From Orchard Road busker to idol hopeful: NUS student joins regional reality show
Eddino Abdul Hadi
The Straits Times
March 5, 2025
Singer-songwriter Whylucas, the only Singaporean contestant on the second season of Chuang Asia, went in with little experience compared with his competitors.
But the 22-year-old is holding his own on the regional idol reality show, and after five episodes, ranks No. 14 out of 60 hopefuls.
Filmed in Bangkok with contestants from countries such as China, Thailand, Japan and South Korea, Chuang Asia 2 - by Chinese multimedia giant Tencent - premiered on Feb 2.
Whylucas, whose stage name includes his English name Lucas and the initials of his Chinese name Wang Hong Yi, hopes to be one of the seven winners who will score a spot in a new international boy band determined by public voting.
The journey has not been easy for the former busker and NUS Business School undergrad, who put his studies on hold by taking a gap semester and has not returned home from Thailand since November 2024.
He has little contact with the outside world because contestants are housed together in Bangkok during the entire filming. He says he rarely gets to use his mobile phone and had to miss his family's Chinese New Year celebrations in Singapore.
"I do miss my family, I miss having my phone, having freedom to just do whatever I want. But I think at the same time, it's way more of a blessing to be here, it is such a privilege. And I don't think I want to lose this," he tells The Straits Times in a Zoom interview on March 4.
According to Whylucas, many contestants are already members of idol groups or had cut their teeth on other regional idol shows. His only brush with show business was participating in Mediacorp's reality singing competition Battle Of The Buskers (2023) and game show I Can See Your Voice (2025).
But in the first episode of Chuang Asia, he impressed the rest by showing off his well-toned muscles and performing his original songs. His group performance, a rendition of English-Irish boy band One Direction's What Makes You Beautiful (2011), earned praise from one of the show's mentors-producers, Bam Bam from K-pop boy band Got7.
Other mentors on the show include Thai singer and actor Jeff Satur, and The8 from K-pop boy band Seventeen, who is also the show's producer.
Whylucas even got to interact with Thai singer-rapper Lisa from K-pop girl group Blackpink, who appeared on the fourth episode as a guest mentor.
He is starting to build a fan base and there are fan accounts on TikTok and Instagram filled with videos of his public appearances and clips of his performances on Chuang Asia.
His music journey began at the age of six with guitar lessons. But it was only in the last three years, inspired by singer-songwriters John Mayer, Ed Sheeran and Shawn Mendes, that he started singing and writing his own songs.
He busked around Orchard Road, played gigs at venues such as the Esplanade and, from 2022 to 2024, released six singles that are on streaming services such as Spotify.
In mid-2024, a casting agency invited him to sign up for Chuang Asia 2. The initial auditions were done online, and he flew to Bangkok for the final ones that got him a spot on the show.
If he emerges victorious in Chuang Asia 2, he is willing to withdraw from the National University of Singapore to join the new boy band, which will be based in Beijing, China.
But if he fails, he still intends to pursue a solo music career and has written an album's worth of songs. "I've always wanted to take my music to the next level."
- Chuang Asia 2 is available on wetv.vip, with new episodes released on Sundays. To vote for Whylucas, go to str.sg/smfy
