screencaps from here
Olivia Ong (27 years old) and Natanya Tan (8 years old! impressive) arrive on stage. Both are dressed in glittery red and white garments respectively. With a cutesy smile, Natanya hears the cue of the beginning notes and croons, First light / rolls across my peaceful isle...
Wait, what? On the national television telecasts, hardly anyone is singing along.
screencaps from here
Save for the little girl at the back, people don't seem very keen on community singing. For this song at least. (Later on during songs like Count On Me Singapore, even the old aunties and uncles are swooning their hearts out.)
Assuming that this is representative of the engagement across the Floating Platform that night, why aren't the audience singing? Is it because the key is too high to reach? Or because the lyrics are a bit strange? (c'mon, "Love At First Light" raises some eyebrows...) The tune doesn't stir up emotion? Or perhaps everyone is too entranced by the epic cello guy?
Epic cello guy stealing the show. Just look at that intense face!
screencaps from here
Perhaps it is just me, but I find this a problem. (No, not the cello guy, he does his job fine.) What I mean is that, the National Day Theme Songs are losing touch with the population. Captain Obvious aside, isn't the point missed when the mass population no longer joins along in community singing?
It is indeed a daunting task to create (or recreate, for that matter) iconic songs to be etched onto the hearts of 3.26 million Singaporean citizens. Even Dick Lee, with his phenomenal penning of Home (1998), did not quite enjoy the same popularity with We Will Get There (2002). It takes a lot of effort by the National Day Parade Organising Committee and everyone else involved to produce the annual National Day Theme Song, and I applaud them for never backing out despite public frosty reception each year.
'There's a great deal of responsibility that goes into creating a national song because you can't write what you want - there's a purpose for the song and that gets stressful for the writer,' -Dick Lee, in an interview on Aug 28, 2009
Yet, there is a growing problem that the National Day Theme Songs are not quite fulfilling their purpose, which is to build a sense of belonging to Singapore through music. Skeptics at this point may suspect propaganda behind each song. Yet the songs are indeed already a hallmark of Singapore identity. Every year, the release of a new NDP song generates divided opinions, but more importantly, it brings the nation together through online chatter. There are anecdotes of Singaporeans living overseas who start crying when they hear Kit Chan croon "This is Home". For us Singaporeans, these NDP songs are a big thing. In fact, if you would pardon me to say, the role NDP songs play in our connection to the nation is a "Uniquely Singapore" thing.
"It’s a challenge for the NDP team to come up with a good.. no, GREAT song every year. Most of the time, you’ll have a huge bunch of Singaporeans asking for a better song or rather, missing our favourite one." - storyofbing.com
So let netizens bemoan the declining state of our National Day Theme Song music scenes while I glean out some common points of discussion.
What is being said online
1. Memorability of tune
The first obvious comparison made is between the memorability of old simpler songs that resemble a rally cry (Stand Up For Singapore, Count On Me Singapore, We Are Singapore and One People, One Nation, One Singapore), versus the contemporary sentimental tunes including Home and everything written post-1998. NDP songs reflect the changes in music tastes, in-sync with the globalized music scene. There are upbeat pop songs such as Where I Belong, We Will Get There and Reach Out For The Skies. There are soothing ballad-like songs like Home, In A Heartbeat and Love At First Light. There is even an exploration into rock with What Do You See.
Yet with the complex tunes, complete with verses choruses bridges and reprises, and even insane key changes (there are two in Love In First Light alone that take you from C to E to Eb)(!!! respect for the singers' skillful maneuver), how is it expected that your average kindergarten-er to the person on the street and not forgetting our idiosyncratic aunties and uncles can easily sing along?
read more similar views here
"What’s the karaoke test? Well, simply put, the karaoke test is a measure of how sing-able the song is for a layperson, and whether it would fit into a fun night at the KTV. Is it a song that everyone can sing along to? Can we all shout out the lyrics together, regardless of how well we can carry a tune? Or is it a song where everyone has to sit quietly to wait for the pro singer to finish belting out before we get a go?" - Kirsten Han, kirstenhan.me
2. Personal connection to lyrics
The older songs have the resounding "we" idea - WE! have a vision for tomorrow. One People, One Nation, ONE SINGAPORE! These made-to-order patriotic songs (commissioned by the government) have the sole purpose of uniting those singing together. In contrast, the contemporary songs generally have the idea of "I" - there's no place I'd rather be, for this is where I belong...While this "I" idea works for Home, invoking very personal sentiments of belonging, its success has not been replicated. Songs that continue the "we" idea, such as We Will Get There, tend to fare better in sing-a-long sessions at least.
