Strobe lights flash across a near-empty dance floor, as a DJ livestreams thumping electronic music from a Singapore nightclub to revelers confined to their homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic has shuttered once lively nightspots from London to New York, but innovative DJs have started putting their performances online so that clubbers do not miss out.
The trend is another example of how the virus, which has left about 3.6 billion people stuck at home under lockdowns, is upending daily life in ways unthinkable until recently, as governments impose social-distancing curbs to stem its spread.
Photo: AFP
After Singapore last week ordered the closure of many entertainment venues following a steady rise in infections, popular nightclub Zouk threw a “cloud clubbing” party, streaming live performances by six DJs via an app.
It took place on a Friday night when the club is often packed with hundreds of partygoers — but only a handful of people were allowed to attend, most of them staff members.
DJ Nash D conceded that he found it weird at first.
“When you play for a dance floor with a room full of people, you can feel the energy come back, and I like to DJ off that energy,” the DJ said.
However, he quickly got used to it, saying that live comments from clubbers on his laptop were helpful.
“Whatever song requests that they had actually guided me in a certain direction,” he added.
Clubbers also used the livestreaming app Bigo Live send the DJs gifts, such as bells and snowflakes, that could later be exchanged for cash.
The nightclub partnered with gaming equipment company Razer and Bigo Live, and attracted 200,000 views of the three-hour event, with 5,600 viewers at one point.
In China, DJs and nightspots started livestreaming performances at the beginning of February, when the country’s outbreak was at its pinnacle.
Shanghai and Beijing venues pioneered livestreamed clubbing on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, which also allows fans to buy gifts that can be swapped for cash.
Beijing club One Third attracted more than 1 million viewers and generated nearly 2 million yuan (US$281,686) in rewards from its fans in a five-hour livestream, news Web site iFeng reported.
Closed nightclubs and DJs stuck at home are also hosting virtual dance parties in New York.
Live-performance outfit The Dance Cartel has started hosting “Social Disdance” parties three times per week for “dance nights together, apart.”
Participants dance with one another over the Zoom video chat app, with some donning costumes and others setting up colorful disco lights.
The parties are free, but people are encouraged to make donations to the DJs and hosts.
Singapore’s decision to close nightclubs came as authorities slowly tighten restrictions following a jump in cases. Despite the challenges, some performers are slowly warming to the idea of online clubbing.
“Online, I feel that everybody is more in their natural state,” said DJ LeNERD, who played at Friday’s event in Singapore. “They are more themselves and they are more honest.”
A glimpse of a possible Picasso in the home of Imelda Marcos filmed during a visit by her son after his presidential election win has set off a flurry of speculation in the Philippines, where the family that once plundered billions is set to return to power. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the late dictator, won a landslide victory in Monday’s presidential election, an outcome that has appalled those who survived his father’s regime. Images released by the family showed Marcos Jr visiting the home of his mother, who had displayed Picasso’s Femme Couche VI (Reclining Woman VI),
The images of a besuited Ferdinand Marcos Jr, clad in a top hat and leaning nonchalantly on a Rolls-Royce, dating from his time in Britain in the 1970s, are as you might expect from the playboy scion of a kleptocratic dictator. Yet as the Marcos family returns to power in the Philippines after a landslide presidential victory by Marcos Jr, he is facing calls to stop misrepresenting the circumstances of his studies at the University of Oxford. The university has confirmed that he did not complete his degree in philosophy, politics and economics after enrolling in 1975. “According to our records, he did
HATE CRIME: Officials were investigating a detailed ‘manifesto’ posted online before the livestreamed shooting, in which the suspect outlined his reasoning and plans A heavily armed 18-year-old white man on Saturday shot 10 people dead at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store in a “racially motivated” attack that he livestreamed on camera, authorities said. The gunman, who was wearing body armor and a helmet, was arrested after the massacre, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told a news conference. Gramaglia put the toll at 10 dead and three wounded. Eleven of the victims were African Americans. The gunman shot four people in the parking lot of the Tops supermarket, three of them fatally, then went inside and continued firing, Gramaglia said. Among those killed inside the store was
CALIBRATED RESPONSE: The city-state has learned from its past experiences of dealing with COVID-19 variants to assess the situation and the risks, the transport minister said Singapore will strive to keep its borders open and stay connected to the rest of world even if a new variant of COVID-19 emerges, Singaporean Minister for Transport S. Iswaran said on Wednesday. The city-state has learned from its past experiences of dealing with COVID-19 variants, Iswaran said in an interview with Bloomberg News. When the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 hit, Singapore did not backtrack on its reopening plans, but rather decided to wait and see how things panned out, he said, adding that the response was different versus the Delta outbreak. “We’ve all learned to adapt,” Iswaran said on the sidelines
RSS