Lara

Lara Tan is from Singapore and her Chinese name is Ying Ying (櫻櫻) and it's common practice that the singers use a Chinese name and add an English nickname. She usually sings in Mandarin pressed songs with The Trailers ( 特丽乐隊) in 1967. The Trailers were a popular sixties bands in Singapore in their own right. It was the usual path for many would be singers in Singapore 60s and Lara was no different. She sang at school concerts and in private parties for a while. The break came when she was spotted by an executive from a local record company, was contracted and trained in the skills needed to be a pop star. It was tougher for her because she did not like some of the songs she was singing. After an exhaustive period Lara was provided with about 40 songs to select for her vinyl debut. Since Mandarin songs had a bigger fan base in South East Asia, Lara recorded covers of current English 60s songs and had them translated into Mandarin by a Ms Violet Chow. To make the formula work she was backed by The Trailers, one of the most popular bands then. Where EMI had Rita Chao and The Quests, Lara was the answer to Cosdel's search for a female lead vocalist to front The Trailers. And like Chao and Sakura she had her share of singing a-go-go and off-beat cha-cha music as well.