It hosts some of the best music festivals on the continent—and now it is home to major talent, too. We speak to Gen.T honourees Charlie Lim and Manfred Lim about Singapore's burgeoning music scene
Compared to the other music capitals of Asia, Singapore can seem, well, a little staid. But despite its reputation for being one of the continent’s best-behaved cities, it has been a music and festival hub for far longer than many of us realise.
In the 1960s, the country was a launchpad for bands like The Crescendos and The Quests, while by start of the 21st century, pop singers such as Stefanie Sun and JJ Lin had been making waves around the continent—not to mention the myriad of festivals that take place around the city.
But today a new generation of Singaporean singers are making their mark on the Asian music scene—and breaking ground around the continent. One major player is Charlie Lim, who broke into the Southeast Asian music scene in 2011 with his eponymous debut album. Signing with management label House of Riot! in 2012, he signed to Universal Music Singapore in 2016 and toured the region, playing major festivals such as Mosaic Music Festival in Singapore, Jarasum International Jazz Festival in Korea and Urbanscapes in Kuala Lumpur.
His latest album, CHECK-HOOK, went to number one on the Singapore iTunes album charts and he has recently played at Summer Sonic in Japan, Bigsound in Brisbane and OzAsia Festival in Adelaide—and packed the iconic Star Theatre in Singapore for his album launch. No stranger to experimentation when pushing the boundaries of pop music, Charlie’s ability to traverse genres has made him beloved at home and abroad.
“It’s been a great year,” he says. “There's a bunch of collaborations in the works which is really exciting for me, because working on your own record can be incredibly insular. I've also been sitting on some live content we recorded that we're finally going to be putting out soon.”
The festival circuit has had a major impact on Charlie’s career—and given Singapore’s burgeoning reputation as a festival hub, he hasn’t had to travel far for most of them. Rivalling even England when it comes to the quantity and quality of festivals (if not the narcotic consumption), Singapore is now home to ZoukOut, Laneway, Garden Beats, Jazz Fest, Music Ultra and It's the Ship.
“There's been a huge influx of festivals over the last 10 years,” says Charlie. “It has definitely opened a lot of doors for both artists and audiences, but I believe it also caused a bit of a bubble. And I think that's burst recently, so you can see things winding down quite a lot. I can imagine it's tough for a promoter when the market is small and oversaturated. On the plus side, I've also been seeing more community-driven events that have grown over time. Those are the ones that are most encouraging and probably best for our music scene.”