“Don’t sing for Me. Sing to Me”: Her music is a love song to the One who turned her brokenness into beauty

The first time Genevieve Toh prayed an honest prayer, she yelled at God.

It was on the night of her father’s funeral in 2012, and she was grieving a decade’s worth of pain caused by the man who, in her words, had “shattered” her life into pieces.

Her father was a convicted fraudster who had bankrupted their family, as well as a serial cheater whose multiple mistresses had often hounded her family.

“Because of all that had happened with my dad, I had learned to live with shame, unworthiness, rejection, abandonment, pain, anger, disappointment and hopelessness,” said Genevieve, who as his eldest child was saddled with the responsibility of cleaning up his mess.

“I remember needing to deal with lawyers, with creditors, with asset liquidation agents in my early twenties. It was a stressful and a heavy burden.”

Genevieve as a teenager.

After his funeral, she remembers sitting in bed past midnight, brimming with emotion.

“I groaned and screamed out loud at God and told Him that I was angry at Him for letting all this horror and trauma happen in my life,” recalled Genevieve, now 46.

Genevieve admitted that though she participated in church life, “I did not know what the Gospel truth was. I went through religious life with a veil over my eyes, never really knowing the full truth of my salvation.”

Though she had been baptised in a Catholic church as a teenager, she admitted that she never really had a personal relationship with God.

She received no response from God that night. But years later, she realised that He would answer her anger with grace and healing – in a city far from home.

Finding her voice

Two years after that night, her husband was offered a job in New York City. He took it up, and the couple, along with their two sons, moved their lives across the world.

In a new environment, Genevieve found freedom from her traumatic past. “I had the freedom to be myself … What was that even? I had no idea who I truly was apart from being the daughter to my father,” she said.

Genevieve with her husband, Chris, and their sons, Ezra (in blue) and Lucas.

Shrouded in what she described as “an atmosphere of newness and adventure”, Genevieve found in her heart a new – and deep – desire to sing.

Having been trained in classical piano since she was four years old, she had always loved music and had known it was what she wanted to do in life.

“But I now realise that the piano was never my first instrument because it was inadequate in expressing the fullness of my heart,” she reflected. “I needed my voice for that.”

After connecting with a voice coach in the city, Genevieve learnt to sing – an experience that made her feel alive and free.

“There was something physiologically restorative that singing effected in my being – whether it was loosening tension in my jaw, my tongue, my neck, encouraging more mobility in my ribcage, or adapting my body to longer exhalations while singing, needing me to surrender to and trust my artistic instincts,” she said.

“In all these ways, God used singing to heal my body, mind and soul from the effects of stress and emotional trauma.”

Finding God’s heart

In these years as a fledgling singer-songwriter, Genevieve also came across sermons that opened her eyes to the truth about Jesus and what He had done for her.

For years, she had felt rejected, hurt and abandoned by her earthly father. 

With her husband, Chris, in New York City.

On top of that, she had also long carried a heavy burden of guilt over “a physically inappropriate and shameful relationship with an authority figure in the church” when she was a young teenager.

However, after reading the book of Romans in the Bible, as well as with the help of sermons, she began to understand the Gospel more fully.

“I found out that God loves me, a sinner, and saved me completely from all my sins and the curse of life from living in this broken world. I didn’t do anything to deserve or earn this, and He did it all for me because He loves me,” she said.

“This is how Jesus met me – in the Word, in the Gospel, in His real work of salvation for and in my life, and in the way He rescued me from blindness to the truth, and washed me clean of all the shame, depression and guilt that my early life had acquired.

“Who I am, is in Christ. My identity is in Him. He has really saved me through and through!”

Finding healing through songwriting

As her newfound voice and faith converged, Genevieve began writing songs. It was a process she found to be healing.

“It was putting the messes and brokenness of my past and my heart into music. This was cathartic, releasing and redemptive. It was as if all the hurt, that I had no ability to process previously, was now clearly objectified and given a resolution in every song I wrote,” said the singer-songwriter, who has released eight albums and four singles.

