Season's Greetings

AGAPELLA on TV!

ALL THROUGH DECEMBER we've had fantastic radio time on Symphony 92.4FM and 938LIVE ... seems everyone's singing along to "Follow That Star" or "Mary's Boy Child" on every street corner!

But yesterday, on Christmas Eve, AGAPELLA showed up on Channel News Asia's Prime Time Morning! Our fearless leader Sherman, vocal percussionist Jam and alto Uma managed to look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed despite the early hour... bantering easily and showcasing our inimitable brand of wacky humour to viewers all across Asia. They even surprised host Suzanne Jung with a birthday song for her, done AGAPELLA-style (if you want to know how old she is, go ask her yourself).

pics courtesy of Chris Tan

CD Reviews in the Press

TODAY Newspaper 20 December 2007

Christopher Lim
Fri, Dec 07, 2007

The Business Times (extract)

It's always nice to review a strong homegrown Christmas album. A capella group Agapella was formed in 2002, but only released their debut album this year.

Called Follow The Star, it's Christmas themed and features well-structured arrangements of classic songs as well as a few less well known tracks. It isn't easy to accurately imitate drums with just one's voice, but there are some convincing hi-hats on God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman. O Holy Night also features some appealing harmonisation.

Non-traditional songs like What Can I Give Him and In The First Light also show off the Agapella's vocal prowess nicely. Besides excellent intonation, Agapella deserves praise for good diction, and doesn't suffer from the distracting sibilance that afflicts some local vocal groups.

The strangest track on the album is the last, titled Internal Affairs, which is a conversation between two foetuses inside their mothers' womb.

...

Our Christmas season so far...

AGAPELLA IS IN THE MIDDLE of our busiest Christmas season ever! We'd already done gigs at Square 2 mall, Petra church and a special appearance at Camp A Cappella in November. December has been simply awesome-- starting with the Presbyterian Synod Youth Camp on the 7th. Nearly 300 teens gave us a fantastic reception at Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School. We kicked off with a song we've just added to our Christmas repertoire this year-- Silent Night by Go Fish. We did a few other uptempo numbers, including an audience-participation If This World, and also Amanda let loose her inner diva with I Will Follow Him. Lots of the youth were singing along. It was great for us to see the passion that the youth have for following Jesus!

AGAPELLA at the PSYC 2007 (pic by Wilson Tan)

ON 16 DECEMBER AGAPELLA had one of our best gigs ever-- our Christmas concert hosted by Bethesda Katong church. It was a "homecoming" of sorts-- our very first Christmas concert, back in 2002, was also hosted by BKC. And this time it was full house-- many of our friends and family and church friends brought pre-believing friends along. It was an anointed service from start to end-- warm, intimate and full of laughter and great fellowship. AGAPELLA alumnus Wan Junyan shared the message of Christmas and several people made decisions for Jesus Christ that night. It was a truly memorable and joyful night! We praise God for the fantastic opportunity for ministry, and also thank BKC and all helpers and friends for the great hospitality.

Christmas concert at BKC (pic byWilson Tan)

FOR THE THIRD CHRISTMAS RUNNING, AGAPELLA was invited to perform at the Esplanade. This year we did six half-hour sets at the concourse over two nights, on 20th and 21st December. We're reliably informed that we drew nearly a crowd of 700 for the very first set (the number going up to more than 1,000 if you count those who were just passing through). It was absolutely fabulous-- the energy was high, the mood was great and people were singing and clapping along. By popular demand we reprised the "12 Pains of Christmas" song. A shout out to our 5 year old fan Gerard who very professionally helped us count all 12 of the pains! And it was simply awesome to see so many of our friends and family there too. We hope you all enjoyed yourselves!

AGAPELLA at the Esplanade, 20-21 December 2007

Pics courtesy of Wilson Tan