Week 11: Teresa Teng – SG's next Deng Li Jun?

Ever heard of Taiwanese folk singer Teresa Teng, or more popularly known as Deng Lijun?

This week, we set out to interview our 6th busker, who has the same name as Asian Diva Teresa Teng, whose classics resonate in the hearts of many today (think The Moon Represents My Heart). Coincidence? We think not.

Teresa, a past member of NUS CAC Voices (a performing arts group consisting of Mandopop enthusiasts) and current budding star, was our second female busker and a friend of Gwendolyn’s. We were delighted to hear her story because as we’ve come to realize, it was rare to find a female busker in the local scene. We were thankful for Teresa’s spontaneity, as this gives us a fairer gender representation of the busking community in Singapore.

Busking as a springboard

The 25-year-old NUS graduate, who currently works as a marketer for a cafe, stepped into the world of busking two months ago, along with her team mates, Ting Hui the keyboardist and Zi Jian the guitarist. Together, the trio formed the team “Merry Music Makers”.

“Our aim is to get commission gigs like wedding gigs and external events. We’ve got quite a lot of enquires for charity events and a few weddings, one already confirmed in November,” Teresa beamed.

Singing is no stranger to Teresa, you could even say it’s in her blood - both her parents used to took part in singing competitions. Her journey officially started when she joined NUS Voices, which drilled her to perform and honed her vocal skills. “Busking is an avenue to continue my passion… because I’m very caught up with my full time job now, and I hardly get in touch with music anymore. It’s like a stress-reliever to me.”

Having performed on bigger stages such as the annual NUS CAC+US concert and external community clubs and galas, busking came natural to Teresa - topped with the lower expectations of listeners. “It was less stressful to busk because the expectations of people are different. On stage, the pressure to perform well is bigger.”

The uniqueness of busking

Perhaps what is notable about busking is the closeness with audiences that it offers: Teresa cautions that busking originated as an informal and casual activity that allows close to zero barrier between the audience and the self - something which should be preserved and not undermined.

Furthermore, she reflected that NAC’s regulation of providing buskers with a list of locations to busk at borders on being restrictive. “It is quite demoralizing if you get a place with very little traffic, and you know that your efforts will be wasted. Most buskers ignore those [locations] and will try more popular areas.” However, apart from NAC’s regulation imposing as a ‘red tape’, Teresa presented a different viewpoint to the licensing scheme. “You can’t really regulate quality or how people present themselves in public, so licensing is important to prevent touting. It also helps prevent public nuisance.”

One concern that Teresa had was regarding the acoustics of busking. Because being in an open area makes it difficult to congregate their sound, singing sometimes become a tiring activity. Besides, busking in public means that unanticipated events may spring up, such as random song requests. This puts their musical abilities and on-the-spot responses to the test.

"Don't know when you can get back the costs"

There is also incurred costs when investing in equipment - mic and music stands, the actual mic, cables and amplifiers. These cost a hefty sum and have to be purchased prior to getting the license. In a sense, they are like entry passes. And you do not know when you can get back what you invested. Fortunately, owing to the trio's solid foundation in the music field, they managed to earn back what they spent in merely five busking sessions.

When we probed about the perceptions of Singaporeans towards buskers, Teresa’s experience has been a pleasant one. Because of the recent traction busking has gained, the support for buskers has been gradually rising. This is pretty self-evident when abundant Tampines residents stopped to listen, film and tip the trio as we hung around to collect footages of their performance.

Future aspirations

All in all, it was heartening to see how busking has played such a positive role in Teresa’s life, serving as an avenue to de-stress and a source of enjoyment and passion. Her confidence and sincerity overflowed in her voice and we’re pretty sure that was what made the audiences stop to listen. The applause that came after each song was well-deserved, and we believe - is evidence enough of how the Merry Music Makers have managed to carve out a league of their own.

We hope that the triple ‘M’s do go on to make a name for itself (we're confident they will) and move on to bigger stages in the near future to come!