Yung Raja cannot believe what he has achieved in the short half a decade that he has been in the music business. Besides a steady string of infectious raps in his trademark Tanglish – a mix of Tamil and English – he has had buzzy gigs in Malaysia and India; got a shout‑out from Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show; earned a billing at this year’s Rolling Loud festival in Pattaya, Thailand (where the headliners included Travis Scott and Cardi B); launched his own streetwear label Peace Oeuvre and then his own Indian‑Mexican restaurant, The Maha Co; which might all explain how he landed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list last year. (Oh yes, and he has performed at the National Day Parade, or NDP, here a cool four times.)
“Typically, people have to grind for a long time – they put out albums and mixtapes, and work hard for a record deal. My team (comprising producers as well as fellow musicians such as Fariz Jabba and Flightsch) and I, on the other hand, have been so blessed to have had some of the most amazing opportunities just line up for us,” he says. “I count myself mad fortunate, but it has also got all of us thinking, what next?
“There’s no reference because how many rappers do we have in Singapore? I’m at a stage where I have to figure out certain things and, without saying too much, my team and I have been preparing for our next couple of moves that will be very important in laying down the foundation to the next chapter of our careers. Very soon, you’ll see what I’m talking about.”
TELL US THE TRUTH, RAJA: JUST HOW HARD IS IT TO MAKE IT AS A MUSICIAN IN SINGAPORE?
This story is from the September 2023 edition of Female Singapore.
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This story is from the September 2023 edition of Female Singapore.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
these artists are present
All in their 20s, the six artists spotlighted here – all of whom are Singaporean or call Singapore home – are who we think you should be keeping your eye on and collecting now. What are the realities they face and what do they really hope for as artists? Keng Yang Shuen finds out.
harder, better, faster, stronger
This month, corporate Raffles Place will get an unlikely and ultra-groovy new inhabitant: the 6,114sqft Rasa, which touts itself as a “community space for arts, music and culture”, and is the brainchild of local techno and nightlife legend Kavan Spruyt. Keng Yang Shuen finds out from the man and some of the co-conspirators he has roped in – marketing and music head Cindy Tan, creative designer Efy Ramdan, and Chris Shearmon of Wild Pearl, which will help to curate some of the programming – on why this new venture is much more than a club and nothing like what Singapore has had before.
MORE OBJECTS OF DESIRE
For the latest edition of its long-running partnership with Design Miami, Fendi has selected the fast-rising London-based designer Lewis Kemmenoe to put his spin on its signature Peekaboo bag as well as create an accompanying line of furniture.
golden girl
Art has long been in Dior's DNA (fun fact: in 1928-way before becoming a couturier - Christian Dior opened and ran his own gallery that specialised in avant-garde artists of the time). The annual Dior Lady Art project has helped to keep this torch going since its launch in 2016, with renowned international artists invited to put their spin on the maison's most famous bag, the Lady Dior. The latest edition that hit boutiques here recently features collaborations with 11 names. Among them is superstar Canadian painter Anna Weyant, whose Dutch masters-inspired and moody yet humorous portraits of pretty young women were discovered on Instagram in 2019, then sold out in her very first show. Since then, they've fetched as much as more than US$1 million (about S$1.36 million) at auctions and, in 2022, she became the youngest artist to be signed by the Gagosian. Here, a succinct interview with the 29-year-old on herself and what she has designed for Dior.
pushing the needle
The year 2024 marked the 100th anniversary of Lesage, the seminal embroidery house that's a go-to among fashion's greatest couturiers and the maker of Chanel's ultra-exquisite tweeds. As the atelier enters its 101st year, Noelle Loh - following a visit to the Lesage, 100 Years Of Fashion And Decoration exhibition, on at Chanel's Le19M complex in Paris till Jan 26 - breaks down how it continues to revolutionise the hand-done art of weaving and beading.
magic pixie dream girl
With her soulful sound and heartfelt, brutally honest lyrics, the 16-year-old Singapore singer-songwriter known as Mila Bea could very well be our next-gen indie rock goddess and every Gen Zer's best friend. Keng Yang Shuen shines a spotlight on her and her craft.
rainbow brights and starlight
To take its makeup into the future, the house of Chanel has embarked on an unlikely journey with a trio of edgy, independent-minded women it calls the Cometes Collective as its heroines. Its task: to continue brand founder Gabrielle Chanel's mission of dreaming up colours that bring out one's elegance and allure. Nearly a year after the release of the initiative's debut collection, Noelle Loh meets Ammy Drammeh, Valentina Li and Cecile Paravina in London to find out how they're expanding Chanel's beauty universe.
the shape of water
Within Hermes's impressive library of fragrances (71 to date) is a collection called Hermessence. As the name suggests, this rarefied range is designed to capture the French maison's spirit in olfactory form. Debuted in 2004, it features perfumes with unusual ingredient pairings, many of them involving flowers. Take how Violette Volynka blends the warm and animalic scent of Hermes's Volynka leather with the soft, sweet notes of violets, or how Oud Alezan - the latest launched last year - is a headily delightful contrast of oud and rose. The bottle design of Hermessence scents is equally unexpected and elegant: a longish, square-based vial inspired by lanterns, with a saddle-stitched, leather-wrapped cap. Now, to give the line an even more artistic form, the brand has enlisted Dutch artist Rop van Mierlo - known for his soft and whimsical watercolour-like paintings of nature, and a regular collaborator to reimagine some of them in his signature style.
re-entering wonderland
One of the 2000s' most audacious, colourful and iconic fashion-meets-art collaborations returns this month bigger and better. Noelle Loh reports on the 2025 re-edition of Louis Vuitton x Murakami.
gong Melon creating ed le arand becoming nghion's favoure new artist
In the past year or so, the Shanghai-born, Singapore-based creative behind the platform Who Eats Art has been chalking up commissions from some of the biggest names in fashion and lifestyle: Beyond The Vines, The Paper Bunny, the independent salon 35A. And these are just the ones here. Her work might be best described as an intriguing blend of installation, Sculpture, interactive art and photography. Her materials: familiar foods and ingredients that, under her vision, become strangely abstract and very, very cool. Ahead of her collaboration with us on the following pages, she tells Noelle Loh about who really eats art.
