Nene Royal's Phuket — from Naka Market to America's Got Talent

The most interesting part of Nene Royal's story is not that a teenager from Phuket reached one of the world's largest television stages. It is where she learned to hold an audience before the television cameras arrived: a small stage inside a weekend market, surrounded by food stalls, shoppers and people who were free to keep walking.

That place is Naka Weekend Market in Wichit, just outside Phuket Town. It is still a working local market rather than a celebrity attraction, and that is exactly why it is worth adding to a Phuket evening — you come for the food, the noise, the local musicians and the stage that helped shape one of Thailand's rising young rock artists.

Who is Nene Royal?

Nene Royal is the stage name of Rattikan 'Praew' Amloy, a Phuket singer, guitarist and aspiring songwriter. She was 15 when her America's Got Talent audition was recorded and turned 16 the following day. Her rearrangement of The Cranberries' Zombie earned four yes votes, Muse's Hysteria took her through the Judges' Callbacks, and a Live Golden Buzzer from Mel B for Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun sent her directly to the Season 21 final.

The television story moved quickly. The musician behind it did not. Nene had already spent most of her childhood learning songs by ear, practising after school, entering national competitions and playing to real crowds around Phuket. By the time an AGT production team found her work online and invited her to audition, the apparently sudden breakthrough rested on years of public performances.

The guitar began with a full computer club

At around seven years old, Nene tried to join a computer club at school. It was full, the music club had space, and the instrument left for her was a guitar. She began copying what she heard and learning from musicians in online videos. Her father later told Thai PBS that within three days of starting acoustic guitar she could already form chords and play a song, which convinced the family that the interest was more than a passing hobby.

Her family then looked for teachers, instruments and, most importantly, places where she could perform. Lessons could teach technique; a market could teach whether a stranger would stop. For roughly eight or nine years, the family brought her to play at Naka Market almost every week, according to her father.

Why the Naka Market stage mattered

A market audience has not bought a concert ticket. People are choosing dinner, carrying shopping and talking over the music. If a performer cannot earn their attention, they simply move to the next row of stalls. Nene has described being shy at her first busking performances, then gaining confidence each time she returned to a stage — whether it was large or small.

She also noticed that most of the buskers she saw were men and decided that a girl could sing and play guitar there too. That small act of nerve became years of practical training: reading a mixed Thai and international crowd, choosing songs people recognised, recovering from mistakes and projecting over the movement of a night market.

Nene later performed at Naka with OZONE, a Phuket youth rock band formed through Yamaha Music School Nakhon Phuket. The group reached the national final of THE POWER BAND 2025; OZONE received a consolation prize and Nene was named an Outstanding Player. Playing in a band added a different lesson — when to lead, when to leave space and how to make several young musicians sound like one act.

Visit the place, not a promised appearance

Naka Market is part of Nene Royal's real Phuket story, but it is not a permanent Nene Royal show. Artist line-ups change and her music career now takes her far beyond the island. Visit to see the stage where she developed, support the local performers playing there now and experience the market itself — not on the assumption that any particular artist will appear.

What to do at Naka Weekend Market

Naka sits on Wirat Hong Yok Road in Wichit, close to Central Phuket and a few kilometres from Phuket Old Town. The main weekend market runs on Saturday and Sunday from late afternoon into the evening. Entry is free, and the market is large enough to give it at least an hour and a half rather than treating it as a quick photo stop.

• Eat your way through the street-food zone — grilled seafood and meat, roti, fruit drinks, Thai snacks and local desserts are the reason to arrive hungry.
• Browse clothing, second-hand goods, accessories, handmade products and practical souvenirs rather than rushing through one central aisle.
• Find the entertainment area and watch whichever local musicians are on the stage that evening.
• Look around at the moving crowd and imagine learning to perform here as a shy child — it gives the AGT clips a completely different scale.

Turn it into a Phuket Town evening

Naka is close enough to Phuket Old Town that the two belong in the same outing. Start among the Sino-Portuguese shophouses, stop for coffee or an early meal, then move to the market once the heat drops. A private driver makes this a loose local adventure rather than a fixed tour: stay longer when a street catches your attention, add a viewpoint if the weather is clear, and leave the market when your group is actually finished.

Private driver prices for the route

IslandTransfer's hourly charter is priced per vehicle, not per passenger. The same car and driver remain with you, fuel is included for travel within Phuket, the price is agreed before the trip, and you pay after the ride. Tell us where you are staying and whether you want only Naka Market or the full Phuket Town route; we will put the stops in an order that avoids crossing the island twice.