Music fans cheer as big names and large-scale concerts return to Singapore
Before the pandemic, avid music fan Diyana Amir used to go to concerts every month by major pop acts such as Ed Sheeran, Maroon 5 and Bruno Mars.
When it was recently announced that pop star Justin Bieber will perform at the Singapore National Stadium on Oct 25, it felt like a dream come true for her.
The 23-year-old Nanyang Technological University student says: "Going to concerts with my friends has always been an outlet for me to wind down, socialise and have fun and it's definitely nice to get that back."
Before the pandemic hit in early 2020, the concert scene here was thriving, with crowds of up to 65,000 packing venues such as the Padang.
While small-scale live music performances returned later that year, it is only now, after more than two years, that large-scale concerts are coming back to venues such as the National Stadium, which has a capacity of 55,000, and Singapore Indoor Stadium, which can seat up to 12,000.
From April 26, all capacity limits were removed for mask-on events with more than 1,000 participants.
As restrictions on large-scale events eased, there has been a steady stream of announcements in the past few weeks.
In December, megastars of the Mandopop world, Mayday and Jay Chou, will perform at the National Stadium.
Mayday's gig is on Dec 3, while Chou will play two nights on Dec 17 and 18.
The Taiwanese band were originally scheduled to perform in August 2020, but had to reschedule the show several times.
Taiwanese singer A-lin's May 28 show will be the first large-scale concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium since the pandemic hit, while Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Ros will return to Singapore for a show at The Star Theatre, which seats up to 5,000, on Aug 17.
The Singapore Grand Prix, which had previously included some of the country's biggest concerts at the Padang, is expected to announce its entertainment line-up soon for the F1 night race from Sept 30 to Oct 2.
There is clearly demand - the 40,000 tickets to Bieber's show sold out in two days. The Straits Times understands that the concert promoters are looking into adding more tickets after capacity restrictions on large-scale events were lifted. Read More…
