I went to the “Our Xin Yao Concert” at the Suntec Convention Hall on 3 March 2015. I know it is not common knowledge but I actually like 新谣 (xin yao).

For those of you who don’t know, xin yao are “Singapore songs” and it is a uniquely Singaporean song genre.  You can think of it as the Singaporean version of folk/country songs.

Check out this song called 细水长流 (Friendship Forever) by 梁文福 (Liang Wenfu) who is one of Singapore’s most prolific and top songwriters to get an idea of what xin yao sounds like.

You can check out this song called 同花順 (Royal Flush) by 林倛玉 (Lin Qiyu; Jim Lim) from the later era of xin yao. Jim Lim also performed this song at the “Our Xinyao Concert”.

I have to say that this song left the deepest impression on me and it was my most favourite performance that night. I can’t stop replaying this song now.

Anyway, the 4.5 hour concert was really an education on the musical history of Singapore. I must admit that for the first half of the concert, I had absolutely no idea who all those people are (and for most of the rest of the concert as well). Hahaha. It turns out that they are the pioneers and first generation xin yao singers from the 50s/60s. I was really surprised. I never realised that xin yao went so far back! I thought that it was a late 70s/80s thing even!

Also, I must admit that I was very surprised to find out that 玖健 (Jiu Jian) and 黎沸挥 (Li Feihui) are actually Singaporeans. LOL. I have always believed them to be Taiwanese. So when they walked out on stage and started singing at the concert, I was a bit like o.o?!??

Still, I must admit that I was pretty proud to know that they are Singaporeans. Who says that we don’t have talent in Singapore?

I must also highlight that the entire production looked and sounded great! The acoustics in Suntec Convention Hall is actually pretty good! The whole venue and stage was done up really nicely as well. Good job to the entire team who handled this concert.

玖健哥，辛苦你了。台前幕后的人也辛苦了。

Anyway, there will be an encore concert on 24 May 2015 at the Resorts World Theatre at Resorts World Sentosa. Tickets are priced at $108, 88, $68 and $48. Prices are stated in Singapore dollars and it does not include the $4 booking fee.

Tickets are already on sale now at Sistic so click here to get your tickets now!