District M: A Marina Central Festival sets Singapore’s City Center in festive mood
SINGAPORE — Set against the backdrop of Singapore’s central business district, with the Esplanade Theatre on the Bay to the right and Marina Bay Sands to the left, and featuring riveting music performances at The Deck in Marina Square, the recent District M: Marina Central Festival created a lively and festive atmosphere in The Lion City’s city center.
Two Filipino music artists, grentperez and Marian Carmel, joined Singaporean and other Asian artists on stage for the inaugural two-day music event held recently. The theme of the free music festival was to celebrate diversity in music through the roster of artists and bands showcasing acoustic, classical, pop, electronic, and jazz genres.
Each act was given approximately 45 minutes to perform in four various venues, including the Marina Square, Millenia Walk Park & Dine, South Beach Fountain Plaza and Suntec City. The jam session started late in the afternoon until evening.
Various side activities were also held in the venues, such as tarot reading, Chio Books display, design your own tote bag, and other art exhibits.
The STAR was able to attend the festival, witnessed the live performances of some of the music artists and interviewed Singaporean singer-songwriter Charlie Lim, Filipino-Australian grentperez and Filipino-Singaporean Marian.
Vocalist, bassist, songwriter and producer Tim De Cotta, indie pop artist rhyu (Raine Hahn Yu), singer-songwriter shazza and modern pop musician Charlie graced the first day of the event at The Deck at Marina Square.
Charlie serenaded the festival goers with his acoustic version of Conspiracy, Blah Blah Blues, and his other original tracks.
Charlie, who first released his self-titled EP in 2011, reminisced how the music scene was back then. He told the audience, “The music scene was very different then. It’s really nice to see events like this… It (has) become amazing (with) so many artists (in the lineup). That’s really encouraging.
“It’s nice to see some progress and some growth. And the fact that you guys are here, it means a lot so thank you for supporting local music.”
He flew all the way from London, where he is based now, for the festival. Charlie has mentored some of the musicians who performed at the music event, including Marian. “She’s lovely. She really has a really, really nice voice. She’s a great writer (and has) very bubbly personality. She was very, very shy when I first met her and now she has a couple of shows. I’m a big fan of hers,” he said of his mentee.
Charlie has performed in several music festivals around Asia, including the Wanderland Music Festival in the Philippines. “It was very hot,” he recalled of his Wanderland experience. “We had a very early sound check at 7:30 a.m. I think my amplifier blew up because it was too hot (laughs). But it was a very, very warm, friendly crowd. I think I will always enjoy playing in the Philippines.” He hoped to sing again for the local festival one day.
Prior to the Wanderland music festival, Charlie has been to the Philippines quite a number of times already. He played at one of the bars in Metro Manila, including SaGuijo Cafe and Bar in Makati City, opened an act for Side A a couple of years ago and teamed up with Clara Benin for the ditty called Wine in 2020.
Charlie’s more recent collaboration is with Melbourne producer and electronic artist Katz, and L.A.-based Singaporean singer-songwriter Linying for the track titled Definitely.
Meanwhile, singer, producer and content creator Daniel Sid, indie-pop musician Marian, indie artist RENE, folk singer-songwriter and Twitch streamer lewloh, and grentperez mounted their respective sets the next day at the same venue.
Marian entertained the crowd with her heartfelt ditties Fabric of Reality, Might Never Get Better, Pause + Reset, among others.
“It feels really great (to perform at District M),” she told The STAR. “Even more so I get to share the stage with a lot of my friends. It’s wonderful to hear that there’s a platform that elevates music in Singapore but also highlights a lot of other artists around the region.
“I think it’s wonderful that they managed to get grentperez on here. So a lot of people who are fans of these international artists are coming down to catch the entire festival and encourage to be, you know, watching the local artists so it feels great.”
A bit of background, Marian was born in Laguna, Philippines and was raised in Singapore. She moved to Singapore at the age of five with her parents. She can fluently speak in Tagalog. Her musical influences include Lizzy McAlpine, Sabrina Claudio, Dayglow and Valley.