Genevieve gives thanks to God for bringing along music professionals in New York City to mentor and encourage her as she grew artistically.

In No I Can’t from her 2016 album On My Own Terms, she shares her struggle and resolve to move on from her past trauma, and toward a more hopeful future.

In Confessional, a song in her 2023 album The Strength Within, she sings about leaving behind the shame of being in an inappropriate relationship, and grieves similar stories she has heard of sexual abuse within the church.

The song concludes:

I’m rising from this grave
I′m leaving you here instead
I confess I’m clean from within
I learn to trust again
I yearn to trust again
For I am born again

Genevieve, who never reported her experience of abuse, said: “Once I wrote the song, I found that it was easier for me to think back on what happened, and respond to it with calmness rather than anxiety or shame, and hope in God for a better future.”

“Sing to Me”

In the years that followed, Genevieve grew as an artist in New York City, writing countless songs, performing in bars and cafés, and teaching others to sing.

Genevieve found performing in New York City a freeing experience.

She thought her voice was meant to be a vessel for God’s, until one day, she heard God’s still, small voice say: “Don’t sing for Me. Sing to Me.”

It reshaped the way she saw her craft. In her song He Loves It When I Sing, Genevieve talks about singing for God’s pleasure, rather than for the approval of people:

I can earn all my worth from this faceless crowd I sing to
But this passing vanity is fleeting and destructive
There’s no greater joy or purpose than to sing thankfully
To the Giver of my song

She reflected: “I’m called to prioritise intimacy with Him over thinking that I have any good in me apart from Him to do anything for Him.

“The Lord has anointed me to minister to Him, to worship Him in song, to express my delight and joy in Him. This is because this is what He does to me. He sings to me, He sings over me, He delights in me!” she said, referencing Zephaniah 3:17.

“I’m constantly meditating on this call on my life to not identify myself as a singer who is working for a taskmaster, but instead a beloved daughter whose anointing it is to lovingly gaze upon the Holy One.”

This is why she spends time in God’s Word regularly.

Pointing to Psalm 9:2, where the psalmist rejoices in God and sings praises to His name, Genevieve said: “It is the truth about the goodness of God and His grace that makes me glad and rejoice. Only if I have this organic and authentic gladness and joy, then can I truly praise Him.”

Turning brokenness into beauty

Through her music and honest storytelling, Genevieve, who is now based in Singapore as a voice teacher and coach, believes that those who listen will catch a glimpse of God’s work in her life.

On November 21, she will be performing at Church of our Saviour in Queenstown, in a music concert that she hopes will encourage and uplift others.

Believing that her songs are her testimony, Genevieve said: “I’m just a vessel of truth, a storyteller, and I do it with the beauty of song and art.”

Describing her music as her altar unto the Lord, she said: “On this altar, I place my heart, the life stories within it, and all that I am – my brokenness, my sadness, my anger, my joy, my longings. 

“On this altar, these things are transformed by His grace into what I call beautiful messes.”

“ENCOUNTER” CONCERT WITH GENEVIEVE TOH

The evening promises to be an uplifting, thought-provoking, soul-moving collection of songs; a musical narration of Genevieve’s journey, from darkness to light, traversing pit- stops of failure, disappointment, rejection, encountering hope and arising with joy and victory.

Genevieve Toh is a local singer and songwriter, who grew exponentially as a musician for 10 years in New York City. She has released 7 LP albums, 1 EP album and 4 singles of original music. After coming home to Singapore, she has sung and performed at local clubs and teaches voice lessons from her home.

Performing together with Genevieve are Singapore’s premier, world-touring musicians:

• Mei Sheum on keyboards
• Sebastian Ho on guitar
• Fabian Lee on bass
• Audrey Tang on drums.

“Encounter” will be held at the Auditorium of the Church of Our Saviour, 130 Margaret Drive, Singapore 149300, on November 21, 2025 at 8PM. 

Patrons who arrive early will be served bespoke mocktails, curated by David Koh of BarStories from 7pm (while stocks last).

Tap here to book your tickets.

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