Leading A Legancy

Andrew Li, CEO of Zouk group, tells nafeesa saini how he is revolutionising the beloved singapore con and putting it on the global map through community and connection.

- Nafeesa Saini

It is 3.30 am on a Saturday night in 2014 and the main room at Zouk in Jiak Kim Street is packed. The beat to a popular Electronic Dance Music (EDM) track drops and the crowd goes wild as the strobe lights flash. Nights like these were routine for clubbers like me in my early twenties when we spent weekends downing sour plum shots and traipsing through the club’s interconnected rooms. Like the generations before us, Zouk was where we came of age.

Singapore’s oldest nightclub is the birthplace of the city’s dance music scene, and has hosted some of the world’s biggest names over the last few decades, from trance legend Paul Oakenfold to EDM favourite Hardwell. The former warehouse space was also a hotbed of underground music; in the ’90s, it was the stomping ground for alternative musicians like Grace Jones and esteemed local personalities like the late tabla player M.S. Maniam.

“It was an institution where people grew up. It’s seldom that you’ll see a club with a multi-generational purpose,” says Andrew Li, CEO of Zouk Group.

For nearly 25 years, Zouk remained an indomitable nightlife destination. Things were shaken up when it underwent two transformations: The first was its 2015 acquisition by Genting Hong Kong, and the second its 2016 relocation to Clarke Quay after the lease expiry of its Jiak Kim premises. Last year, it was sold to Tulipa, a Malaysian firm owned by Lim Keong Hui, the heir of Genting Hong Kong.