She was part of the extended play (EP) titled My Safe Place, a cross-cultural collaboration of Filipino and Singaporean artists about mental health that was released last year. The EP was co-produced by ABS-CBN Music, Star Pop and Singapore-based creative production house AOR Global.
She was also invited to perform in songwriter and ABS-CBN Music head Jonathan Manalo’s 20th anniversary concert a year ago in October at the Newport Performing Arts Theater. It was a “dream come true” for her to do a show in the Philippines, in front of the Filipino audience and her family as well.
“My family in the Philippines didn’t see me perform here (in Singapore). So it’s their first time like, I think, in many, many years to see me perform. My lola was there, everyone in my family was there. For them to be able to see me up on stage with my favorite artists, Moira dela Torre, KZ Tandingan, it’s like a dream come true for me and (my family),” she gushed.
“It was very affirming that they see that finally, this is what I’ve been working on for a very long time. They saw me on stage even though it was just a small part. It’s like a step towards a direction where they can see the tangible effects of whatever it is that I’m doing.”
The Singapore-based singer-songwriter’s debut EP is To You, To Me which was released in 2021. “The songs are about letters for myself and also for other people. It’s like lessons. I wrote that after my first breakup,” she told this paper.
Unlike her first eight-track EP which featured “very sad, mellow” tunes, her forthcoming album is more upbeat and livelier. “My second album is learning how to find love again. After that whole thing, I’m trying to let myself see other people, like learning and falling in love, also realizing why things aren’t working and finding out my own pattern.”
Capping the night off was Filipino-Australian grentperez who delighted the jampacked crowd with his romantic songs, including Wishful Thinking, Clementine, and of course, Cherry Wine as his finale.
The Gen Z pop artist was born and raised in Australia to Filipino parents.
He staged his first show in Manila last June at the Eastwood Central Plaza. All he could remember at that time was “how loud the audience was.”
“I didn’t expect to have such a big crowd and especially for a show that was just acoustic like there’s no band. I think it was just very, very awesome.”
While he was in Manila, he showed his crew the different types of Filipino dishes prepared by his aunt. He recalled, “We went to my (family) house in Mandaluyong. And my tita cooked sinigang (and) menudo that she made for us.”
Just a few weeks ago, Karpos events company announced that grentperez will be playing at the Wanderland Music & Arts Festival 2024, along with other artists. The singer-songwriter is thrilled to be part of it. “It will be so good to be playing in a Filipino festival with other Filipino artists. That will be the first time that I will be there for, like myself (and) with the band as well. It will be very, very fun,” he enthused.
Meanwhile, female DJs of ATTAGIRL!, Singapore-based party collective Ice Cream Sundays and POPTART and TIKO DISKO DJ KiDG hyped up the crowd at the Wagon Park at Millenia Walk Park & Dine on Oct. 6 while Mervin Wong, Fauxe, Japanese DJ Shota, and DJ KoFlow (Wayne Liu) continued the party the next day.
Last Oct. 6, singer-songwriter Corrinne May, soloist and chamber musician Jonathan Shin, jazz, soul and R&B artist Alicia Pan performed at the Fountain Stage at South Beach Fountain Plaza while members of the string quartet Bards of Neverland, Litmus Jazz Ensemble, quintet Lorong Boys also put on their shows there on Oct. 7.
Soul-pop artist and music producer Dru Chen, electro-pop, alternative indie and grunge-influenced Shye, singer-songwriter OHMYMEITING, and female rapper J.M3 (pronounced as Jamie) rendered their musical performances at the Music Piazza at Suntec City on Day 1. DJ Ginette Chittick, pop and R&B singer LAYYI, musical group Budak Pantai, and Singapore Idol 2009 winner Sezairi concluded the music event at Music Piazza a day after.
District M: A Marina Central Festival was organized by 19SixtyFive in partnership with JW Marriott Singapore South Beach and in collaboration with Marina: Square, Millenia Singapore, South Beach and Suntec City. The community partner was Esplanade Theaters on the Bay Singapore.
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