I promised myself I wouldn’t get swept away by the non-racing promotions at the Singapore Grand Prix. Remember I come from the era where for entertainment we would sit around a BBQ and tell jokes after the races were over.
However, those who go to Singapore for the GP will be entertained by a whole bunch of people, most of whom I have never heard of.
You can start with Calvin Harris, Ariana Grande, Duran Duran, OneRepublic, Seal, The Chainsmokers, Lianne La Havas and George the Poet. Singapore GP has added more support acts to ramp up the excitement at Singapore’s tenth Formula 1 night race this 15 to 17 September. Race-goers are in for a treat, with a host of artistes performing across seven stages and throughout the 799,000 square meter Circuit Park.
International support music acts performing throughout the Marina Bay Street Circuit include Canadian singer-songwriter Alysha Brilla, whose contemporary music draws on the influences of her Indian-Tanzanian roots, award-winning Malaysian rock band Kyoto Protocol, UK-based beatboxing trio Bloxed Beats and folk-pop, indie rock US band Cale and the Gravity Well. Help me! I am not making this up! (Will someone tell me what “beatboxing” is about?)
The night race will also see a record number of homegrown musicians making their debut at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. In addition there will be high-energy performances from Stopgap and Aarika Lee & The Next Movement. Fans too can party the night away with resident deejays Ghetto, LeNerd and Andrew Tang from iconic homegrown nightclub Zouk.
It doesn’t end there, there is a performing arts company called Strange Fruit as they enthral audiences with a large-scale visual spectacle ‘Spheres’ which fuses theatre, dance and circus at the Circuit Park’s newest entertainment zone at the Empress Lawn.
The German group Groove Onkels will perform at the Marina Bay for the first time, with a spectacular showcase of Latin percussion and rock music using trash cans, sticks and brushes. Groove to the beat with the award-winning DrumCat, an all-female drumming group from South Korea, or be captivated by the sounds of jazz, funk, Latin and hip-hop by Singapore’s very first New Orleans-style New Stream Brass Band.
There’s more, there’s more! Such as the UK’s acrobatic moustachioed trio Acro-Chaps are set to delight the audience with their unique brand of comedy and astounding feats of strength while the unbelievably agile Lisa Lottie’s hypnotic ‘Bend it like Barbie’ performance will also have fans transfixed as she contorts her body while performing impressive hula hoop maneuvers.
Call me old fashioned but to me a Grand Prix is a competition where drivers race cars against each other, defying death as they drive at up to 300 km/h. I could not care less how many times Lisa Lottie turns herself inside out while hula-hooping.
But with F1’s new owners, one can expect even more razzamatazz as they spice up the action and debase competition with artificial items such as DRS and grid penalties to help mix up the cars, and have the media writing fatuous stories about how no other teenager has ever been on the front row, ignoring the fact that the teenager was actually 4th but inherited the position as the 2nd and 3rd drivers were being penalized for heinous crimes like changing their gearbox. Next week there will be further penalties for wrong colored sox.
By the way, the television coverage will include some cars running around from about 7 p.m. Join me in Jameson’s for a bite beforehand while they have synchronized hula-hooping as a lead up to a motor race.
