The Singaporean music scene is truly buzzing, and we’re not just judging from our experience in putting together our Just Catch music video featuring just some of the artists we know and love. There’s also Hear65’s fabulous aggregation of local artists’ tracks that is played in 125 MRT stations and bus interchanges, and of course our talented buskers islandwide.
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Then there are the occasional mega-concerts that grace our shores from abroad - and this month we’re talking about Coldplay’s Singapore leg of their Music of the Spheres world tour. What really caught our interests are the opening acts for the six concerts at the National Stadium. That’s right, we’re talking about Jasmine Sokko and RRILEY’s opening acts for Chris Martin and company.
So how does one prepare to open for one of the world’s biggest bands, Coldplay, on their globe-trotting Music of the Spheres World Tour? Find out more in Catch’s interview with RRILEY below.
Always Check Your DMs
We asked RRILEY how it came to be that she would be opening for one of the biggest bands on the planet. It wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary if she had said her record label or manager had done some heavy lifting to connect the band’s promoters with her, and that there would have been complex negotiations behind the scenes to have made this once in a lifetime experience happen.
But none of that happened. RRILEY herself got a direct message (DM) on her Instagram account. Concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment “slid a DM”, which was a fairly formal message that read, “we would like to invite you to be the supporting act for Coldplay in January 2024”.
Naturally, our local heroine’s first reaction was one of disbelief. “Is this for real? Is this a scam? I don’t believe this, I had so many questions! I was about to throw up!”
Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
After the buzz and disbelief had tempered somewhat, with “meditations to calm down”, came the busy reality of planning the act itself. According to RRILEY, there have been “a LOT of rehearsals'', and she was “pulling out all the stops”, not just with the selected songs for the set, but also with costumes and some of the best dancers in the business. In her words, she felt she had to “squeeze as much as possible into 30 minutes”.
In fact, we had to be mindful of our allotted interview time because she had to rush off to the studio for another scheduled rehearsal. We could feel the anticipation building even then. This is after all, going to be an event where she was going to perform on stage for close to 55,000 people for three nights.
Nerves? Not for this seasoned veteran
Is this the pinnacle of RRILEY’s decade-long career? The answer is a resounding “yes”. But you’d be surprised that this isn’t the biggest stage or audience she’s performed to, thanks to her former band The Sam Willows performing on National Day several years ago at the same venue. But let’s just say, three nights of a 55,000 audience makes it the biggest gig of her life.
As an article once described, RRILEY’s voice is like a “coiled snake, ready to strike in any direction”, and that’s what Coldplay concert goers can expect from her set. It’s going to be explosive, because, as she says, she’s simply “living in the moment, and right now, this moment is INSANE!”
Catch RRILEY’s opening act at Coldplay from 30 to 31 January 2024 at the National Stadium.
Image credits: RRILEY, Catch.
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