He spent 13 years away from his daughter. Now their viral TikTok videos bring them closer
Woodlands Crescent Park is a hotspot for joggers, cyclists, basketball players and the neighbourhood tai chi group. At least once a day, though, an opera singer makes the gardens his stage.
Up to twice a day, 76-year-old Low Choon Yong heads to the neighbourhood park to belt out his favourite classical opera songs — or arias — sometimes despite the displeasure of some parkgoers.
“Some say I sound very nice, some say ‘Can you stop, you sound horrible’,” he said with a chuckle. “But after my TikTok went viral, lots of kids came up to me and ask to take photo with them. So all the kids here know me.”
The retiree has become an unlikely TikTok celebrity ever since the first video of him singing opera was posted in 2024. His signature line — “You think I’ll sing [pop song name]? But I’m an opera singer” — has captured the hearts of netizens, racking up millions of views across TikTok and Instagram.
But beyond the viral fame, TikTok has given him something even more meaningful: a chance to grow closer to his daughter after they once spent 13 years apart.
Daughter helped to start his TikTok journey
A former Mandarin and physical education teacher, the father of two never thought his path would lead him here.
Speaking to Stomp, Low’s daughter, Angela Low, said she initially started the @sgfrenchtutor TikTok account to help promote her father’s French tutoring services.
“It was born out of survival because he needed an income boost. It wasn’t passion,” she shared.
The earlier videos featured Low translating typical Singaporean phrases into French. However, after posting a few videos, they stopped.
Months later, Angela asked her father one evening after dinner if there was “any special thing” he wanted to do now in his retirement years.
His answer was simple.
He wanted to introduce more young people to the traditional Italian singing style of bel canto — an operatic technique dating back to the 18th century.
He wished to spread the joy and technique he’s learnt from the art form, and perhaps even discover a young, undiscovered talent in the process.
“This was the first time he had expressed this desire and I was pretty intrigued by it,” Angela recalled. “I told him the best way to connect with young folks is through TikTok, and on the spot, we started brainstorming a few video ideas.”
That same night, she spontaneously filmed a video of her father singing a cover of Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso and posted it. The video went viral within hours.
The rest, is history.
His most viral video — a mere six-second clip of him singing Travis Scott’s Fein, has amassed 4.3 million views. But it was enough to get the Gen Z’s stanning.
Comments on his videos include “vibrato goes hard uncle” and “ATE”. Low admits he doesn’t revisit the videos after they are posted, relying on his daughter to send him screenshots of positive comments instead.
Although they do not live together, Low says the pair meet up “quite often” to shoot short videos of him singing for the sgfrenchtutor account.
Continued singing despite turbulent past in Thailand
Seeing how close they are today, few would guess they once spent more than a decade living apart, when he lived overseas.
After his divorce in Singapore, Low moved to Bangkok, Thailand in 2009 and ultimately spent over a decade there — during which he got married to his second wife, a Thai resident. The marriage later ended following disputes with her family.
Despite the distance, Angela never stopped keeping in touch.
“She was still young…in secondary school. She started writing poems and she would send them to me over email,” he recalled with a smile. “This daughter is very very close to me.”
Even during those difficult years, Low never stopped singing. In Bangkok, he stayed near a navy hospital with a large compound, where he often went to practise singing. He also joined the Bangkok Music Society to sing with the choir.
“I wanted to move out and live alone there (in Bangkok),” Low said, after his second marriage came to an end.
But one conversation with a close friend changed everything.
“But one day, I told my best friend about my situation. He asked, ‘Then why don’t you just come back? Don’t wait until you are going to die then you expect your daughter to bring you back from there in that state.’”
Low eventually returned to Singapore in 2022.
Looking back on that chapter of his life, he said wistfully: “Life is an unknown journey. What I like, is what makes me happy.”
Love for music started as a child
Low’s love of music began long before TikTok.
