Lorraine Tan’s romance with love songs
By
Ewen Boey |
Singapore Showbiz –
17 hours ago
Local musician and entrepreneur Lorraine Tan believes that support and encouragement is important to forge a music …
Local singer-songwriter
Lorraine Tan is possibly one of the most romantic music artistes in Singapore.
Apart from writing and performing mainly love songs, the 32-year-old founded and operates
Wedding Harmony, a company that focuses on creating and producing original love songs for weddings.
"I think weddings suit my personality, I love the atmosphere of weddings and a lot of my songs talk about romance, that's why I started Wedding Harmony," she said.
"We sing at weddings and write original love songs for every couple. So if a couple wants an original love song, they will tell me their story and I will write a song from that. I think it's very meaningful as they can keep it forever and even let their kids listen to it next time," added the entrepreneurial musician.
Tan loves what she does and despite appearing pretty at ease with the life she's chosen, the journey to where she is now hasn't been a walk in the park.
The civil engineering graduate started gigging at the age of 18, all the while balancing her study time with performing. She even won a songwriting competition during her undergrad years, and she never stopped writing music after that.
She worked as a civil engineer for one-and-a-half years after graduating, but decided to set up Wedding Harmony. She has since written more than 100 songs and performed in more than 500 weddings.
Initially only singing in Mandarin, Tan started to learn more English numbers after starting Wedding Harmony, and is now comfortable singing in both languages.
In 2011, Tan wrote a National Day song,
My Singapore, which received airplay on FM 93.3 and Class 95. She even received letters of commendation from the Prime Minister and Lee Kuan Yew for her efforts.
Ukulele-playing Tan Cheng Bock also wrote on her Facebook page, commenting that he loved the song.
http://youtu.be/Azv01VHTNyo
"Encouragement and motivation from people around you is very important. People do snigger at me and question whether I can actually make enough money to survive in Singapore. Sometimes, even fellow musicians don't support what I do," she said.
It was when this topic of Singaporeans pursuing a career in music came about that Tan's tone turned more serious.
The petite musician hopes to inspire more people to follow their dreams and not give up on wanting to do music full-time in Singapore. She believes that striking it out as a musician in Singapore is not just about the government's policies for the arts -- it also depends heavily on the encouragement from parents.
"I'm a full-time musician, and I think I'm doing pretty well. I make enough money to provide for my parents, and also to invest back into music," said the bubbly singer.
"Although we live in a society that encourages people to do banking, engineering, and other more 'profitable' jobs, I feel that there will still be a group of people who are very passionate about music and the arts, and they shouldn't give up," she added.
She believes that she's successful in her own little way, and would love to continue pursuing a career in music and improving herself. She also rubbished the perception that musicians have to make it in overseas markets before being considered talented or successful.
"This mindset must change. The truth is, we do put in a lot of effort and also have our own styles and genres," she pointed out.
She added that she will stick to her principles and try to stick to finding success in Singapore. "I will want to stick to Singapore first, because I believe you must stick to your fundamentals, and your own countrymen must support you first. If you do well, it will be nice to bring it out of the country."
Lorraine Tan Li Xin's fourth album, Original Love Songs Volume III, was released late last year, and is on sale now. It is a compilation of some of the love songs that she wrote for wedding couples.
Click
here to follow her on Facebook.
http://youtu.be/cjM7lbulH8I
