By the time he was 12, Andrew Yeo was selling pirated VCDs and games outside Katong Shopping Centre.

His family was not well to do, and sometimes he would go to McDonald’s and eat fries that strangers left behind on their trays.

Illustration of Andrew’s teen life on the streets.

Behind the loud image of an “Ah Beng and rascal” was a boy who had grown up hurt and rejected.

His father was largely absent, consumed by drinking, gambling and nightclub work, while his mother worked long factory shifts to keep the family afloat.

Young Andrew was brought up by his grandmother. Some of his family members were heavily involved in temple worship. Photos courtesy of Andrew Yeo and from @mynameisandrewyeo Instagram.

“I had very low self-esteem,” said Andrew, now 48. “I couldn’t study. I had no vision for my life.”

Looking for belonging, he drifted into street gangs, drinking, smoking and glue-sniffing.

Looking at the troubled teen who would go on to fail his “O” Levels twice, no one – not even Andrew himself – could have imagined his future.

Andrew (with finger obscurred) during his “naughty days”.

No one could have foreseen that the boy with “zero music background” would go on to compose songs that would be translated into multiple languages, songs that that go viral. And this was before YouTube and Spotify existed, before the term “viral” was even coined.

Beyond his wildest dreams, he could not have imagined that he would go on to lead praise and worship in packed arenas across Southeast Asia and large churches in the US.

Today, Andrew not only writes songs and sings, he has expanded to equipping, mentoring, and connecting others to do the same.

The next “karaoke king”

The trajectory of young Andrew’s life changed when he accepted an invitation from his school friend, Ah Seng.

“I only went to church because I wanted to see beautiful girls,” Andrew confessed.

When the 15-year-old walked through the church doors, he found a world unfamiliar to him.

“The man on stage looked really cool playing the guitar and singing before the crowd,” he recalled.

“And I heard a Voice telling me that someday I’m going to be like that man on stage.”

Andrew leaned towards Ah Seng and declared: “I’m going to be like that man – the next karaoke king.”

Andrew genuinely thought that the man was singing karaoke; he had no idea that the man was leading worship and helping the people encounter the presence of God. 

“Ah Seng thought I was mocking the man on the stage and got angry. He hit me really hard.”

Growing up surrounded by religious idols and spiritual practices, Andrew was used to sensing what he believed were spiritual experiences. But at that time, he did not realise the voice was God speaking to him.

Giving the angmoh God a chance

Andrew doesn’t remember the sermon that was given that day – only the fiery preaching style of the pastor, Rev Yang Tuck Yoong.

At the end of the service, Rev Yang invited anyone who wanted to invite Jesus into their lives to come forward.

“Nobody responded,” Andrew recalled. “So out of compassion, I lifted my hand and walked to the front of the church.

“My life was quite messed up at that time. And I thought maybe I can give this angmoh (Western) God a chance. At that time, I thought that God came from the United States.”

When Rev Yang laid hands on Andrew and prayed for him, Andrew felt “something change – a release”.

“Peace just came into my heart.”

After that, he stopped smoking abruptly – the first of many miracles in his life.

“My father tore up my Bible when I became a Christian,” said Andrew (pictured with his parents and younger sister). “But he invited Jesus into his life the day before he passed on.” Andrew’s mother and aunties would become Christians too.

Andrew also heard God tell him: “If you leave your friends, I will give you new friends.”

As Andrew started “unfriending” his gang friends and leaving his gang life, he saw this promise unfold. He found a community at church, and God put in his life a string of mentors who supported, encouraged and believed in him.

Before and after. “I went from AB (Ah Beng) to ABC (Ah Beng Christian) to ABCDEFG (Ah Beng Christian Evangelising for God,” Andrew quipped.

For the first time in his life, he was given responsibilities. Rev Yang gave Andrew his first taste of leadership by making him the class monitor during baptism lessons.

When he was in his early 20s, Andrew joined the church as a staff member.

“On my first day at work, I was given a mop to wash the church toilets; a lesson that serving God is serving people, with or without a stage.”

Andrew is now Worship Pastor at that church – Cornerstone Community Church.

“I’m going to play in that stadium one day”

Three months after becoming a Christian, Andrew’s new friends took him to “the most happening event” in the annual Christian calendar – the Festival of Praise at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. 

Walking into a packed arena filled with more than 10,000 people stunned him.

“I saw aunties dancing passionately behind me. People of different generations, different churches were worshipping together. I saw worship leaders like Mr Count on Me Singapore, Clement Chow, singing locally-written songs.

“I was wowed by the experience.”

As the friends were leaving, Andrew made what sounded like a ridiculous declaration.

“One day, I’m going to lead worship on that stage.”

Sixteen years later in 2009, Andrew would play the guitar alongside visiting worship leader Bob Fitts. In 2011, Canon James Wong – who spearheaded the Festival – invited Andrew to be a worship leader at the event.

His friends burst out laughing.

“Your English is so bad,” they told him.

Honestly, they had a point. Andrew had struggled academically, and had zero musical training.

“To provoke them, I pointed to the National Stadium and said, ‘I am going to lead worship at that stadium too’.”

In 2015, Andrew led praise and worship at the Singapore Sports Hub (that replaced the National Stadium); he composed the theme song for the event – the Jubilee Day of Prayer, attended by 56,000 people.

