Japanese girl group XG filmed new MV at Singapore locations like Sentosa and Gardens by the Bay

SINGAPORE – In this monthly column, The Straits Times curates the most buzz-worthy music released in the past month.

Must-see MV: XG – Rock The Boat

Japanese girl group XG have joined the growing list of international pop acts who have filmed music videos in Singapore in partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board.

Their MV for Rock The Boat, released on Feb 22, sees the septet dance and prance around familiar local attractions such as Gardens by the Bay and National Gallery Singapore.

In line with the song’s maritime-linked title, it also includes scenes shot at Sentosa’s Palawan Beach, Singapore Oceanarium and Anderson Bridge.

The septet first teased the MV on Feb 21 on their social media platforms, and uploaded a clip of themselves doing choreographed dance moves at Palawan Beach.

In early January, eagle-eyed fans spotted the group filming at Anderson Bridge, and posted a clip on Reddit.

XG, who sing in English, have staged two concerts in Singapore – in 2024 at The Star Theatre and in 2023 at the Formula One Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix.

Rock The Boat, a summery, feel-good pop tune, is from the South Korea-based group’s debut full-length album The Core, released in January.

The track is said to be a tribute to American R&B singer Aaliyah, who released a song of the same name just before she died in a plane crash in 2001.

Chart Champ: Taylor Swift – Opalite

Following the mega-success of her previous single The Fate Of Ophelia, American pop star Taylor Swift has done it again with Opalite, her 14th song to top the Billboard singles chart.

Both are from her 12th album, The Life Of A Showgirl (2025). This marks the first time she has had two chart-toppers from the same album since 1989 (2014).

She now ties with Barbadian singer Rihanna as the artiste with the third-most number of No. 1s on the chart, trailing behind English rock band The Beatles, who have 20, and American singer Mariah Carey, who has 19.

The music video, which dropped on Feb 8 and was written and directed by Swift, is a blast.

A hilarious pastiche of 1990s romantic comedies, it is a star-studded affair with cameos from Irish actors Domhnall Gleeson and Cillian Murphy – whose likeness appears in a background mural. Also featured are Irish talk-show host Graham Norton, Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, British actress Jodie Turner-Smith and American actress Greta Lee.

It is no random ensemble, either. All of them were guests on the same episode of Norton’s The Graham Norton Show from October 2025.

On the show, Gleeson joked about wanting to be in one of Swift’s music videos. She loved the idea so much that she wrote the script around this group.

Stream This Song: Tame Impala featuring Jennie – Dracula (Remix)

The remix of Australian psychedelic/indie rock maestro Tame Impala’s Dracula, released on Feb 6, has an unexpected guest star – Jennie from K-pop girl group Blackpink.

While the South Korean singer has done several collaborations with other artistes – such as British singer Dua Lipa (Handlebars, 2025), and Canadian singer The Weeknd and French-American actress Lily-Rose Depp (One Of The Girls, 2023) – these were pop and R&B-oriented.

The Dracula remix marks her first high-profile foray into the indie world.

Tame Impala is the music project of singer, songwriter and producer Kevin Parker and, like his previous work, this is a trippy meld of psychedelic rock, electropop and disco.

Parker trades verses with Jennie, and the latter also spices up the tune with a new rap verse.

The original version of Dracula was released in September 2025 and was one of the songs included in the outfit’s fifth album Deadbeat, released a month later.

It became Tame Impala’s biggest commercial release, and peaked at No. 30 on Billboard’s singles charts.

Ace Album: Charli xcx – Wuthering Heights

British singer Charli xcx’s soundtrack album for the 2026 film Wuthering Heights starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi is a bold artistic pivot, a Gothic, cinematic album that draws its essence from the 1847 novel by English writer Emily Bronte.

While Charli xcx’s previous work Brat (2024) thrived on euphoric club energy, this record trades that brightness for lush orchestral darkness, without losing any of her pop smarts.

The lyrics effectively channel Bronte’s vision of love as something devastating and compulsive rather than merely romantic.

In Dying For You, one of the album’s most propulsive and catchy songs, Charli xcx doubles down on love’s toxicity through imagery of poison and self-destruction.

Always Everywhere, meanwhile, is a slow track that balances Gothic romanticism with an accessible chorus.

The album’s creative risks have not had much effect on Charli xcx’s commercial appeal. Wuthering Heights debuted at No. 1 on the British albums chart, her third in a row after Crash (2022) and Brat.

Singapore Scene: brb. – Last Goodbye

Home-grown R&B trio brb. are on a roll. Last Goodbye, released on Feb 20, is their second single of the year, a follow-up to your scent, which dropped in January.

A poignant tune about letting go and emotional closure, it comes a few months after the trio released their third full-length album, The Blueprint, in October 2025.

While they might not be a household name, brb. are one of the Singapore music acts who have consistently clocked steady streaming numbers in the last few years, pulling a monthly average of 790,000 listeners on Spotify.

Their 2020 song, my type, has clocked more than 60 million streams on the platform.

The group – comprising musicians and singers Zie, Marc Lian and Clarence Liew – made their debut in 2018 and released their first album relationsh** in 2020.