How does the Singaporean National Arts Council view Heavy Metal?

Another post from the archives as similar to the Canadian post, except we emailed the Singapore Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and in turn they forwarded our email to the National Arts Council. From which our question regarding how the Singaporean governmental officials support Heavy Metal music. Naturally their response was somewhat generic, however here it is below:

Words by Ms Elaine Ng, Director, Sector Development, Performing Arts, National Arts Council


"At the National Arts Council, we work directly with artists and various partners in promoting the arts, and in developing a sustainable environment that enables the arts to entertain, enrich and inspire.

• We are seeing a vibrant, burgeoning scene with a solid base of committed players who are passionate about the development of Singapore music. A lot more original music has come to the forefront in recent years, with several ground-up initiatives to profile local music, for instance: Lepa(r)k – a performance platform for local indie bands that is open free to the public; and Bandwagon – a one-stop web portal for music gigs listings in Singapore. Attention and support for local original music is also growing steadily; hopefully this will gather even greater momentum in the years to come. There is also an active tier of emerging bands – as well as amateur bands from tertiary institutions - surfacing in the scene, which form a good pipeline of new musicians who can be groomed.

Our support for musicians also covers various stages of their career as well, from students and amateurs, to semi-professionals and professionals.  We consciously try to grow and support musicians through these different stages of development: 

• Pre-Professional:  We award scholarships (undergraduate and postgraduate) to groom outstanding musicians in their artistic practice. We also work with arts institutions to identify new talent and organize competitive platforms for young musicians to develop their skills.

• Professional: Through our grant schemes, we support musicians for their performances, creation of new work, travel costs when they are invited to perform at overseas festivals/platforms, and for their continuous training if they choose to pursue short-term courses locally and overseas.

• Music Groups & Companies: We also have schemes aimed at growing larger music groups and companies in the area of organizational development and supporting their operations

Where youth are concerned, NAC organizes Noise Singapore - a youth arts platform to increase engagement of young talents in the areas of art, design, photography and music. Notably, Noise includes The Music Mentorship programme, a special programme where budding contemporary music groups/artists are mentored by experienced industry professionals over a 10-week period. These young musicians will then take the stage to perform at a weekend-long showcase.”