Titans of dance music

Singapore's stellar reputation as a dance capital of this region is growing year to year.

Next month, the city-state is getting extra groovy when superstar DJs from Pete Tong and Paul Oakenfold to Dutch electronic dance duo Showtek and Nicky Romero come here to talk music and, of course, to party.

They are among global dance music titans and industry heavyweights who will be in town for a long weekend that kicks off on Dec 11 with the launch of the inaugural Asia-Pacific edition of the International Music Summit, considered one of the biggest dance music conferences in the world.

To be held at the W Singapore, Sentosa Cove, it is where music labels, agents, managers and brands discuss and explain new initiatives and business strategies, and make announcements for the DJ touring season ahead.

The one-day summit will be followed by annual outdoor rave-fest ZoukOut at Sentosa's Siloso Beach on Dec 12 and 13, in which more than 20 local and international dance music acts will perform.

This year's line-up features some of dance music's best, including English trance trio Above And Beyond, Romero and Greek-Swedish DJ Steve Angello of famed dance music trio Swedish House Mafia.

Zouk founder Lincoln Cheng, one of the keynote speakers at the summit, says the summit will serve as "an anchor event for people in the dance music industry moving forward".

The summit will be an annual event and "become an integral part of ZoukOut, making it a three-day event", he adds.

"This will make ZoukOut not just a dance music festival, but also a music conference to bring Asia-Pacific dance music industry players together to discuss the future of dance music and to have an opportunity to network."

Life! catches up with Tong, Romero and Showtek to talk about the summit, electronic dance music and what festival revellers can expect from ZoukOut this year.

melk@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on November 27, 2014.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.