Singapore’s Spotify hitmaker Regina Song tastes touring success

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SINGAPORE – In less than a year, a 20-year-old Singaporean singer-songwriter has gone from releasing her debut album and hitting the music charts, to embarking on her first concert tour.

Fangirl: The Tour took Regina Song Hwee Nee to the Petaling Jaya Performing Arts Centre in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 10.

She also performed at live music venue Blueprint Livehouse in Bangkok, Jakarta bar Krapela, and Manila bar Sari Sari, where she wrapped up the tour on Jan 25. 

“The response was amazing!” Song said. “I was really surprised (at) how many of the fans sang along to all of my music. It was very moving.”

The tour followed the success of the June 2024 release of her debut album Fangirl, which comprises 10 original tracks. One of them, The Cutest Pair, became a hit – peaking at No.3 on Spotify’s Global Viral chart just three months after its release and surpassing 33 million streams so far on Spotify.

Song has another global hitmaker to thank – Taylor Swift, whose music sparked her interest in songwriting. “I’ve been listening to Taylor Swift my whole life and watched a lot of her music videos when I was younger,” she said.

After she started to write her own songs at 13, her love of music blossomed.

In 2017, she entered the School of the Arts (Sota) to pursue her interest in the piano, which she has been playing since she was six years old.

While at Sota, Song joined the school’s a cappella group and a pop band, where she underwent her first vocal training. Motivated by the experience, she chose the voice track as a minor in her final International Baccalaureate academic years. 

The vocal lessons helped her find a singing style that suited her. “From there, I grew a lot, and I remember thinking that I could really do this for a long time,” said Song, who also plays the electric guitar.

In 2021, at the age of 17, Song released her first song, Lucas, which was based on an encounter she had with a stranger on a train in Singapore and her regret that she didn’t approach him. She wrote the song when she was 16 and recorded it with the production house PK Records.

After graduating from Sota, she took a gap year in 2023 to focus on making music. 

Song, who is now on her own without a music label contract, shared that at times, her mother wished she had not pursued music. Her mother felt that doing music was unsustainable, preferring her daughter to have a stable 9-to-5 job.

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