"Lyrics always suggest a singer in a particular context. Where previous National Day Song lyrics implied a community in Singapore celebrating its unity and togetherness, now they are sung as if by isolated individuals comparing Singapore with other countries." - strangeknight.wordpress.com
3. Artificiality of the video?
Now, the audio is always more important than the video, but video's worth discussing as well, especially with the buzz surrounding this year's video of Love At First Light. As a sample of the discussion, Alfian Sa'at, local playwright, analysed the video in his Facebook note, with hilarious remarks such as "Together, they march in defiance of the climate and a song whose lyrics include the line ‘warm sunny days’."
People genuinely mistaken the video for a condominium ad called First Light. Though a funny and harmless memory, it does highlight that more genuineness and sincerity could be injected into these videos. In A Heartbeat's video scored well with netizens due to the inclusion of nostalgic scenes such as kampungs and the old orange-and-white bus stops. Perhaps video shootage could continue featuring the scenes of daily life rather than on skylines that more tourists than locals appreciate?
"So how?"
Have you ever asked how these National Day Theme Songs are chosen in the first place? Learning from Wikipedia, the first four old songs were commissioned after the government realized "just how much the public enjoyed singing as a way of celebrating". The next official song, Home, was selected from the Sing Singapore Festival, a biannual event by the National Arts Council "to discover and promote home-grown music and artistes" and "to nurture a love for music and singing and cultivate a greater sense of togetherness amongst Singaporeans." Subsequently, National Day Theme Songs were picked from the Sing Singapore offerings, until 2003 when Stefanie Sun's "One United People" ousted Sean Wang's "A Place in My Heart" to better fit the parade theme that year. I assume that the songs since then were commissioned.
Perhaps I am just young, but why is it that I've never heard of the Sing Singapore Festival until now? I do believe it has disappeared and is no longer held. Even its official website (www.singsingapore.org.sg) has been redirected. With the crafty help of the internet I've found some traces of its existence, such as an album dated 1998, a newspaper article dated 2002, and adaptations of the festival made for the Youth Olympic Games in 2010. It remains a mere stub on the National Arts Council website.
Why not bring back the Sing Singapore Festival?
"It’s interesting that songs with character, substance and lots of local humour, written by one of the masses, have struck more of a chord than an officially commissioned effort." - Straits Times YouthInk
Crowdsource local songwriters, both budding and developed, inviting them to compete equally and submit original compositions that capture shared sentiments. Publicize in schools, online, all around. Perhaps even let the public pick their song of choice to be the National Day Theme Song. It's all possible in today's globalized internet age. I see a "why not" emerging from this possibility, when
1. National Arts Council used to hold it successfully in previous years, garnering support and submissions,
2. Similar competitions such as the Eco Music Challenge held by the National Environment Agency have been successfully creating a buzz (especially in schools where schoolmates vote online),
3. People actually create their own songs anyway!!! Even in the absence of a platform to showcase their creations nationally, groups of Singaporeans, some even strangers before filming, come together to sing what they love about Singapore. This kind of enterprising spirit among younger Singaporeans can be tapped upon.
This is not a fix-all solution. There are certainly limitations of bringing back Sing Singapore in creating more engaging National Day Theme Songs. What if the musical quality of such songs from the public fall short of that of commissioned songs, written by Cultural Medallion recipients? What if the songs resemble bland pop tunes anyway? What if the songs never manage to meet the expectations of society?
My answer is: The National Day Theme Songs will never manage to please everyone. Yet the big "why not" is calling. Why not try, and see how it goes? The method of crowdsourcing will generate even more hype surrounding the National Day Theme Song, as well as create more genuine heartfelt songs 'arising from grassroots' rather than perceived propaganda 'foisted on you from above'.
I am looking forward to the day when I would be able to heartily sing out the newest National Day Theme Song with fellow Singaporeans, lyrics memorized and tune in our hearts. :D but while we wait for that to happen, enjoy these three alternative videos for your fix of locally flavoured songs, written by those of the masses, for us.
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