“Born blind in a small town in the Philippines, Aliénette did not have easy access to Braille books, but fast forward 26 years later and she earned herself a third-place finish in the finale of the 11th season of France’s Got Talent. The daughter of a taxi driver and a clerk mother, Aliénette inspires me because she never let her impairment stop her from achieving her dreams. In college, she enrolled in a French class as a course elective, but she really learnt the language online. Almost every night, she would diligently practice speaking French with Facebook friends using special software and three years into doing this, she became fluent in the language. Aliénette has said that she wanted to learn French after she became mesmerised by a rendition of “La Vie en Rose” by popular French singer Edith Piaf. She’ll be performing in Singapore as part of the True Colours Festival from 22 to 25 March 2018, which I’m the artistic director of!”

“A woman that I greatly admire is Madam Halimah Yacob. She is a strong leader who has a heart for the people that she serves. Madam President has contributed to Singapore in various capacities – be it as a labour leader, a parliamentarian, Minister of State and Speaker of Parliament. In all these roles, she has advocated for the rights of workers, fought for opportunities for single mothers and children of poor families, as well as healthcare for the disabled and elderly. As the first female President of the Republic of Singapore, Madam Halimah Yacob is an inspiration to many women in Singapore.”

“Local musician and all around bad-ass Inch Chua has been one of the trailblazers for local musicians and aspiring artists for years now. Not just with her musical pursuits, but her pursuits in performance art, philanthropy and environmentalism. To me, she’s a human dynamo of inspiration, and I’m also proud to call her a friend. I’ve known her for about eight years now and have seen her work, as well as worked alongside her, over many projects. There are many stories I can tell, but the one that really made an impact on me was her work with the Scape Invasion Tours. Alongside a great team, Inch spearheaded and organised arts education tours in schools all over the country, and they still continue to do it today. Arts education has always felt a little ham-fisted to me, but the way they introduced this program to the students was amazing. Local musicians would go down to schools, hold a mini rock concert with a full band, killer sound system and everything. These performances were paired by talks given by industry professionals. I would’ve loved to attend one of these back when I was in school. I believe the impact of these tours is much deeper than I can imagine. Hundreds of students could now be inspired to pursue a career or hobby in performative arts, and this woman had a lot to do with it.”

“I have always admired my close friend, actress Joan Chen, whom I’ve known for 20 years! She seemed to have a great balance between a career and family which is quite tough in show business. I feel she has achieved so much professionally and at the same time have raised a great family with two girls. She’s living proof that it is possible to do it both! We always discuss about the family versus career issue; do you do any movie and give up time with your family and how often do you do it to make it work. She told me, ‘A director has so many actresses to choose from but my daughters have only one mother!’ This explained everything to me about where her heart was. Incidentally, I think surrounding yourself with inspiring people be it a woman or a man can always help! But I must say a woman sure brings something different to the table and cannot be ignored.”

“The woman who I truly admire has to be my mum, May Schooling. She has loved me all my life, looked after me, spoiled me and of course, supported me in my dreams. Without her, I would be lost and maybe Singapore would not have its first Olympic gold medal.”

“Oprah Winfrey never fails to inspire! We all know women who love her, but for me personally, I believe her strength, focus and opinions on the state of the world, especially on environmental and human rights issues have certainly garnered the respect of men like myself. Plus after her recent Golden Globes speech, she’s now being encouraged to run for President in 2020! Why her you ask? Well, that’s easy! Oprah emerged from an extremely tough childhood. She is a woman who worked her way all the way to the top through sheer hard work and determination! A true inspiration indeed!”

“My dear friend Vanessa Paranjothy, founder of social enterprise Freedom Cups, runs a business that empowers women and changes their lives for the better. I met Vanessa at the Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ Summit in Manila last year where she and her sister spoke about periods and the plight of millions of women in the developing world. I learned so much from their talk and as a man who never had to deal with a monthly physical occurrence, I realized that there is so much that I don’t know and so much that I can do. Even if it’s just helping to raise awareness in my family and circle of friends. Perspective is everything. Women, especially inspiring ones, have so much to teach us men. Imagine having to fight to be paid equal for doing the same job or the societal stigmas and expectations that simply being female brings. I don’t think a lot of men will be handle it as gracefully as women do.”