Vanessa Fernandez

Programme Director, Lush 99.5FM

Singapore

Vanessa’s foray into the world of music and entertainment began when she was just 12. Together with her cousin and two other friends from the church choir, they entered and won the Girl Groups category on Rolling Good Times, a national talent show broadcast on free-to-air television in Singapore. When she was 16, Vanessa became part of the Singapore Repertory Theatre Young Company, performing in various plays and musicals including Re:Mix, penned by ex-Singapore Idol judge and music industry veteran, Dick Lee. At 18 she became part of one of Singapore’s most successful groups, Urban Xchange, fronting Coca-Cola’s "Life Tastes Good" campaign. In the early 2000s, Urban Xchange led a hip-hop renaissance in the local music industry and were nominated for Best Singapore Act at the 2002 MTV Asia Music Awards. Vanessa continued on with the now defunct space-rock outfit, Parking Lot Pimp, while completing a diploma in Mass Communication at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Fresh out of school in2006, she was asked to join Mediacorp Radio’s 987FM, choosing the moniker by which she would become best known - Vandetta.

For several years she helmed the morning drive time show while pushing local music forward through her acoustic live weekend show, 987 Stripped. At the end of 2010, Vanessa left 987fm to return to her first love of music. She became part of audio-visual collective, Syndicate, performing with veteran hip-hop producer/DJ, Kiat, at the opening day of the infamous Gilles Peterson Worldwide Festival 2011 in Sete, France. In September that same year, she performed with veteran producer Jason Tan at the Singapore leg of the Worldwide Festival. The duo, known as Octover, released their self-titled album on the Syndicate imprint in January of 2013. At the end of 2011, Vanessa embarked on a journey in Los Angeles to work on her debut solo effort. There she experienced a vibrant and eclectic underground music culture. A journey meandering the hip-hop/jazz inspired beat scene championed by the infamous Low End Theory nights at The Airliner, to the indie/new-wave sounds via performances with artist, Seven Saturdays, at iconic venues such as The Satellite in Silverlake and The Standard in West Hollywood.

The first single off her upcoming Vandetta EP entitled "Fly" received positive reviews from influential media such as Pitchfork, MTV Iggy and the LA Weekly. Upon returning to Singapore in August 2013, Vanessa returned to radio helming the evening drive-time show on Lush99.5fm - Singapore's premiere vehicle for art, culture and independent music. Her goal is to balance supporting and growing the music scene in Singapore while continuously evolving as an artist and performer.