No one could have guessed that these two declarations would come true. Or that Andrew would go on to helm FOPx – the movement that was born from the Festival of Praise, connecting youth, youth pastors and worship leaders from 350 different churches across different denominations. 

For the last seven years, FOPx, the worship night that resembles an outdoor rave, has been held on the lawn of St Andrew’s Cathedral.

“You sing like a frog”

Andrew reckoned that if he needed to become a worship leader, he first needed to learn to play the guitar.

Initially, few believed that he had musical ability.

“I was arrogant at that time, and my mentor didn’t want to teach me. He said, ‘Wait you become like Lucifer’,” Andrew recalled.

Andrew at age 17.

Andrew was discouraged from auditioning for the choir. “You sing like a frog,” he was told.

He couldn’t afford music lessons, and online tutorials did not exist at that time.

“So I saved money from selling VCDs and bought a cheapo guitar, and borrowed a chord book from the library.

“Since I couldn’t join the worship ministry, I volunteered behind the scenes, helping to set up equipment and musical instruments.”

Andrew (third from left) with the worship and audio staff and interns from Cornerstone in 2025.

While his friends went for breakfast afterwards, he stayed back to observe how the worship leader strummed the guitar and changed chords. He picked up discarded music scores and took them home to practice.

“No one wanted to teach me,” he said. “So I ask God to teach me.”

“I learnt music through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,” he said.

Eventually, Pastor Daphne – Rev Yang’s wife – overheard Andrew singing in an area with “good reverb” and gave him a chance to co-lead two songs at a church prayer meeting.

He was 16, the youngest worship leader at church at that time.

The feedback was rough. But following that, an older musician, Gary, a polytechnic student at that time, offered to coach him. Later, Andrew was mentored by Pastor Rupert Lim, who was Worship Director at Cornerstone for two decades.

When he was 19, Andrew became the first Asian artist signed by the regional arm of Integrity Music. He was the only Asian artiste featured alongside worship leaders and song writers like Bob Fitts and Darlene Zschech, on a 2010 Integrity Music promotional poster.

“God kept sending people who believe in me and open doors for me,” Andrew said. “That changed my life.”

The songwriter with “horrijible” English

Andrew began writing songs when he was 16, despite feeling insecure about his English.

He saved up his school lunch money to buy CDs by worship leader and Christian songwriter Matt Redman.

Churchmates teased him, calling him “Andrew Redman”.

Some 25 years later, Andrew, who was in Singapore, would get to lead worship virtually with his worship role model, Matt Redman, who was in the US. Photo from their 2024 in-person meeting.

“I told God: ‘I wish I can write songs but my English is horrijible. God, would You help me?”

Since then Andrew has written more than 100 songs, mainly in English, but also in Mandarin.

“Many were written in under five minutes. So I know it’s not me. It is really the grace of God.”

One such song is To You. 

One morning he was awaken at 3am, feeling the presence of God filling his room.

“The Holy Spirit prompted me to grab a pen and a piece of paper, and guided me to write the lyrics. Then the Lord said, ‘Pick up your guitar to worship me.’

“I was crying, playing a minor chord; it was very emo. Then the Lord said, ‘Now sing those words you have written.’

“It was amazing how the words and music merged perfectly.”

The song spread organically among youth groups and churches. It was taken overseas by mission groups. Years later, Andrew discovered it had been translated into Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia and other languages.

What moved him most was hearing how songs unexpectedly touched people.

Recently, Andrew shared on Instagram that someone told him that To You – written some 30 years ago – had stayed in her mind for years while she resisted Christianity, before slowly opening her heart to Jesus.

Part of the note that was forwarded to Andrew.

“I wrote the song for Christians, but never imagined it would touch someone’s life and bring them to Christ,” he said. 

Andrew speaking earlier this year in Oklahoma in the US at the E21 Worship Collective gathering, a multi-generational gathering of worship leaders from six continents.

“It’s the grace of God”

Life after becoming a Christian was not smooth-sailing.

Andrew would battle a host of medical issues including kidney complications, heart issues and even a medical emergency that nearly left him blind in one eye. He was also involved in a traffic accident in which he could have died.

“Life isn’t rosy,” he said. “Challenges still come.”

Yet when he looks back, Andrew sees a clear dividing line beginning with that visit to church at age 15 – even if it was for the wrong reason.

“To look at where I started — a person with low self-esteem, no vision, and no ability to study — and to see what the Lord has done in my life now, is a true miracle,” he said.

“Worship leaders, our job isn’t just to sing for the people, but to sing with them to make space for the auditorium to resound with faith,” Andrew wrote in an Instagram post.

Today, Andrew continues to write songs, which he hopes will inspire and encourage.

On May 20 – also known as “520”, Chinese internet Valentine’s Day because the numbers sound like “I love you” in Mandarin – Andrew released a new secular love song titled Loving You Is My Everything, dedicated to his wife Lynette. 

Andrew and Lynette have been married for 18 years. They have three children.

“In spite of everything we’ve gone through, my wife has stayed by me,” he said. “Loving me, praying for me, believing God will heal me.”

Click below to watch Ps Andrew’s music video for Loving You Is My Everything:

A version of this story first appeared on Stories of Hope

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