We’ve all been students before and know just how stressful exam periods can be.
While there are many ways to destress — some eat, some sleep, some exercise — how many of us can say we casually compose a song to unwind?
Well, 12-year-old Lyla Ng can.
For those who find that name familiar, the budding musician was the youngest of the Top16 contestants of 2023 Mediacorp reality competition Battle Of The Buskers.
She is also the daughter of local songwriter and producer Eric Ng, who has worked with Asia’s biggest stars from A-mei to Tanya Chua, Sandy Lam to Stefanie Sun.
Though it has been two years since the competition — Layla was eliminated during the busking rounds — this aspiring singer clearly hasn’t given up on her music dreams.
In a recent interview with Zaobao.sg, Lyla shared that she’d been actively creating music after completing her Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) in October this year.
She’s even recorded a new English song, ‘I’ll Never Forget’, her first new single since her debut at eight years old.
The single is scheduled to be released on November 14 and Lyla was recently even verified on Spotify. “I feel happy and very fulfilled,” she chirped.
Has she been balancing songwriting with school well though? The soon-to-be Sec 1 student gushed that preparing for PSLE was actually easier than expected.
“I only felt nervous just before the exam when the teacher said: ‘There’s one minute left before the exam starts’,” she recalled. “However, because I studied very hard, I felt the PSLE was not as difficult as I imagined.”
