SINGAPORE - From big-name pop stars to rising indie acts, home-grown musicians have been prolific in the past year.
With the number of live performances limited due to the pandemic, many musicians turned to writing and recording new songs. Every week saw a healthy number of fresh releases - whether in the form of singles, EPs and albums, or music videos.
On Monday (Dec 13), Mandopop star JJ Lin and singer-songwriter Gentle Bones, whose real name is Joel Tan, released a music video for their duet and first collaboration, At Least I Had You. They are also the two most-listened-to Singaporean artistes on music streaming service Spotify this year.
Lin, 40, who won Best Southeast Asia Act at last month's MTV's Europe Music Awards, released his first English album, Like You Do, earlier this year. Tan, 27, is expected to drop his debut album in the coming weeks, which will include songs that he released in the past year.
Mandopop diva Stefanie Sun, 43, the third most-streamed Singaporean singer on Spotify, released three singles this year - most recently The Day Before this month.
In August, Tanya Chua, 46, the fourth most-streamed Singaporean musician on Spotify, put out her 12th album Depart. It includes Photographs, a duet with France's former first lady and singer-model Carla Bruni.
Pre-pandemic, Malay music veteran Ramli Sarip spent most of his time performing and making music in Malaysia and Indonesia. With travel curtailed, the 69-year-old made the best of his time in Singapore working with local musicians for Rasa (Feel) - his 23rd album and his first to be mostly recorded here since the mid-1980s.
Last month, Mohamed Raffee, 60, an established act in the Indian entertainment industry here, did a soft launch for his new album The New Horizon, with a concert at the Esplanade.
Jazz stalwart Jeremy Monteiro, rapper BGourd as well as singer-songwriters Leslie Low and Kelvin Tan all released two albums this year.
The 45th and 46th albums of Monteiro, 61, made it to the Best Jazz Albums list compiled by the Jazz Journalists Association, a body made up of jazz music journalists worldwide.
Live At No Black Tie Kuala Lumpur was also on the Top 50 charts compiled by JazzWeek, an American publication, while Jazz-Blues Brothers is a collaboration with Italian jazz organist Alberto Marsico.Also making an impact overseas is 26-year-old rapper Yung Raja, whose song Mami was played on American talk-show host Jimmy Fallon's The Tonight Show. Raja also released his debut EP, Mike, recently.
Covid-19 continued to inspire musicians. Nathan Hartono and Jasmine Sokko, for example, released EPs with songs about life in the pandemic.
The indie music scene saw some high-profile comebacks. Alternative rock godfathers The Oddfellows returned with their third album after 29 years, and Electrico dropped a surprise EP with their first new songs in 13 years.
Rising teen singer- producer Shye's sophomore album, Hello Trinity, came less than a year after her debut, while dreampop band Subsonic Eye put out their third album, Nature Of Things.
