SINGAPORE - By her own admission, home-grown singer Stefanie Sun is a doting, nurturing mother to her 1½-year-old son. But whatever you do, don't call her "mumsy".

That is, despite Sun being the brand ambassador of Abbott Nutrition's Similac-Gain formula milk and joking at her recent press conference that she is "more concerned about Primary 1 enrolment" than anything else.

The 35-year-old Mandopop queen, who was in town on Thursday to promote her new studio album Kepler and concert tour, frowned slightly when quizzed by The New Paper if she is keen to shed the mumsy label.

"'Mumsy' has a negative connotation, it usually means frumpy, right?" she mused.

"I definitely don't feel frumpy. Motherly, yes. But not mumsy."

Sun, who is sporting a short, spunky crop of bleached blonde hair, will be the first pop act to perform at the new National Stadium, on July 5. Her concert is slated to have a seating capacity of almost 20,000.

The youthful-looking pixie-faced singer is looking forward to showing off her nifty footwork.

"It's empowering, doing my energetic dance stuff on stage," she said.

"Giving birth really changes a woman's body. I took some time to train up in preparation for my tour, so it feels really good."

FEELING GUILTY

The first-time mother said the going was the toughest when her son was still a newborn.

Taking care of him stressed her out so much that she relished the idea of having helpers relieve her load.

"In the beginning, it was overwhelming. Suddenly, you have a baby who needs you on hand to change his diapers and feed him, all day, all night... It felt like I had no time left for myself," she said.

"I did think, 'Maybe it'll be better if I go off to work and let somebody else take care of him, it wouldn't be so tough then.'"

HELPER

In an interview with TNP last May, Sun had said that she has a helper, although she did not elaborate if the helper was a maid or nanny.

Things are a lot different now.

"Looking after my son just gets easier. Now, I don't want to get out of the house! I want to be constantly around him to see what he's up to," she said.

"We've been spending so much time together... I play him songs like Mexican folk tune La Bamba, as well as my own song Wu Xian Da (Infinite Possibilities).

"After listening to the latter, he learnt how to say the word 'da' (Mandarin for big)."

After a slight pause, she added: "Whenever I go on tour, there is a lot of guilt. It's inevitable. I try not to think about my son at work, because I might cry."

Having a baby usually changes the dynamics between a married couple. So does Sun and her husband, 36-year-old Dutch-Indonesian business executive Nadim van der Ros, still have time for romance and intimacy?

"Oh, that's a very private question, you know," said Sun with a laugh.

"These days, we feel more like a team. We try to decipher what our son wants, we spend a lot of time talking about his development and growth, it's a nice feeling.

"That said, once a week, my husband and I try to take a day off to do something, just the two of us.

"It's very important in a relationship."

FYI

WHAT

Stefanie Sun 2014 Kepler World Tour

WHEN

July 5, 8pm

WHERE

Singapore National Stadium

TICKETS

$98 to $208 from www.sportshubtix.sg. There is American Express priority booking from now till Monday. Public sales start from Tuesday

This article was published on April 5 in The New Paper.

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