Dream Big

Singer Sandra Riley Tang never felt that she fit in anywhere. Today, she embraces her individualism as she forges on with her solo music career.

- Dawn Wong

Dream big or go home. That’s the mantra of Sandra Riley Tang, and she isn’t afraid to pursue her dreams – no matter how big they are.

“I want to leave a mark… to put Singapore on the map,” she declares.

Many know her as the singer from The Sam Willows, the solo artiste also known as Riley, or the dynamic founder behind The Yoga Co.

At 29, she has been there, done that – on account of having experienced several bumps on the road to live the life she’s in pursuit of – way before fame came knocking on her door.

When she was 16, and unable to get a place in Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Singapore Polytechnic’s mass communications courses, she worked as a part-time waitress for 18 months to help pay for her tuition fees in a private school.

“It was a crushing defeat,” she recalls. “I felt it in me, that I was very different. I’m very capable, but why does it tell me otherwise academically – that I can’t achieve great things?”