You may recognize PENG as an elite gymnast, now watch as she scores another perfect 10 with her debut single, “Pretty Please.” PENG also debuts the official “Pretty Please” music video directed by Vanessa Zamarripa. Watch the music video here.
“Pretty Please,” inspired by her story of triumph over adversity. The single symbolizes her resilience and determination to overcome life’s hurdles. Keeping to her roots, she aims to inspire young athletes worldwide through her music, emphasizing the importance of never giving up. Her journey from elite gymnast to a multi-faceted entertainer is a testament to her relentless passion and inspiring resilience.
As a former member of the Canadian national team, she demonstrated exceptional talent and resilience, helping Team Canada qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. Despite an ACL injury preventing her competition, PENG’s determination earned her a place at the Games. Continuing her success at UCLA, PENG secured numerous accolades, including the 2018 NCAA National Championship and the Honda Sport Award.
Off the beam, PENG’s artistic journey began at London’s prestigious Original Kids Theatre, where she captivated audiences with her powerful vocals, performing at major sports events and amassing a massive social media following of over 5.6 million followers on platforms like TikTok. Transitioning into acting, she starred in hit series like “WARPED!” and “My Perfect Landing,” and emerged victorious in the “Ultimate Crown: Fire & Ice Edition” on Twitch.
Check out our interview with PENG:
So first off, congratulations on your debut single coming out this week.
PENG: Thank you, I’m really excited. It’s been crazy.
Oh, I bet. Are you doing anything special to celebrate?
PENG: You know, it’s funny because I actually am. Originally I wasn’t going to do a release party. I feel like I almost got peer pressured into it by friends and family. They were like, “you know, it’s a big deal. You should.”
So, we all know you as an elite gymnast. So what inspired you to pursue music?
PENG: I’ve always had a love for music ever since I was a little kid. It was funny because I went home to Canada recently and I was watching some home videos, and I was singing probably ever since I was a year old. I remember getting gifts from my family, they would give me microphones and they’d always be like, “what do you want to sing? What do you want to sing?” I was singing all the time. I was always singing and flipping and it was hilarious because my dad was just telling me, “that’s all you wanted to do, sing and flip.” And that’s crazy because that’s literally what I’m doing. But I have had a passion for music ever since I was young. When I was a gymnast, I used to try and make songs out of floor music because there were no lyrics or singing overtop of it. I really looked up to Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift at the time, because I just loved the way they wrote and they picked up a guitar and they would sing and so in high school, I actually picked up a guitar and I would write my own songs. It was so therapeutic to just sit down outside of gymnastics and just have a creative release. I’ve been doing singing lessons ever since I was young, and when I wasn’t doing gymnastics, I did a theater camp. It all had to do with music and acting, and so I think I always knew that after gymnastics, I wanted to pursue my creative side. And I remember when I was younger, like probably about five-years-old to 10-years-old, I would put on mini concerts in my bedroom. I had a knee high dresser and I would turn the dresser vertically, not vertically but length wise, or long ways, and I would pretend it was like the middle of a concert stage and we would invite my cousins and my parents and my uncles and aunts and I would have them sit around this dresser as I was singing covers. I’ve always had an interest in music.
You mentioned Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift, do they still influence your music or are there other musicians that kind of have more of an influence over your sound?
PENG: They haven’t influenced my music necessarily, but they’ve inspired my music. I would also say a lot of my inspiration would come from old school Ariana Grande. I was thinking about this the other day, and I just loved the Spice Girls and how they would perform and I actually saw them in the concert. Even Britney Spears, just her way of performing the songs and it can be so much more than just the singing. Right now, I love Bruno Mars and I love Blackpink. I think Blackpink has definitely inspired me with my music just because I love when an artist can perform and sing and just put on a grand show and I think that comes from my gymnastics. I used to compete against, you know, the best and I went to World Cups and World Championships and I would be in these huge arenas. And sometimes, even though I was supposed to be focused on gymnastics, I was like, “Oh, this is kind of what it’s like for an artist to have a concert,” like I was my first, go-to thought. I’d go backstage at these arenas and see all these artists’ pictures and I was so inspired by them even though I was there for sports. But I would say Blackpink, Bruno Mars, even Britney Spears and Ariana Grande, they’ve all, I’d say, influenced my music in a certain way, but definitely they’ve inspired me and my music.
How would you describe your overall sound?
PENG: I would describe my sound as edgy and also empowering. The reason I say that is because a lot of it came from when I was younger. I was very much a people pleaser, I didn’t like fighting for myself, I didn’t want to stand up and defend myself. I remember I’d come home crying from being bullied all the time. I was an easy target to bully for sure. I was the smallest of the group and the least developed, and I was really muscular as a kid from gymnastics. Lots of people would underestimate me and my abilities and so, I wanted my music to be empowering and have really strong dance moves and when people sing it, I want them to feel badass. I want them to feel in charge and that they can take ownership of their life. I know my personality is not really like that, but that’s why I have my music, it’s an amazing creative release for me to even feel like that side of me is a badass. It’s one of those things where the edginess comes from, it’s kind of like my alter ego in a way. I’ve always been put in a box with gymnastics– you have to be perfect, you have to be this perfect image all through gymnastics, you’re not allowed to show an emotional side to you. So my music is a way for me to express myself as I had never been able to express myself when I was an athlete.
Your answer made me think about your single, “Pretty Please” because this song kind of embodies everything you just said. Which, to me, kind of makes it the perfect debut single. Was that your intention when choosing it as your debut?
