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Maricelle, in Pursuit of dreams and music

SINGAPORE — Chances are, you have never heard of Maricelle. But it is likely that by the end of this year, you will.

SINGAPORE — Chances are, you have never heard of Maricelle. But it is likely that by the end of this year, you will.

Her catchy, effervescent single Lovedrunk accumulated more than 110,000 plays on Spotify even before the release of her debut EP, Pursuit, on Jan 6. The Singaporean singer-songwriter, whose full name is Maricelle Wong, is also scheduled to play at the Esplanade’s All Things New gig on Jan 22, and will perform at her very own Pursuit launch show in April. Not bad for a girl who went full-time into music only recently.

The bubbly 26-year-old, who studied mechanical engineering at the National University of Singapore and started writing music under the Noise Singapore mentorship programme in 2012, left her day job as a fragrance development manager at a perfume company about a year ago to pursue her dream in music.

“I titled (my EP) Pursuit because for me, the album is a pursuit of many things. On a very surface level, it is about me pursuing life and everything that it is, and pursuing music as a dream — not just music as a vessel for that dream, but also pursuing a dream at the very core,” said Maricelle in an interview with TODAY. “When it comes down to the songs and the themes, it’s about pursuing things I never had time for.”

Maricelle then spent three months living and performing as a guest entertainer on a cruise ship, in between working on her five-track EP, which contains songs that she has been working on since 2015. Describing the record as a coming-of-age release, Maricelle says her work is inspired by her search for freedom and her own voice in a modern world.

“I think that was one of the things that made me understand that doing music professionally was viable, and the opportunities are so crazy sometimes. You’ve just got to be in it and for it, and when it happens, it happens,” she said.

“I always wanted to do music more seriously, but sometimes, you don’t know if it is one of those dreams or hobbies, or something more,” she added. “Once the album took off and everything started coming together, everything felt more and more real, so I was like, why not give it a chance? That is how I made the leap. I wouldn’t say I didn’t think it through, but it’s not something you can think through and rationalise, because it would never be a super-rational decision in any way.”

For now, Maricelle plans to focus on her upcoming performances, and hopes her songs will speak to those who find solace in her sound. While the music industry can be tough to survive in, the singer says she has no plans to give up.

“I don’t think about quitting. If it comes to it, I guess I will be forced to stop, but I have been waiting so long to do this that now that I have finally done it, I think it will be very hard for me to give up without even trying,” she said.

“Going into this has been so fulfilling in so many ways, I don’t think I could go back to not having music in my life.”

Maricelle’s EP, Pursuit, is now available on Spotify, iTunes and other digital platforms.

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