Star Awards for Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes

The Star Awards for Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes is an award presented annually at the Star Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1994. Initially, the awards were 10 Most Popular Artistes with five male and five female artistes receiving it.

In 2023, the Most Popular Rising Stars award was introduced for artistes who have been in the entertainment industry for five years or less, regardless of gender.

History
The category was introduced in 1994, at the first Star Awards ceremony ; Chen Liping, Chen Xiuhuan, Pan Lingling, Aileen Tan, and Zoe Tay received the award as five of the female artistes of the 10 Most Popular Artistes award. The winners are determined by a majority vote from the public via telephone and SMS text voting.

During 1994 and 1995, the Most Popular Actress award and Most Popular Actress were also awarded. It was a separate award from the 10 Most Popular Artistes award and was given out to the female artiste who topped the votes of the latter award. Tay won the award in both 1994 and 1995. In 1996, the Most Popular Actress award was retired, making Tay the only recipient of this award.

Since 1997, the number of recipients for each category were expanded to ten and the award was renamed as Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes.

In 2017, the award nominees were increased from 20 to 24, where four artistes were eliminated after the prelude shows while the other 20 continue to compete in the category in the week leading up to the main ceremony.

In 2021, the award nominees was increased from 20 to 30 which means the competition was even more intense for the artistes, who missed out on their glamour night out when the 2020 event was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023, the Most Popular Rising Stars award was introduce with similar eligibility requirements for the Top 10 Most Popular Artistes, aimed for artistes with no more than five years of career experience. The criteria for the "All-Time Favourite Artiste" was also modified such that wins for the "Most Popular Rising Star Award" will count towards the cumulative total of 10 needed to be conferred the "All-Time Favourite Artiste" award. Gao Mei Gui was the first female recipient of this award in the ceremony.

In 2024, the award nominees was increased from 20 to 46 which means the competition was even more intense for the artistes.

Yvonne Lim will receive her All-Time Favourite Artiste award at the next ceremony in 2025 for managing to obtained Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes.

Since the ceremony held in 2024, Carrie Wong remains as the only female artiste to have the most wins without achieving the All-Time Favourite Artiste award, with nine. Wong, Chen Bi Yu and Tasha Low are currently the only female artistes who holds a winning streak that are uninterrupted since their first nomination. In addition, Pan has been nominated on 26 occasions, more than any other female artiste. Lin Meijiao, Patricia Mok and Priscelia Chan hold the record for the most nominations without a win, with 12.

Eligibility
Before 1997, only Mediacorp actresses were eligible to be nominated for the award. This rule was removed in 1997 onwards to allow the Mediacorp female artistes from the variety sector to contest for the award.

In 2018, the rules were changed to allow contracted and project-based artistes to be nominated and/or receive the award.

15 female artistes have received the award for ten times and were given the All-Time Favourite Artiste award, and are no longer eligible for the running of the award.

4 female artistes have won in this category for ten consecutive times since their first nomination. Amongst them are Zoe Tay, Fann Wong, Rui En and Rebecca Lim.

Recipients
Since its inception, the award has been given to 54 female artistes. Carrie Wong, Chantalle Ng, Chen Biyu, Chen Ning, Ya Hui, He Ying Ying, Hong Ling, Tasha Low, Xixi Lim and Yvonne Lim are the most recent winners in the Top 10 category.

While Jernelle Oh is the most recent winner in the Rising Star category.