PENG: Yes, 100%. When people have seen me through gymnastics and through social media, they see a very positive [person], which I still am. I still am very positive, but I would just say that it was a perfect release because it’s kind of shocking for me to almost, like, fight for myself. I think a lot of the time I’m normally very neutral. I’ve been media trained since I was 10, I know what to say and I’ve been taught to stay humble, stay neutral, and all that stuff, and I feel like over the years, I’ve become more confident in myself, that it’s okay to express myself in certain forms… It’s just something that you would never expect and it just showcases who I want to be as an artist. I’m showing myself emotionally being vulnerable in that sense to showcase that side of me that I’ve kind of dabbled into, but I have a hard time talking about myself emotionally. So, music has been an amazing outlet for that.
What was it like filming the music video?
PENG: Oh my god, I was so happy. I can’t even tell you how happy I was. Well, I was really nervous. I told my director Vanessa Zamarripa, who’s a former teammate of mine, and she’d been a friend for over 10 years and I told her, “I have this music and I really want to make a music video”– and a lot of people were telling me not to make a music video because lots of people don’t do that as their first artist project. I kind of got back into the spiral of just doing what other people are telling me to do and I think I had come to the realization that this is my project. I really want to do a music video. It has to have imagery, because, for me, imagery and the art of the whole package is important to me, like the performance and the dance and the storytelling behind it. And because I’m new I really wanted that story to come through. And so the day of the music video was unreal, it was so amazing. We had been in four dance rehearsals, you know, there had been a lot of work leading up to it with the dancers, and then we were stunting, like I was doing boxing practice… I felt like a little superstar, it was so fun. It was really cool because I had all my teammates beside me at the shoot, a lot of them came and even supported me by doing background work. I had met a bunch of new dancers who I never danced with before, and the choreographer, and it was just really fun to go through the rehearsal process. It was definitely really stressful, but it was really exciting. When I was standing at rehearsal, I was like, “this is literally like a dream come true.” I had a huge smile on my face, even though I was nervous, like, I felt like I was in a dance class where I was too embarrassed to move around.
But the day of the shoot, I was telling people that I never got the chance to compete at the Olympic Games because I tore my ACL and maybe because, you know, those young coaches would tell me like, “that’s your dream, you should be dreaming about the Olympics,” and all that stuff, but I never really watched the Olympics. I think it was just like, “oh yeah, I’m good enough to get there, let me work hard at it.” And I enjoy gymnastics, but I never competed at the Olympics. And it‘s just so crazy because, yes, it was a dream of mine, but that dream made me really nervous. But with this music video, I was nervous and really excited and really happy, like I feel like this is my Olympics. Like it was meant for my Olympics, not to compete necessarily, but this is the equivalent of like an Olympic dream for me. I cannot express how happy I was all day and I was like on cloud nine for like a week later.
If you were to use “Pretty Please” as a floor routine song, are there any moves or tricks or anything that you would make sure to include?
PENG: We have some really fun choreography and you’re gonna have to stay tuned for that for sure. We have this like slide split thing, I know it’s probably not gymnastics friendly in a way, but to me it just seems like a really powerful song, so I feel like power tumblers can get into it but there’s also this strength so you could kind of make it really pretty. But you definitely got to wait for the choreography in the music video and I’m curious to see which moves stick with people.
Now that “Pretty Please” and its music video are coming out, are there more singles or an album coming next– what can we look forward to?
PENG: Yeah, I’m working towards an EP which is really exciting. I kind of go back and forth with my team about it, but I think the EP and especially “Pretty Please,” like, it’s almost like a dedication to my gymnastics emotionally. I’m so excited to release my music. I’ve been working on music for the past, like, two years, so it just feels so good to finally be like, “No, I’m doing it.” I’m not gonna wait around for anyone to tell me or anyone to pick me up or anything. I’m doing it for myself and for my fans and I really want to showcase to people that it’s okay to have this emotional release. and I hope that people can relate.
You also have the Gold Over America Tour coming up which is also very exciting. Can you explain a little bit about what that is and what exactly you’re going to be doing?
PENG: Yeah, so the Gold Over America tour is with Simone Biles and a lot of the Olympic team members and even there’s dancing and– I went to go watch it the last time it was on tour and it’s a super, super fun show. The gymnasts come in, the clubs come in and they get to see all their favorite athletes and they’re doing tricks and flips but they’re also really engaging with the audience and I feel like that’s something that you don’t get when you watch these athletes because they’re in competition mode and they have to stay focused. So, this is one of those things where it’s a really fun show that tours around the United States. And then for me, I’m going to be doing a lot of the hosting things, like, I’ll be doing interviews during the show, and I’ll be dancing, and then hopefully we can incorporate my music in there. But I’m going to be doing a lot of the check-ins with the athletes and fan and athlete interactions and I’m really excited for that because I feel like it’s a whole different side of gymnastics that you don’t get to see too often. It’s more of a personal side and so I’m really excited to be able to maneuver that during the show.
What does the rest of 2024 look like for you?
PENG: Oh man, I honestly have just been working so hard on this music. I want to get back in the studio. I want to keep continuing to write so that I can provide the best EP possible and also learn to relax. And I can’t wait to play my video game on tour. I’ve been saving this one video game for the tour so I can play it while I’m on the bus. That’s going to be my chance to just relax.
Follow PENG: @pengpengclee on TikTok | @pengpengclee on IG | @pengpengclee on YouTube
