SINGAPORE: An 11-year-old boy has become one of Singapore’s youngest buskers, earning more than S$900 in tips over the past six months by performing songs in English, Mandarin and Chinese dialects.
Elijah Seah, a Primary Five pupil at St Joseph’s Institution Junior, was encouraged by his guitar teacher, who is also a busker, to audition for the National Arts Council last October and began performing officially in November.
“The happiest thing is seeing people smile because of my performance,” he told
Shin Min Daily News recently.
Inspired by his family’s domestic helper to learn singing at the age of five, Elijah mastered his first song, Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, within a month and later performed it publicly during a Teachers’ Day celebration in Primary Three, an experience he said boosted his confidence when the entire school sang along.
Describing himself as outgoing and comfortable interacting with strangers, he has also taken up the ukulele and guitar to further develop his stage presence, and has performed four or five times at locations including Orchard Road, Bugis+ and Geneo in the Kent Ridge Science Park area, while occasionally singing at friends’ birthday parties.
Elijah said each performance lasts one to two hours and features English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien pop and rock songs, while his mother, civil servant Xu Yanting, 44, said every busking session has helped him grow through experiences that cannot be learned in the classroom.
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The youngster is also set to take part in a youth performance event at Our Tampines Hub in July.
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