Through the Taiwan ASEAN Music Action (TAMA), a project initiated by the Ministry of Culture and Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia, three Taiwanese musicians/bands were invited to join the ASEAN Music Showcase Festival (AMS) 2022. The event took place at Haw Par Villa in Singapore on Sept. 10 and 11.
The invited musicians from Taiwan include the 2022 Golden Music Awards nominee I Mean Us (IMU), a dream pop band having performed at SXSW in the US, Zandari Festa in South Korea, and Music Matters in Singapore; the 2021 Golden Indie Music Awards nominee Huan Huan (緩緩), an indie rock band having participated in the Primavera Pro in Spain; and rising singer-songwriter LÜCY, who captivates listeners with her folk-inspired poetic music.
Nearly 60 music curators and managers in the music industry from different countries joined the matching session at AMS virtually or in person, seeking collaboration opportunities during the two-day festival through international exchanges. The attendees from Taiwan included Hung Weining (洪維寧), founder of the LUCfest, a showcase festival that combines music conference in Taiwan, and John Huang (薑黃), a booking agent for indie bands who focuses on music marketing, hoping to serve as a communication bridge between the Taiwanese music industry and the international music community.
Founded in 2020, AMS is co-organized by a group of gig/concert promoters, music festival/conference owners, artist managers, and music community leaders from Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The organizers aspire to utilize the format and create a platform to elevate the Southeast Asian music scene onto the world stage. The AMS this year is the first post-pandemic international music festival held in Southeast Asia, gathering around 40 musicians/bands characterized by a wide variety of music genres including electronic music, indie-pop, hip-hop, folk, heavy metal, and more. For more information, please visit the Facebook page of TAMA or the official website of AMS.