Nathan Hartono on getting married in January

SINGAPORE – When 2026 arrives, singer-actor Nathan Hartono’s life will look markedly different. In January, the 34-year-old will tie the knot with theatre actress and dancer Liz Sargeant Tan, 32.

He will step into what he describes as a quieter, more grounded chapter after years of chasing the next creative milestone.

“We’ve actually been planning it for over a year, so it’s not a shotgun wedding,” he says with a laugh in a Zoom interview with The Straits Times. He declines to reveal the date and venue, and says only that it will be attended by family and friends.

The couple announced their engagement in mid-December. And while it was the first time they have gone public with their relationship, they have been together for more than six years.

Hartono is quick to stress that marriage will not upend their lives. They have been living together for years and are accustomed to the irregular rhythms of their respective creative careers.

“That’s why the wedding just feels like a big party that we have to throw,” says the singer, who is one of the artistes performing at the Mediacorp Let’s Celebrate 2026 countdown show at Siloso Beach on Dec 31. “After that, it’s back to normal life.”

Still, the symbolism of the moment is not lost on him. “It has definitely brought us closer,” he reflects. “The whole process of planning, all the wedding things here and there, it does something to you as a couple.”

As he heads into the new year, Hartono finds himself with a changed outlook, one shaped less by ambition and more by self-preservation. He describes 2025 as the first year he consciously took his foot off the gas in his solo music career.

“I allowed myself to take a back seat and not feel bad about it,” he says. “I wasn’t always full steam ahead before, but this was the first year I really let myself slow down, and it helped me figure out what my place is as an artiste.”

That slowing down led to what he jokingly calls a “side-quest year”. He spent time writing songs for others, working with community choir Sing Song Social Club and dabbling in music education, learning to arrange and notate music.

He starred in Singapore Repertory Theatre’s staging of American composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown’s award-winning musical, The Last Five Years, which ran from February to March. He also appeared in local mockumentary Sandbox, which premiered at the recent 2025 Singapore International Film Festival.

The detours proved unexpectedly fulfilling. “All these weird doors suddenly opened,” he says. “It made me rethink how we talk about music, art, even education.”

New music is also in the works, albeit coming along slowly. “It’s been a struggle, but I’ve made progress,” he says. Unsurprisingly, love has softened his songwriting. “There’s definitely more optimism, more sweetness now.”

He is also excited about the general release of local comedy Sandbox slated for later in 2026. “It’s a different flavour of comedy and I was really proud of what everyone did,” he says of the film, which is centred on a group of friends trying to rescue a declining stunt school.

If there is one defining shift as Hartono approaches 2026, it is his redefinition of success.

“More than anything, it’s just being mentally healthy and happy,” he says. “I underestimated how much I struggled with that for years, always chasing the next thing.

“If the inner life is going great, everything kind of falls into place. I’m just trying to make sure I’m happy, the people around me are happy. Whether that means career success or not, I don’t know if I care any more.”