SINGAPORE: Local singer-songwriter Hubert Ng wrote the pre-debut song of the K-pop group Xodiac titled ‘Calling’ and stated that the Korean music industry is a good market opportunity for local Singaporean composers, given that there are more K-Pop groups who are in the lookout for more English songs.
According to Chinese media outlet Lianhe Zaobao, Hubert mainly wrote pop songs back in Taiwan. However, the market was very different when he moved to China. He stated: “There are many idol groups there, and their songs are reminiscent of K-pop and J-pop songs. My ballads aren’t suited for idol groups, and I couldn’t sell a single song even after writing for a year.”
After realising this, he decided to venture to other markets and see if he could sell his songs. He also began writing K-Pop and J-Pop songs during the pandemic – which eventually paid off after having friends from Korean and Japanese record companies.
The song, ‘Calling’, was sold by a Korean record company on his behalf. He admitted that K-pop music usually highlights the beat and tune of the song, and the Korean lyrics would be written by someone else if the song needed translation. But in this case, Hubert’s piece was kept as an English song, and he just needed to edit some of the lyrics.
“The original lyrics were about a breakup, but Xodiac was collaborating with Hong Kong Disneyland, and were shooting the music video in the park, so I changed the lyrics to revolve around a boy chasing a girl,” he said.
Hubert Ng admitted that the K-Pop market has many American and European songwriters who are interested in making their songs known as well, so the competition for English songs is tough. Although his expertise is still in Chinese pop, he will continue to expand to other markets as there are a lot of talented singer-songwriters in Taiwan – and he is not in demand there nowadays.