From Jace Chan to Moon Tang, Tatler talks to seven of the city’s musicians on their 2023 highlights, their favourite songs to wrap up the year, and more
In 2023, Hong Kong’s music industry well and truly came out of the shadow of the pandemic years. Not only did the city host Clockenflap, the city’s biggest music festival, twice this year, it also saw many local artists—especially women—releasing new songs and albums in Cantonese and English, and collaborating with each other. While established singers such as Jace or Merry Lamb Lamb marked their comeback with long-form projects, up-and-coming talents such as Joya and Kalai surprised all with their bold, forward-looking music.
So to wrap up the year on a musical note, Tatler has selected seven talented women musicians who—we’re sure—will leave a mark on the Hong Kong music scene next year. Make sure to add these singers to your 2024 playlist.
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1. Merry Lamb Lamb
Genre: dance/electronic
Merry Lamb Lamb went from being a “shy teenager” (in her own words) to cultivating an exuberant artistic persona both in the fashion industry—through her collaborations with Gucci, Moschino, Chanel and Acne Studio—and in the music industry. She describes her journey as one of resilience and self-discovery. After a successful debut album, Genesis, she continued her musical journey through the exploration of identity and belonging, which forms the essence of her latest project Exodus. “To me, Exodus is a fresh chapter of my artistic journey. I adapted to a new music-writing approach and conquered my weaknesses,” she tells Tatler. Below, she shares the highlights of 2023 and her vision of the future.
What did 2023 mean to you?
For me, 2023 was a year of breakthroughs and of finding comfort in exploring new music. I shifted my way of making music. My partner Lung, my art director, also performs with me. We did many jamming sessions at our home studio, making drum loops on my TR-8S drum machine and finding remarkable bass and synth lines to form the base of a song. Most of the songs from the latest project, such as Tranquillity, Forever and Empathy, were formed based on these loops.
This is also when I became aware that I wanted to perform my music live and interact with it instantly on site, through dance music which allowed me more room for experimentation. Making Exodus made me realise I could capture more surge and vulnerability compared to Genesis, which is a more mellow and melancholic side of my past.