Home-grown singer and songwriter Josh Makazo tells us about his breakout year in 2023.

Synopsis: Each month, The Straits Times invites music acts to its podcast studio.

In this ninth episode of Music Lab, ST's music correspondent Eddino Abdul Hadi hosts home-grown singer, songwriter, and producer Josh Makazo.

A rising name in the home-grown music scene, he is one of the most popular artists on TikTok in Singapore in 2023.

While he was still serving national service, he released his song - half of my heart - which went viral on TikTok and has since racked up over 5.3 million views.

Makazo discusses how his strategy of targeting the fanbase of artistes that he was inspired by, such as Korean-Australian singer DPR Ian, helped his music blow up on TikTok. The two versions of the song that he released on Spotify have also clocked over 6 million streams in all. 

In November, Makazo, 20, released his debut album, Gradient, and it has already gained over 10 million streams across various platforms.

In this episode of Music Lab, he sings a live rendition of half of my heart, which is also in his new album.

Highlights (click/tap above):

3:59 K-pop fans are using his song to soundtrack their TikTok videos

5:42 How he made his song half of my heart go viral

8:20 His hit song inspired by his first love

14:01 On his musical theatre background and acting in hit musical The Sound Of Music

16:47 His beginnings as a songwriter

21:17 How he used to make music to become famous

Listen to Josh's live performance here: https://str.sg/iYCk

Discover Singaporean artiste Josh Makazo at:

YouTube: https://str.sg/iY96

Spotify: https://str.sg/iY9u

Instagram: https://str.sg/iY9L

Produced by: Eddino Abdul Hadi (dinohadi@sph.com.sg), Ernest Luis, Hadyu Rahim,  Eden Soh & Amirul Karim

Edited by: Hadyu Rahim

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Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg

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