Thai-German model and singer Jannine Weigel was in Manila for the Nickelodeon Slimefest 2019. The teen star shared the stage with local acts like IV of Spades, Carlie Hanson, Philippine AllStars and with Robi Domingo as host.
Like most Gen Z stars, Jannine is active on social media, which she uses to interact with her fans. She is also on YouTube, a platform where she creates music content that she believes can motivate and influence her followers in a positive manner.
Born in Steinfurt, Germany on July 30, 2000, Jannine began her career as a model when she moved to Bangkok in 2010. After a year of modeling, however, she realized that she wanted to focus on her singing. She entered Singing Kids, a national singing contest, where she won 3rd place.
Jannine was then offered a trainee contract by GMM Grammy, Thailand’s largest media company, in 2012.
The following year, she put up her own YouTube channel, which features her covers of Sia’s “Elastic Heart”, Charlie Puth’s “See You Again” and Passenger’s “Let Her Go.”
She’s the first Thai singer to achieve a Gold button on YouTube for her covers.
From doing covers, she moved on to recording her own songs in Thai and other languages. Only 19, Jannine speaks a total of five languages: Thai, English, German, Chinese and Vietnamese.
From mid-2010 until recently, she lives primarily in Thailand. Her stay in Thailand has influenced her life manifold and was an important factor on her way to fame. She developed to be a singer, songwriter, and actress.
In 2012 she got signed with GMM Grammy. (Her contract expired in May 2018.)
In February 2013 at the age of 12 when she had a lot of free time, so she started to do covers on YouTube. This resulted in her being the first Thai singer to achieve the Youtube Gold button. She achieved this in only two years.
At the end of December 2017, she released the single “Ghostbuster.” She wrote the lyrics and composed the music of this song all by herself.
Jannine is also a model, brand ambassador and has done acting for movies, series, and soaps.
“I don’t just want to be an artist because I like it. I want to sing and do music because I want to connect with my listeners, I want to share my emotions with them, my happiness, my pain and everything in between. I want them to feel like I’m there for them and feel them when sometimes no one is. I want to share my thoughts with them.”
Here’s our full Q and A with Jannine:
Hi, Janine, is this your first time in Manila? How long will you be staying here for?
Yes, this is my first time and I’m excited to be here. I’ll be staying here for four days.
Do you have any plans to explore the country after the Slimefest?
I really want to explore the country. I especially want to try out some Filipino food. I heard that this food called Adobo is good but I’m vegetarian. So, I kind of feel sad. But I’d like to come back here maybe for a vacation and see the islands. I’ve heard a lot about the islands.
Talking about the event, what makes you feel excited to perform in Manila?
I’m so excited to perform here in Manila and see my fans. I’ve never been here before and I always see my fans on Instagram and Facebook. I feel like I’ve been doing this for so long but I have never had the opportunity to come here until now so I would also like to thank Nickelodeon for giving me this opportunity.
How does it feel that you have avid groups of supporters on this side of the world?
At first I really didn’t know but when I posted the promo for the Slimefest, I realized that I have a lot of fans here. And I’m grateful for that.
Are you a fan of Nickelodeon Slimefest?
Yes! I’ve seen that since I was little, when I was living in Germany. And seeing all these artists getting slimed, it feels like, oh I want to get slimed, too!
What are the things that you look forward to whenever you watch this annual event?
I really like the part when everybody gets slimed because for me that’s the real highlight of the show.
A huge number of your supporters come from YouTube, being the first Thai to receive the gold play button award. How does it feel that you’re able to influence a lot of people especially the young ones through a platform (YouTube and social media) that they’re very familiar with?
I’m very grateful and I feel very fortunate that I have the ability to influence young people because for me music is a big part of my life. It has encouraged me, and I want to do the same for other people. I want to create music that encourages people to go out and chase their dreams.
I am grateful that a lot of young people choose me, and want to look up to me. And I want to try my best to keep motivating my fans. I’m just very fortunate to in this position.
Let’s talk about your music, you started out at a very young age, what’s your earliest recollection about you being so into music and performing?
I love music since I could remember. I think a big influence came from my mom. She also loves singing and she taught me singing when I was around three years old. I would sing karaoke and stuff.
I always knew that I wanted to be a singer but I never really thought that I would have the opportunity to be a singer because back when I was younger I grew up and lived in a very small town, it’s more like a countryside kind of town.
I never thought that I would have this kind of opportunity until I turned 10 and moved to Bangkok where I started my acting career. I would do extra roles in commercials where I just walk in the background, you know.
You’re a model, singer, and actress, how do you balance your time and still able to be good at everything you do?
I think it’s about balance. For me, it’s more about balancing out everything. But right now I’m more focused on my music. I love acting but I’m more passionate about music.
And we heard you’re a polyglot, you speak five languages. How did that happen?
Actually, fluently, just three. But I’m studying Chinese a little bit. My mom is Thai and my dad is German, they’ve been speaking in English as I could remember basically, so I kind of got those languages all at the same time. Thai, German, and English are the languages that I grew up with so I didn’t have to really have to study those languages.