While some couples have persevered and gone through with virtual weddings or private civil ceremonies, many more who thought they’d be tying the knot this year have pushed off the celebration until next year. Live music will always be a staple of the marriage reception, however, and the day you say “I do” and cut into the cake should be accompanied by afterparty musical stylings to match the intimate, joyful mood of the wedding ceremony. Before you make up the invitations and curate your lineup of musicians to play you onto the dance floor, here’s our own carefully-chosen list of the companies that will bring you and your dream day closer together.
Musical Touch’s POP! Orchestra
The Musical Touch team’s most recent addition to its extensive lineup of singers and musicians is its POP! Orchestra, a full but affordable 16- or 10-piece band. It can be hired to play on its own, or accompany a singer in their already well-established lineup. The Orchestra is designed to complement larger-scale weddings, granting a touch of class to a once-in-a-lifetime event. No matter the artist you settle on, though, you can be reassured that they’ll be a veteran of the industry; Musical Touch has performed at over 2,000 weddings, and ensures that each of their musicians have a minimum of ten years’ experience in live performance.
Musical Touch, 10 Anson Road, #27-15, Singapore 079903
Contact: 9888 3007 / [email protected]
The Wedding Music Co.
The team at The Wedding Music Co. allows clients to mix and match performers, filtering by genre and language, to essentially create their own dream wedding band. A subsidiary of the event music company High Notes, which caters to everything from birthdays to awards ceremonies to “concept events” like flash mobs and carnivals, The Wedding Music Co. delivers on all counts. Sourcing versatile soloists and tight-knit boutique musical groups, if you’re aiming for a high-energy, memorable wedding, The Wedding Music Co. might just be the place to find the music for it.
The Wedding Music Co., 50 Bukit Batok Street 23, #05-28, Singapore 659578
Contact: 6904 8660 / [email protected]
Merry Bees’ ShiLi & Adi
ShiLi Yap and Adi Rakhmadian, of popular wedding music company Merry Bees, are a popular choice for weddings who have headlined the Singapore Arts Festival, the Marina Bay New Year’s Eve Countdown and, amongst other career highs, performed at the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix for four years in a row. Fusing medleys and top-40 hits with Singaporean folk songs, Yap and Rakhmadian are both homegrown talents who met at Victoria Junior College. As of 2019, the pair have also begun to add multilingual original singles to their vast repertoire.
Merry Bees, 113 Eunos Avenue, #07-08, Singapore 409838
Contact: 9232 9395 / [email protected]
Hummingbird Music’s Shanghai Jazz Club
Fronted by wedding band house Hummingbird Music’s founders, Dawn Wong and Felix Phang, the Jazz Club band weaves modern jazz aesthetics with a repertoire of classic Mandarin and English tunes from the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. Its nostalgia-soaked flair has taken the five-piece group to new heights, including performances at the Esplanade and the Montreux Jazz Club. Above all, though, Wong says she enjoys hearing the joyful stories and memories that her music provokes from the elder members of her wedding audiences. Hummingbird offers a number of other specialized concept bands that boldly cross boundaries of genre and era, such as a Caribbean steel pan group and a jazz manouche trio.
Hummingbird Music, 1002 Jalan Bukit Merah, #03-13, Singapore 159456
Contact: [email protected]
Vocalise String Quartet
With a penchant for pop-up performances, Vocalise’s players are a well-known entity in the local music world. The in-house string quartet’s repertoire is constantly expanding, and is inclusive of some exciting jazz standards, movie themes, and contemporary multi-lingual pop songs, alongside the traditional classical fare. The quartet has performed at a number of official state dinners, playing for the Prime Minister and President of Singapore. Vocalise’s lineup also boasts string duos, trios, and quartets made up of violinists, cellists, and erhu, zhongruan, and guzheng players. Finally, there’s a number of other exclusive group acts on their roster, including a 1920s-themed band and a globetrotting three-piece of former buskers.
Vocalise, 5A Pahang St, Singapore 198606
Contact: 6291 6367 / [email protected]
Dreambird Music
Vocalist Ariel Yumetori and pianist Ian Soh have curated a list of over 300 songs that they allow clients to tailor into their dream setlist. Featuring songs in Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Korean, and Japanese, the pair have performed extensively throughout Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. They also offer songwriting and rehearsal packages for couples looking to go the extra mile with their music.
Dreambird Music
Contact: 9003 5494 / [email protected]
AnchorBlanc
A real-life couple onstage and off, AnchorBlanc features Ferlyn Chen’s soaring vocals and Charles Wong’s “Swiss Army Knife” combination of beatboxing and guitar-playing. Highly capable bilingual emcees who promise versatility and warmth, they perform in four languages and have built a loyal network of clients over the years.
AnchorBlanc Live Music
Contact: 9278 2664 / [email protected]
Red Kite Weddings’ Ruby & Jacob
Ruby Chen and Jacob Teo are half of popular music group, Singapore Char Siew Bao!, who formed as a Shanghai Jazz band in 2008. They were semi-finalists in MediaCorp’s One Moment of Glory in 2010, and since then have been a staple on the Singapore wedding circuit. When not partnered up with the rest of the band, though, Chen and Teo are an acoustic couple who are known for their romantic ballads. (Chen might even demonstrate her skill on the djembe, for newlyweds who ask nicely.)
Red Kite Weddings, 5000 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5, #02-08, Singapore 569870
Contact: 9182 9278 / [email protected]
