She recently became the first Singaporean to make DJ Mag's list of Top 100 DJs.
In the same month, DJ Tenashar, 26, became the first Singaporean to be featured on the cover of Playboy magazine.
Or more accurately, the Thailand edition of the men's magazine that has long been banned in Singapore because of its pictorials of naked women.
And it was no coincidence that Tenashar appeared in Playboy Thailand's October issue, the same month that she got listed in DJ Mag Top 100.
She told The New Paper over the phone from Hong Kong, where she is based, that she had asked to be the October cover girl to capitalise on her DJ mag success.
Asked how she felt about making the cover of Playboy, she said: "First Singaporean on the cover of Playboy. Yay!
"I specifically asked for my picture to be on the cover for the October edition.
"I pushed for it because I felt that it would be good for the magazine if my cover coincided with the release of the DJ Mag list.
"I felt it was a win-win situation for both of us because that would help sell a lot of magazines."
Tenashar, whose real name is Debbie Valerie Long, is also one of TNP's Babe of the Year nominees in the paper's annual Flame Awards.
Playboy Thailand chief editor Valent Soisuvarn told TNP that Tenashar was the first international model to be featured on the magazine's cover.
"I had approached her as we saw her to be an up-and-coming personality in the region, and wanted to feature her as her status was growing," he said.
It is not clear if Tenashar posed nude for Playboy Thailand or whether the magazine features nudity. But on its website, she is pictured posing in lingerie or with a wet and torn tank top.
In one shot, she appears to be topless but with her hands covering her breasts.
Controversy seems to follow the DJ-model, who came into the limelight in an employment agency's publicity video last year in which she asks a former massage uncle to give her a rubdown. (See report at right.)
And of late, there has been the speculation that she has had her face and breasts surgically enhanced.
On Oct 30, a blog called Singapore Hall Of Shame carried a post with what it claimed were nude pictures of pre-plastic surgery Tenashar.
The blogger wrote: "Previously, I have speculated and insinuated that DJ Tenashar has fake boobs and plastic jobs done on her face... "A reader who does not want to be identified sent me pictures of Tenashar before she got famous, and the evidence is quite clear."
He also said Tenashar was angry that her nude pictures were leaked and she complained to Google, which owns Blogger, for copyright infringement. In a Nov 12 post, the blogger wrote that the alleged nude pictures were removed by Blogger.
In response to our enquiry, the blogger wrote in an e-mail that he came to know of the pictures on Oct 29 after a reader sent him a link to them.
PRIVATE PROPERTY
Identifying himself as Mr Michael Lim, a 39-year-old businessman, he wrote: "She convinced Google that the pictures are her private property, so she has ownership over their rights and distribution."
In a Nov 8 post, he wrote that Tenashar had contacted him to "maintain her innocence saying that she had never ever gone under the knife".
Mr Lim said she told him the naked photos are her personal property and claimed that the commissioned photographer sold them to a porn site.
He also posted screengrabs of a purported exchange on Facebook between him and Tenashar, using her real name Debbie Valerie Long, in which she implored him to take down the pictures.
It was during this exchange that Tenashar apparently admitted that the pictures were of her.
At one point, she wrote: "Your posts are making me cry a lot. It really hurts. I am begging you to stop hurting me."
Mr Lim asked her more than once whether she had plastic surgery. She wrote in a reply: "Even if I told you I didn't, you wouldn't believe. Only if I told you the answer you're looking to hear would you be appeased."
When TNP asked Tenashar if the nude pictures were of her before plastic surgery, she retorted: "I prefer to talk about my music. Why aren't you asking me about my music?"
She then refused to answer any questions not related to her music. When we kept pressing for an answer on WhatsApp, she replied with an Internet link to her latest YouTube video.
In an interview with TNP after her DJ mag success, Tenashar had denied having done any form of plastic surgery.
Asked if any part of her was artificial, she said: "Well, my grandmother is Spanish and if they saw how big her boobs are, then those who keep saying I went for plastic surgery would shut up.
"I wear push-up bras like any other girl. The only thing artificial about me is my hair colour."
SPOTLIGHT ON TENASHAR
VIRAL VIDEO: She burst into the spotlight last year when she played a voluptuous office worker 'harassing' a visibly irritated former massage uncle to give her a massage in a publicity video for a jobs website. It went viral and has more than three million views on YouTube.
STORMRIDER: In September this year, she was widely criticised for risking her life by appearing in a video showing her being hit by waves generated by Typhoon Usagi in Hong Kong. The video, posted on her YouTube channel, had about 35,000 views.
TOP DJ: In October, she became the first Singaporean DJ to make DJ Mag's annual list of the top 100 DJs in the world. But some wondered whether it was because of her sexy image or deejaying skills. Critics also claimed that a raunchy video she uploaded on YouTube to campaign for votes also helped her win the 'popularity' contest.
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