After months of planning by the IMU Music Club, the first-ever IMU Live was held successfully on a fine Friday evening of 14 April at the Mei Ling Young Auditorium. IMU Live is an SRC-supported paid event where students from IMU have the opportunity to showcase their talents to everyone, and only people who passed the audition could perform. There were about 200+ audience members with 12 solo or group performers, with a total of about 26 dedicated, multi-talented performers. 3 established bands in IMU took time from their busy schedule and joined us as performers, namely No Rest for ME, The Fantastic Triad, and KOPY Bing – it was not their first time performing for and in IMU.
The event started at 6 PM with an introductory performance of “Versace on the Floor” by Matthew Lee, an excellent saxophonist, and charismatic MC for that day. It was then followed by an encouraging speech by the IMU Music Club advisor, Dr Amalraj Fabian (in the photo below).
The opening act for the day was No Rest for ME, whose lead vocalist is Christine Loh.
True to their name, the band is comprised of individuals who are students pursuing an MBBS degree. They performed 3 songs, which are “Someone To You”, “We Are Never Getting Back Together”, and a “Despacito” mashup. Following that, Wong Xin Yue, a dietetics student who was performing for the first time, took to the stage and delivered renditions of two well-known anime songs from Demon Slayer, namely “Gurenge” and “Zankyosaka”.
Subsequently, Caleb Gan and Ishani took the stage to perform “Gone”, with Caleb as the lead vocalist and Ishani on guitar. To wrap up their set, they delivered an enthralling dance performance to the tune of “Golden Hour” by Jvke. The final performer for the first part of the show was Chamandya, who sang “Heart Wants What It Wants” before the intermission.
After the intermission, the 2nd session started with Pri and Savi, a duo singing “The One That Got Away”. Right after, the Twenty-Twannies – a Malay-Chinese duo sang a Chinese song, followed by Lim Enn Xi who sang 2 more Chinese songs.
Then, it’s time for The Fantastic Triad, a group of 3 consisting of a pianist and 2 flutists from the Foundation in Science programme to shine – this time they captively played Howl’s Moving Castle’s “Merry Go Round of Life”, a pop classic, and “First Love”.
Finally, Jason and Nikki took to the stage and delivered the first Disney song of the day, “I See The Light”, sounding like a perfect duo of Disney princess and prince. This was followed by Christine, the lead vocalist of No Rest for ME, who performed alongside her pianist friend, Nate Leong, and sang “Empty Space” and “Go the Distance”.
The day ended with KOPY Bing as the final band to perform. They started with a rock classic, “Zombie” by The Cranberries, and in conjunction with the upcoming Hari Raya, they played a local festive song “Rasa Sayang”. They ended their slot with an original song “To The Sky”, which was performed to an audience for the first time.
To everyone’s surprise, the audience started requesting encores, as everyone did not get enough of Matthew Lee’s sweet, sweet saxophone. This prompted Matthew to play 2 more songs in the end: an original song with No Rest For ME that they had written for ME123’s orientation, and “Careless Whisper” by George Michael – a timeless classic with a saxophone that you just can’t forget about.
IMU Live 2023 has come to a close, and following its conclusion, attendees departed for their homes while performers stayed back for a dinner. The event was successful, and there is optimism that it will become a regular fixture on the IMU Music Club’s annual calendar, eagerly anticipated by all. Congratulations once more to the organizers and performers, and we sincerely hope that everyone had a wonderful time.
Written by: Ong Jiaxian, IMU Music Club member, Guitarist of KOPY Bing.
