Malaysian girl group DOLLA comprising of members Tabby, Sabronzo and Angel, has been captivating audiences since their debut in 2020 with ‘DOLLA Make You Wanna.’ Known for their fearless approach to breaking barriers, the group blends edgy and feminine personas, embodying the spirit of youth today. Their success is evident with seven solo singles, five collaborations, and a mini album that sold out within a day, accompanied by a packed showcase.
DOLLA has consistently proven their star power, from performing their first sold-out solo concert, DOLLA RE:BIRTH The Experience, at ZeppKL in August 2023 to representing Malaysia in the global programme Show It All on MangoTV.
On 15 February, DOLLA will take the stage at Mediacorp’s CLOUD 9 Music Festival at Arena @ EXPO Hall 7 in Singapore. Themed “Feel the Beat and Catch the High,” the festival promises an adrenaline-pumping evening featuring a diverse lineup of international and regional acts. Fans can expect DOLLA’s signature dance-pop performance, complete with captivating choreography and dynamic stage energy.
With their electrifying presence and track record of unforgettable live shows, DOLLA’s performance is poised to be a standout moment at the festival. We had the privilege of catching up with DOLLA ahead of their highly anticipated Cloud 9 performance, where they gave us an exclusive glimpse into what fans can look forward to on the big night.
Hey DOLLA! What goes into preparing a setlist for such a diverse festival audience, and can you give us a sneak peek into any surprises?
Tabby: I think the best part is that we love performing for diverse audiences and planning a set that’s truly exciting. We get to collaborate with Ezra and our team to include a variety of songs, including tracks from our upcoming album, as well as mashups we love creating for festivals. It’s going to be an exciting show—we’re putting in a lot of effort with dance rehearsals and song preparations. While I can’t reveal the setlist just yet, I promise it will be something special.
You were part of Show It All China on MangoTV—what lessons or inspirations from that experience are you bringing to your CLOUD 9 performance?
Tabby: We learned so much during Show It All in China. One of the biggest takeaways was the importance of bonding and working through challenges together, especially since it was such a new experience for us. Performing in Singapore is something we’ve done before, but it’s always special and feels different every time we come back. Curating a setlist, practicing, and preparing for a show is always an amazing and super fun process, but it can also be quite challenging because we want to give our best.
From that experience, we’ve learned how to cope with those challenges and channel them into creating an even better performance. Hopefully, the set we’ve prepared for you will reflect everything we’ve learned along the way.
CLOUD 9’s theme is “Feel the Beat and Catch the High.” How do you plan to bring that energy to the stage during your performance?
Sabronzo:
I think when it comes to our Singaporeans fans, I know some of them have had the chance to come over and see more of our shows in Kuala Lumpur, but we have only done a few shows out in Singapore and it was already a while back, so I feel like this time around would definitely be, giving the audience more of a set that they haven't seen
before, more upbeat songs and just a set full of good music, which is up tempo and full of amazing choreography.
With hip-hop, R&B, and Mandopop acts on the CLOUD 9 lineup, would you ever consider cross-genre collaborations? If so, who would be your dream pick?
Tabby: You know, the most interesting thing is how much we love diversity. We’re all about exploring different genres, and even our upcoming comeback single is so unique that it’s hard to pin down to just one genre. We’d also love to experiment with different languages—Mandopop really intrigues us! For now, though, our dream collaboration would be with one of the CLOUD headliners, B.I. We think his style would be such a perfect match for DOLLA’s vibe, and it would be an amazing experience to work together.
Your fashion and visuals always make a statement. How does your style tie into the DOLLA brand?
Angel: I think DOLLA is all about diversity and a lot of us in the group dress on how we feel and the mood of the day, but the majority of the time we are all just very comfortable. so I would say we're just very comfortable people, how we dress in real life and how we dress when we perform is totally two different sides of us. Which is what I feel is special and our branding is just very real. There's nothing that we sugarcoat and I think that is very awesome.
As Malaysian artistes performing on an international stage, how do you incorporate your roots into your music and performances?
Tabby: This was a huge opportunity for us. We love performing on Singapore's international stages as well. And I think, somehow we always bring our culture with us, no matter what, because all three of us are from very diverse backgrounds and we are brought up in different environments that honestly, I think can only be found in our country as well. But at the end of the day, we sing our songs in Malay and that is something that, we always embraced and we love that the Singaporeans and also like, many international stages have embraced the Malay language in our songs as much as we do. So let's continue to make Malay music and perform Malay music internationally.
From creating a mini album to a full studio album, how do you decide on the themes and sounds that represent DOLLA?
Sabronzo: I think it has been a very interesting road that DOLLA has been through since our first mini album to our first ever full album, so it took a lot of planning as well as a lot of research on what's trending, what are the sounds that are more current. Basically us as DOLLA we have a sound that we know ourselves and our listeners are very comfortable with, but it's just more of a game of how do we incorporate all these new and fresh sounds and still make it a good balance between a DOLLA song and what's trending right now in the music industry.
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