Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix 2025 once again ran like a city-sized festival, and Friday (3 October) lit the fuse with K-pop fever.
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G-DRAGON’s long-awaited Singapore comeback turned the Padang into a sea of banners and lightsticks, after fans queued from dawn — some braving more than 15 hours in the rain for a spot on the barrier — before the BIGBANG star crashed in with a high-production, bass-heavy set. Earlier in the night CL delivered a high-voltage pop-rap set built for the dancefloor, while Clean Bandit’s strings-meets-dance rush primed the weekend for arena-level sing-alongs.
Saturday (4 October) swung from rock catharsis to EDM euphoria. Foo Fighters roared through arm-aloft choruses, with Dave Grohl tipping a wink to his first Singapore visit as Nirvana’s drummer before launching into hits like ‘Everlong’ and ‘Best of You’. On the same evening Alan Walker ramped things up on a wave of massive drops and roaring smoke cannons, while Crowded House’s golden-hour harmonies bled across Zone 1 to the Wharf.
@sgfoodtok “When I talk about it, it carries on…” 🎶 Foo Fighters – Big Me live at F1 Singapore 🇸🇬 #FooFighters #F1Singapore #padangstage ♬ original sound - Sgoodtok
Sunday (5 October) delivered the weekend’s most vivid contrasts. The Smashing Pumpkins closed the Wharf with vereran swagger as Billy Corgan’s serrated vocals cut through drizzle. The legendary band swung from slow-burn menace to pedal-to-the-floor release. Their set leaned into defining hits such as ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’, ‘Today’, 'Disarn' and ‘1979'— the kind of alt-rock canon that turns a street circuit into a mass, throat-raw chorus line. Over at the Padang, Lewis Capaldi dialled up phone-light swells before Elton John’s victory-lap finale — ‘Rocket Man’, ‘Tiny Dancer’, ‘Your Song’ — sent the weekend off like a glitter-piano encore to the chequered flag.
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Threaded through the headliners was the bill’s most breathless swerve: BABYMETAL. The Japanese trio hit like a precision-drilled thunderclap — choreo sharp enough to cut glass, double-kick drums strafing the Padang, and chants ricocheting off the grandstands. Their compact set read like a calling card: the ominous roll call of ‘BABYMETAL DEATH’, the festival-igniting chant-backs of ‘PA PA YA!!’, and the turbo-charged sugar-rush of ‘Gimme Chocolate!!’. Mid-show, energy spiked hard enough that fans opened up pits near the front — the kind of whirlpool release that proves how seamlessly metal and idol pop can fuse under stadium lights.
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Beyond the marquee names, the curation earned was stellar. Acts like The Wombats, Tom Grennan, The Lathums, Le Twins, Indo Warehouse, Oakë, and Putri Ariani kept the circuit park buzzing between main-stage rushes — the kind of deep bench that lets you wander zone to zone and still stumble on a highlight. Add roving performances and late-night DJ sessions and you get a soundtrack that mirrors the race: fast, loud, and relentlessly fun.
Across three nights the circuit moved like a true two-hub festival — Zone 4’s Padang for the biggest moments, Zone 1’s Wharf for a second wave of marquee sets — with crowds surging between stages all weekend. By lights-out, organizers reported a sell-out 300,641 through the gates, and the soundtrack to Singapore’s night race once again matched the spectacle on track: loud, varied, and built for sing-backs, circle-pits, and everything in between.
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