I've always wanted to busk especially when here in Melbourne, the busking culture is strong, pre-COVID of course. Unfortunately I'm too lazy to go through the license-application process so ever since I was aware that my sister started to busk in Singapore, I knew I had to get to one of her sessions.
I'm so glad I had the chance to do that during my Singapore trip earlier this year before I lost my voice due to a cough and overeating of "heaty" food over the Chinese New Year period. I was originally meant to be a "guest star" doing only three songs but I ended up doing about four times that number, including duets with my sister. In addition to the exhilaration I got from performing live in front of an audience, it was also very good family bonding time.
The location where we busked was next to a Chinese New Year market in the heart of Chinatown so there were massive crowds (which I loved because of the attention) and festive music all around (which I disliked as it was distracting). COVID was just getting into the news at that time with no lock-down and it feels really strange now looking back at how un-socially distant people were back then. I had my sister help film me and at times she was chatted up by members of the audience during the recording, so I apologise for the oft-jarring background noise (as well as unsavoury-looking characters in the shot) but it does give you the correct feel of that location that night.
This month's musical post features "囚鸟", a Mandarin song released in 1996 by Hong Kong singer 彭羚 which I like a lot for the melody and hence chosen as one of my busking pieces. It's best to do older songs as more people in the audience can identify with them (especially when the crowd at Chinatown tends to be older). Singing in the original key, my falsetto naturally impressed the crowd and hopefully you guys will also be equally pleased with my performance.
Oh, and happy PRIDE everyone (and congratulations for a successful first-ever digital Pink Dot Singapore)!
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