Jeff Ng - Marina Bay Lower Boardwalk (Here is SG Sculpture) - 6 Jun 2025

And now, presenting to you a series of Jeff Ng's busking performances at Marina Bay during the iLight and NDP 2025 season. This is a series of four busking sessions, with the other sessions held on 13 June, 21 June and 5 July.

Everyone knows Jeff as the Cathay busker, but he sometimes also performs at Marina Bay as well, especially during the iLight and NDP seasons - in previous years, he also performed here, drawing thousands of crowds, sometimes even larger than The Cathay open space. The Marina Bay area is the most popular place to busk during the iLight and NDP period, with many buskers, be it musicians or street performers, coming down here to busk. There are four busking locations in this vicinity - aside from the Here is SG sculpture, we also have one at the Olympic Walk, the Red Dot Design Museum, and the Breeze Shelters. Usually, the evenings are when you are more likely to spot a busker.

And the event that is happening itself, the iLight festival, is Asia's leading light festival, which showcases light art installations around Marina Bay and Raffles Place, created by Singaporean and international artists and held since 2010. It features several fringe activities for visitors, including Gastrobeats, a carnival-like festival featuring live gigs, attractions and brand pop-ups.

I have took a look at the various iLight installations and the Gastrobeats Festival before each performance. The installations in 2025 included a piano walk where visitors can play on it, several giant inflatable sculptures, and an urban oracle that changes colour with a push of a button.

As mentioned previously, Jeff also releases his original music, including the hit single 是不是，你不爱我了 (duet with Danny Koo), 好幸运遇见你 and 想起你还是心痛 (English translation: "My Heart Still Aches"), which is one of the songs I have picked for this session. It is the B-side of sorts to his other single 好像重新回到认识你的瞬间, which was released roughly a month before this. At that point of time, he also had an upcoming single that was released a week later, titled 还是爱错.

The other song I have picked from this busking session is:

• 看着我的眼睛说 [originally performed by Zhang Yuan (张远)]
  • Zhang Yuan is well-known for his emotional ballads such as 嘉宾 and 可以不是你, but this new release at the time is the song that, I feel, is one of his best representative songs to listen to if you listen to him for the first time. He made his singing debut in a Chinese reality singing competition held by Hunan TV in 2007 and has held his first-ever concert here in February 2025.

想起你还是心痛 (original)

看着我的眼睛说 [originally performed by Zhang Yuan (张远)]