Tristan Ong - Tiong Bahru Market - 5 Oct 2025

The Busking Chase returns to Tiong Bahru Market, a busking location that has been reopened since July 2025 after a three-month revamp of the market and food centre. The market is basically an icon here at Tiong Bahru, and it is always bustling with activity during the breakfast/lunch period. Once known as Seng Poh Market in the 1950s, it has had several facelifts, including being redeveloped into the current two-storey building (with the market at the first storey, where you will be greeted by the florist stalls at the main entrance, and the hawker centre at the second storey, where the busking spot was located for a period of time after the upgrading works before being moved downstairs later on) in 2006, as well as two other facelifts in 2017 and 2025.

They got a new coat of red paint on the outside. It used to be orange when I last visited.

This is the one of the locations where Tristan usually busks (he has a lot of affinity with busking at hawker centers). This is also the location of his first busking session after a hiatus break during the 2024/25 festive season and following The ETC's split, where he went back to his roots and just does for the love of music. As he continues to busk on the streets of Singapore and perform at community gigs, he keeps on going, keeps on striving, and keeps on connecting with people with his music.

小情歌 [originally performed by Sodagreen (苏打绿)]

Sodagreen's most signature song, released in 2006 under its second studio album, "Little Universe" (小宇宙). A gentle ballad about finding warmth, safety, and deep devotion in love amidst a chaotic, lonely world, the song received a Best Composition award at the 18th Golden Melody Awards.

太傻 [originally performed by Eric Moo (巫启贤)]

This is the first Eric Moo song to be covered on Season 2 of the Busking Chase. A notable figure of the xinyao movement, Eric Moo is very well-known for his emotional love songs and popular classics, such as "Encounter" (邂逅), "Kopi-O" (情感联络站) and "You Are My Only" (你是我的唯一). One of his signature songs, "Too Silly" (太傻), released in 1994, became a mega-hit and topped charts across Asia.

新不了情 [originally performed by Wanfang (万芳)]

This is the theme song for the 1993 Hong Kong melodrama film C'est la vie, mon chéri (新不了情). Starring Sean Lau (of The Greed of Man fame) and Anita Yuen, the film revovles around the romance between a struggling jazz musician (played by Lau) and a Cantonese street opera performer/part-time cover artist (played by Yuen) and the melodrama that follows when Yuen's character is diagnosed with a terminal illness. It is not only Wanfang's signature song, but the film also propelled Sean Lau and Anita Yuen to film stardom, and Lau, especially, went on to star in more films.

Tiong Bahru Market is a busking location that is open on Fridays to Sundays.