a very well known, modeling agency in Singapore. His involvement in the fashion industry led him to branch out as a solo singer with performances at various fashion events such as DKNY's store launch at Palais renaissance, an upmarket shopping arcade in Singapore, The Takashimaya Singapore Retailer's show, The New Paper New Face pageant finals and as a guest performer at the Concert in the park held at the Singapore Botanic Gardens in 2005.