YES 933 DJ Hazelle Teo spent S$40,000 to produce her Chinese New Year song

The 29-year-old radio DJ, who recently bought her first home, shares why she chose to splurge on her passion project... even if she doesn't make money from it.

With her talk show, numerous hosting gigs, and commercial obligations, on top of her regular job as a YES 933 radio DJ, there's no doubt that Hazelle Teo, 29, is busy, busy, busy.

That, however, has not stopped her from making her dream of releasing a Chinese New Year single a reality. 

It was in May 2023 when we first heard of Hazelle’s idea to write a CNY song. True enough, eight months later, she launched her single SING A 龙 Dance A 龙 ('龙', or 'dragon' in Mandarin, is pronounced 'Long').

To date, the song's music video has over 65,000 views on YouTube. 

When 8days.sg reached out to Hazelle, she says the Chinese New Year period is a very important occasion for her and that her inspiration to do a CNY song was inspired by Malaysian content creators.

"Every year they will come up with a CNY song and I (always) thought it’s very festive and nice,” she said, adding that she's not a “pro" when it comes to singing.

The process of starting the project from scratch was not cheap. Hazelle told 8days.sg that she initially envisioned the project to “cost about S$20k”. 

The song was co-written with songwriter Shin (许庆锐) and co-produced with local music producer JC (龙家成) and total costs ultimately came up to “about S$40k”, which Hazelle said includes the amount she spent on the music video. 

“I never knew making a music video would be so expensive,” she laughed. 

Thankfully, she was able to get Coke on board, and the company ended up sponsoring a part of the project cost. 

If you haven’t heard, Hazelle recently bought her first home, a S$1.18 million two-bedroom condo. Between paying for her house and her CNY project, was she worried about her finances? 

“My bank balance was indeed down to a new low, but I wasn't really scared," said Hazelle. "I can always make back the money in other ways. However, once time and youth is gone, they’ll never return. I would rather use them wisely when I still can!”

For those wondering, she doesn’t stand to profit much from the song. 

“I’m guessing for every thousand plays you maybe get a dollar or something? But unless I’m Jay Chou, radio profits are negligible, just like YouTube music video plays. The shelf life of CNY songs is so short. They basically stop (being relevant) after the festive period. I would have to play this song to the next Year of the Dragon in 2036 to make a good amount,” she chuckled. 

She also told us that it’s “not possible” to recoup the money she had invested. 

“Maybe (it would be possible) next time when I have more works under my name… but for now, I was already prepared for the money to go out and not come back,” she said.

Even though her CNY song is written for the Year of the Dragon, she hopes the song can be enjoyed yearly. 

She also told us she was surprised to find out that one of her listeners had teared up when he heard the song for the first time.

“He said it was because he was so proud of me for coming up with my own work. This is what makes spending money, chasing my dreams so worth it. These words mean way more than just money alone and I treasure and cherish it so much,” she said. 

Hazelle has no plans to become a singer though.

“I like being a content creator, so I don’t think I want to zoom in and focus on singing alone. Hosting is still my thing, singing is more like a bonus on the sideline. If it works out, I'll be happy. I feel like a song every year is perfect. I want to try to expand my reach to a different target audience, and at the same time fulfil a dream,” she said.

This story was originally published in 8Days.