Song with local appeal
Ode to Singapore posted on YouTube finds fans young and old, with calls to make it an NDP song
By Nicholas Yong and Valerie Wang
July 26, 2009
Even as some Singaporeans are learning to sing this year's National Day Parade theme song, there are calls for an uncommissioned song to be included in the National Day Parade celebrations.
Things So Singaporean is an affectionate and slightly irreverent ode to Singapore written and composed by civil servant Judith d'Silva and singing teacher Ann Hussein. The song mentions things and habits that are uniquely Singaporean, such as using tissue packets to reserve seats at hawker centres, leaving slippers outside the front door and queueing to buy lottery tickets.
In contrast to the moody-sounding What Do You See?, which was commissioned for National Day Parade 2009, Things So Singaporean has caught on like wildfire among Singaporeans after a video clip of it was posted on YouTube.
Tampines North Primary School has adopted the song for its National Day celebrations this year and Raffles Girls' Primary School has used it in its social studies classes. The pupils from Raffles like it so much that they have memorised it.
Ms Poon Wei Ling, 29, a social studies teacher at Raffles, says: 'Many of my pupils were able to identify and relate to certain parts of the song and they laughed at the part about using packets of tissue to reserve seats.'
One of her pupils, Belinda Zhang, 11, says: 'I think it could be used as an NDP song. It's not dull and the melody is quite cheery, it really makes you want to sing along.'
Ms d'Silva, 57, wrote the song in May last year because 'I have always wanted to write a song about Singapore that people can recognise and relate to in concrete ways'.
It had to be 'easy to sing, easy to learn, with a catchy tune and beat', she adds.
Indeed, an online campaign has started to make Things So Singaporean official.
Public officer Victor Tan, 28, who heard about the song through a former colleague, was sufficiently moved by it to set up a Facebook page called 'Let's make Things So Singaporean one of the songs of NDP 2009!'.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=61491663184
extracted from straitstimes digital
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_408252.html
Things So Singaporean - Unoffical NDP Song 2009
Lyrics by Judith d'Silva
Composed, Arranged, Sung by Ann Hussein
