If you're into electronic dance music (EDM), you would know that Ultra Singapore is returning for its third edition in a couple of months.

The EDM festival has featured world-renowned DJs in its previous editions such as Marshmello, Steve Aoki and Hardwell.

Local acts have also graced the stage over the past three years, including Samantha Rui, an R&B starlet who released her debut album and performed for Ultra Singapore for the first time in 2017.

Delayed payment for almost a year

While performing on the same stage as popular international acts was a huge opportunity for her, Rui, however, faced a pretty costly problem with the music festival's organisers.

A tweet she put out on Thursday, April 5 revealed that she had until then yet to be paid for the set she performed — and that was on June 10, 2017, by the way:

yo @UltraSingapore so are y'all ever gonna pay me for last year or y'all just gonna keep swerving my emails

— Sammie 王思睿 (@sammirui) April 5, 2018

In Instagram stories she posted on Thursday evening, she mentioned that she's not doing this for the attention, but because she needs the money to work on her next album:

"And I'm so sick of bigass companies treating small (esp indie) artists like this."

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Sent emails chasing for payment since Aug. 2017

Also on her Instagram stories, Rui showed an excerpt of an email that appears to be from an Ultra Singapore representative.

The representative appeared to blame Rui for not contacting them earlier when she wasn't paid, while also apologising for a "mix up":

"Seriously if it didn't get paid why did t (sic) you email me? I'm sorry for mix up."

She followed this one with another Instagram story showing emails sent by representatives from FyreFlyz, her talent agents at the time, dated between Aug. 28, 2017 and Jan. 2, 2018:

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In the final payment reminder email sent on Jan. 2, it is mentioned that "legal action to recover the debt will be taken against you without further notice."

How much do they owe her?

In a tweet that she subsequently deleted, Rui shared an image of a tax invoice dated Jan. 2, 2018 issuing a late payment fee addressed to Alexander Chew, executive producer for Ultra Singapore:

Here is the estimated amount that Ultra Singapore owed Rui:

Performance fee: US$1,300

Goods and services tax (7%): US$91

Late payment fee (until Dec. 31, 2017): US$468.30

Total: US$1,859.30

Ultra Singapore has yet to make a public reply or statement, and did not respond to queries from Mothership either.

Finally paid, only after going public

A day after Rui's two tweets and six Instagram stories, Friday evening saw her updating her followers in a follow-up tweet that they have finally paid her:

Update on the Ultra SG situation!!! Thank u sososo much for ur support❤❤❤ pic.twitter.com/vWBmJf6HVg

— Sammie 王思睿 (@sammirui) April 6, 2018

Rui also mentioned in the screenshot of her update that Ultra had asked her to remove her first tweet calling out their nonpayment, but said she refused to do so "out of principle":

"That fee should have come in exchange for my set last June, not in exchange for me not going public. I find it a shame that after trying to contact them for over half a year I had to resort to Twitter to get their attention."

Not the first artist to go unpaid

This is not the first time Ultra Singapore had troubles with performers.

Dutch deejay Don Diablo was supposed to be one of the headlining acts for last year's show — incidentally the same one Rui performed at.

Despite experiencing a "tight connection" for a flight from Shanghai to Singapore on the day of his performance, he still made it in time for the show, but his tour manager allegedly received a text saying that they were not welcomed anymore and would not be paid for their set:

Mothership has reached out to both Ultra Singapore and Rui for comment on the incident.

Top image via Sam Rui's Facebook page.

 

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