Flashback Fridays

Photo by Zhang ShuHan

Projector X, Riverside, hosted the newest party that Singapore has to offer. Flashback Friday, brought to you by ‘UNfiltered’, made its debut in the Singapore night scene on 5 August, 2022.

Photo by Zhang ShuHan

With the crowd decked out in a 2000s-themed style, blinding neon lights bouncing off the walls, and the crowd screaming out the lyrics to songs like; Taylor Swift’s ‘You Belong With Me’, NSYNC’s ‘Bye Bye Bye’, Sean Kingston’s ‘Beautiful Girls’, it was a roller coaster of emotions in the room – like sharing a multitude of emotions with each song as we reminisced our teenage days.

Photo by Zhang ShuHan

The energy in the room felt so surreal, as people from different ages and backgrounds were connecting with one another on a deep and intimate level that were beyond words. It almost seemed like the connection each and every one in attendance had with the music - bringing them together, as they got lost dancing, without a care of who was watching.

Photo by Zhang ShuHan

We managed to sit down with one of the organisers from the team, UNfiltered, to share with us more about what the event meant to him.

“Tell us more about Unfiltered”

Angelo: Unfiltered.sg is a multimedia entertainment company that produces transparent and raw content to push the envelope on social impacts. We want to be the voice of the people, bring awareness to social issues and be a platform that everyday Singaporeans can relate to.

What is Flashback Friday?

Angelo: Flashback Friday is a special event organised by Unfiltered to bring back throwback bangers of the 2000s to 2010s era all through the night where everyone can dance, sing, even scream out loud to their favourite coming of age music that the late Gen-z’s and millennials are familiar with.

What made you decide to host your own event despite having household names like Emonight in the scene?

Angelo: Despite popular names like Emonightsg, Eatmepoptart and even the new TikTok night hosted by ourculture.sg, my team and I realised there was a gap in the “throwback scene”. I would say Eatmepoptart would have the most similarity to us with their “Kids are alright” nights but also revolving around the 80s to current music, while the other events mainly focus on other genres of music. We wanted to bring forth an event that is focused on the 2000s. The “MTV days” where we used to get excited whenever there is a new music video on YouTube, recording the songs on our Sony phones to use as our ringtones. Those were the ‘feel-good’ songs we (the 90s kids) grew up with and we wanted a special night just for that. We wanted like-minded people to join us for a night of celebrating every individual.

Photo by Zhang ShuHan

What was the inspiration behind this event?

Angelo: It would have to be whenever I get bored of listening to today’s top hits. I actually have a Spotify playlist called “Throwback Thursday” that I would listen to, just to feel a little bit of my childhood again. I shared this playlist on a random night with Syaffiq (another member of UNfiltered), and we joked about how cool it would be to have a party night dedicated to these songs. Four years later, we decided that it was time to put it into fruition! Also, I have always believed that music is the one thing in the world that can bring people together and despite the social topics and unpopular opinions that we bring about in some of our videos, we thought it was one of the best ways to bring people together and connect through music.

(Btw “throwback Thursday was the initial name of the event but because it’s held on Fridays we made the change.)

What can we expect to see more from young creators like you?

Angelo: We aim to help Singaporeans have a voice in today’s media and to create a safe space where they know that they are not alone. In terms of content, we will be seeing how much we can push the boundaries on topics that may be considered “sensitive” to Singapore media.

Do you have any words of encouragement for people out there trying to start their own event or company like you?

Angelo: It is going to sound cliche but, START TODAY. I know sometimes it may be due to the lack of funds, time or even motivation. But if you really want to do something, start now. Be it, doing some form of research or planning, it’s entirely free and there is no such thing as “no time”, because setting aside an hour or two for your passion project shouldn’t be a chore but a privilege. It took us 4 years to make Flashback Friday from the drawing board into a reality. And the only reason we could make it happen was because we started on that very day in 2018.