In Singapore, our home-grown brand Teo Heng is synonymous with Karaoke. 

As a staple pastime for many during our teenage years, the 31-year-old business has supplied us with endless hours of fun and laughter.

Unfortunately, that has now come to an end as Teo Heng has finally decided to cut its losses due to the COVID-19 situation and close down.

Although a pilot program was set in place to allow some businesses in the entertainment industry to resume their services, a recent spike in community cases resulted in it being delayed indefinitely.

Sadly, this was the last straw for Teo Heng as they had fallen back on rental payments since August last year.

Teo Heng’s director, Jean Teo, admitted tearfully that the decision to close was an extremely difficult choice for her.

“It’s not fair to the landlords too, I can’t give them the guarantee to pay the rent promptly. Now we have to settle our outstanding rental payment from August 2020 to February 2021 to the landlords. If not we’ll be sued,” said Jean.

However, there is still a light at the end of the tunnel as negotiations with landlords are still ongoing. Through these negotiations, she hopes to hold on to two outlets at Community Centres as the rent there is more manageable.

She also reassured supporters that their return was “only a matter of time.”

So while things may look grim, perhaps this isn’t the end of Teo Heng KTV. Hopefully they can make a successful return after the pandemic so we can continue singing (or shouting) songs with our friends.