Iman Fandi has spent much of her life being introduced through a famous surname.
Her father, Fandi Ahmad, is a Singapore football legend who became the first Singaporean to play professional football in Europe. Her brothers, Irfan, Ikhsan, Ilhan and Iryan, are all footballers, while her mother, Wendy Jacobs, was a model whose photo shoots Iman tagged along to as a child before eventually stepping in front of the camera herself.
“I didn’t realise that my family name carried any kind of weight until I was 10 years old,” she once told Tatler Asia.
By then, she had returned to Singapore from Indonesia and discovered that people knew who she was before she had done anything herself. Much of what followed has been about establishing an identity of her own.
Her new single “IT IS,” out now on digital platforms, arrives at a fitting point in that journey.
A modern pop and R&B track with a mischievous streak, “IT IS” centers on confidence, self-worth and the belief that real value is demonstrated rather than promised. It is about knowing what you bring to the table without making yourself smaller or waiting for someone else’s validation.
It suits an artist whose career has often followed a simple pattern: Iman moves first, then explains.
At 14, she entered the 2014 TNP New Face competition without initially telling her family and won two titles. Later, she began writing and recording music in her bedroom and only told her parents after she had already gone into a studio and filmed a music video.
That instinct eventually took her across modeling, music and acting. She appeared on the covers of Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE Singapore and Female Magazine, earned a psychology degree from TMC Academy and released her debut single “Timeframe” under Universal Music Singapore in 2021.
Produced by Grammy-winning mixing engineer John Hanes, whose credits include The Weeknd, Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift, “Timeframe” was followed by tracks including “Want” and “Love Me Little More.” Iman also moved into acting with a role in Mediacorp’s Emerald Hill High.
Then, at the start of 2026, she parted ways with Universal Music and relaunched as an independent artist.
The move was less a retreat than a recalibration — and the year that followed gives “IT IS” much of its context.
Iman performed at Light to Night and the Kallang Countdown before making her halftime-show debut during the AFC Asian Cup match between Singapore and Bangladesh.
For the daughter of Fandi Ahmad, standing on Singapore’s national pitch carried another layer of meaning: she was performing in a space closely associated with her family’s sporting legacy, but for a career she had built outside football.
In July, she previewed “IT IS” at the reopening of Singapore nightclub Zouk. She later performed “Giants” at the National Day Parade before 42,000 people at the National Stadium and a nationwide broadcast audience.
Her first performance at the Singapore Indoor Stadium is set for the end of August, alongside a school tour bringing “IT IS” to students across Singapore.
Her expanding regional presence has also brought her closer to Philippine pop.
At the NBA Rising Stars Invitational in Singapore, Iman connected with P-pop group KAIA and RAMONA, the musical alter ego of actress Andrea Brillantes. Their collaborations are rolling out on TikTok throughout August.
She has taken a similar approach at home, building “IT IS” through content with fellow National Day Parade performers Jasmine Sokko and Gareth Fernandez, allowing the track to circulate online even before its official release.
But beneath the career milestones, “IT IS” keeps its message simple.
“While the song’s message is rooted in confidence and self-possession, it also carries a playful nod to the people who always ask, ‘Is this song about me?’” Iman said.
“The answer is part mystery, part mischief: if you think it is about you, maybe it is.”
That ambiguity gives the song room to work as a romantic, professional or personal statement. In Iman’s case, it is also difficult not to hear another possibility: the perspective of someone who spent years being introduced as somebody’s daughter before establishing herself on her own terms.
The song does not explicitly make that connection. It does not need to.
“IT IS” follows her 2026 singles “Tip Toes” and “Out Of My Mind” and moves her closer to Afterglow, her forthcoming debut independent EP.
Even the EP’s title feels appropriate for this stage of her career: an afterglow is the light that remains after its original source has passed.
For Iman Fandi, the more interesting question now is not where the light came from, but what she intends to do with it.
And with “IT IS,” the answer increasingly appears to be: whatever she wants.
“IT IS” by Iman Fandi is out now on digital music platforms. Her debut independent EP, Afterglow, is forthcoming.