Singapore musician Shazza and her growing fame, from Coldplay to PM Wong | Music Lab podcast

In this episode of Music Lab, ST's music correspondent Eddino Abdul Hadi hosts home-grown singer and songwriter Shazza.

The past year has been quite eventful for the 22-year-old - her music caught the attention of several high profile personalities, including Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Chris Martin, the frontman of popular British band Coldplay.

A video that she did with Canadian pop duo Crash Adams went viral worldwide, earning her new fans from as far as Brazil.

As one of the artists fronting Spotify’s Equal campaign, her face was featured on a billboard at Times Square in New York City.

In July 2023, she put out her debut album Chapter One, a release that includes Right Person, Wrong Time, a song that has clocked over two million streams in Spotify alone.

The hijab-wearing singer, whose real name is Shareefa Aminah, speaks about how people assume she makes Malay music because of how she looks, as well as her drive towards inclusivity in the pop music world.

Highlights (click/tap above):

0:00 Intro
0:15 Rain In Manhattan - Shazza & Umar Sirhan
7:13 On having to turn down an invitation to Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s swearing-in ceremony
9:40 How singing in the viral Crash Adams video made her famous worldwide
11:44 Chris Martin calling out her name at one of Coldplay’s Singapore concerts
16:00 On being featured on New York’s Times Square billboard
17:40 Being a hijab-wearing singer making English pop music
19:40 Realising her calling for music at a young age
22:13 On choosing the unconventional path of music as a career
26:54 How juggling school and a music career can get overwhelming
34:13 On plans to nurture new artistes in the future

Discover home-grown artiste Shazza at: 

YouTube: https://str.sg/JS8i9
Spotify: https://str.sg/wKh4d
Instagram: https://str.sg/uoqd

Produced by: Eddino Abdul Hadi ([email protected]), Ernest Luis, Eden Soh, Hadyu Rahim & Amirul Karim
Mix & Mastered by: Hadyu Rahim
Edited by: Eden Soh

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