Can't Stop the Music

A silver lining for emerging musicians in Asia during the pandemic is that with international stars unable to tour, they’ve had the spotlight all to themselves. Artists and industry insiders consider how 2020 has redefined music in the region

- Coco Marett

Last December, Marina Bay Sands in Singapore sold out the entire run of 500 tickets for Back to Live, a concert featuring up-and-coming local musicians. It was the country’s first large-scale live entertainment event since the beginning of the pandemic, though by then “large” was a relative term, given requirements for social distancing. The Sands Theatre normally has a capacity of 2,500.

“We worked with the Singapore Tourism Board and the Ministry of Health to figure out how to stage live entertainment in a way that’s safe, based on health restrictions,” says Adam Wilkes, president and CEO of AEG Live Asia, which produced the event with Collective Minds, an agency that has organised tours for the likes of American jazz musician Kamasi Washington and rapper Anderson Paak around Asia.

It was a rare opportunity for local artists who, due to travel restrictions, had the chance to be more than just opening acts for bigger international stars. For once, they became the headliners and took centre stage. As Singaporean pop singer Benjamin Kheng wrote on Instagram, “This moment was kinda amazing.” Fellow performers Charlie Lim and Aisyah Aziz debuted their collaborative bilingual track, Won’t You Come Around, which features lyrics in both English and Malay. Lim posted, “Thank you for making us feel alive again ... here’s to better times ahead.”

“This past year has been a reminder that, even as so many experiences become virtual and available on-demand, live music is irreplaceable,” says Wilkes. “It brings people together. You can’t replicate the experience of being with your community.”