Growing up, his father would play Teochew opera records every day on the gramophone. At school, he perked up during music lessons and would eagerly put his hand up whenever there was an opportunity to sing.
“[In primary school] it would just be kids’ songs, but when I went to secondary school there were no arts and music lessons… so I felt a bit ‘urgh’,” Low said, expressing frustration at the lack of an outlet to explore his musical interests.
His musical journey truly began when he enrolled at the Teachers’ Training College of Singapore (the original institution for training school teachers, which would later become National Institute of Education), where he joined a choir for the first time.
Under the tutelage of the late Leong Yoon Pin, whom he describes as "Singapore’s best music educator” and a music lecturer at the college at the time, Low learnt basic music theory.
“Until today I’m very very grateful to him. That’s how I started falling in love with music.”
An 'accidental’ introduction to the French language
Besides music, Low also developed a passion for the French language. As his social media handle suggests, Low tutors French and has been doing so since 1986.
“I wanted to see Europe at least once in my lifetime,” he shared, looking back at when he first picked up the language.
“I told myself: ‘I have to pick up another European language besides English’. My first choice was actually German, because my introduction to Western classical music was Lieder.”
Lieder, or lied, is a type of classical art song where expressive poetry is set to music.
While visiting London in the 1970s, he found the German language books sold out. “That’s when I decided to pick up a French copy. I started listening to a cassette and read the (French) book at home.”
As it turns out, he picked up the French book at the perfect time, as soon after, he was invited to attend a fellowship programme in Paris.
The French Embassy in Singapore provided him with months of French lessons in preparation for the programme, only for it to be scrapped due to an administrative oversight.
Still, he continued learning French at his own expense because he had grown to love the language. “I attended the lessons for five and a half years.”
Low credits his multilingual upbringing for his ability to pick up French so well.
“My father used to fry chai tow kway (carrot cake), and every weekend I would go to the store and help him. So I grew up in a market, listened to all kinds of dialect, even spoke Malay. From young my ear was well trained.”
Years later, he received a three-year scholarship to study linguistic research at the Université de Franche-Comté in Besançon, France. He majored in linguistic research, and his academic performance eventually earned him an invitation to complete a master’s degree.
“The most fulfilling, exciting and happy days of my life,” Low said enthusiastically.
“In fact, I went back to Besançon last year and met one of my beloved linguistic lecturers there, and then my master’s degree research mentor in Paris. They still remember me!”
A lifelong journey of singing, learning and teaching
Despite life’s ups and downs, music and teaching have remained the two constants in Low’s life.
“I used to live in Choa Chu Kang. I (would) ride my motorcycle all the way to Bukit Batok Nature Park, park my bike, jog all the way up to the radio transmission tower, (and) I’d go there and do my practice. Singing is a skill — you need to keep training to maintain and improve your skill.”
As someone who has largely been self-taught — whether it’s bel canto singing or learning French — Low says he’s proud of himself for being “sincere and serious” about his work.
That same dedication shaped his teaching career.
One of his proudest moments came when a Primary 4 student who had repeatedly failed Chinese for the past three years finally passed after months of lessons.
“He was the worst student in the class. By the June exams, he passed his Chinese and he cried in front of the whole class. This made me feel very proud.”
Today, Low continues teaching French and also meets a group of friends every Sunday morning to coach them in bel canto singing before they head off for brunch together.
He is also preparing for upcoming stage performances featuring some of his favourite arias.
As for slowing down, that does not appear to be on the cards.
Low says making TikTok videos with his daughter has brought him “much joy” and they’ve become even closer than before.
Remarking on her father’s parenting style and their unconventional past, Angela said the physical distance was “never the real issue” as they had always been close.
“His ability to accept me as I am and not judge me or force me to do anything I didn’t want to do makes him an S-tier Asian dad,” she quipped.
Asked how she felt about her father’s newfound virality, Angela said: “I’m really proud of him, and honestly still quite amazed by how well the videos are doing.
“I’m glad he’s having fun with it.”
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