Unofficial odes with local humour are a hit with Netizens

NO MATTER what the National Day Parade song is every year, you can count on Singaporeans to have divided opinions about it.

This year's piece, an earnest effort by alternative rock band Electrico to, uh, stand up for Singapore, yielded a slow-rock, emo-cum-nationalistic ballad, What Do You See.

While it is devoid of obligatory cliches like 'island', 'home' and 'Singapore', they have, reassuringly, been replaced by another set of cliches (see the moon and the stars/look how far we have come).

The music video too doesn't have the soft-focus, multi-ethnic, happy family montage. In its place, an angsty-looking young man wanders the crowded streets of Singapore, or at least Marina Bay.

The frontman for the three-member outfit, David Tan, said the band was going for a piece 'that the uncles and aunties can sing along to in the kopitiam'.

Unfortunately, there is more confusion and bemusement among the aunties and uncles than awe.

While some see the song as a refreshing change, others have written it off as being anything but the kind of stadium anthem needed to rouse a nation.

It's no secret that National Day songs are written with a specific purpose in mind.

Former NDP music director Joshua Wan said: 'The songs I wrote in '03 and '06 were done in a certain mould. NDP songs must have a certain musical style that is palatable to everyone, they cannot be too clever or too 'cheem'. So it's like Jello, with no real character.'

If parade organisers were looking for an effort to reach the mainstream masses, then maybe a rock band wasn't the best choice for the job.

Personally, my favourite 'NDP song' this year is Lekuasimi (Hokkien for 'what are you looking at'), Mr Brown's spoof version of the theme song.

An ode to his beloved Honda Civic, it's already garnered rave reviews online and has even been included on NDPeeps, the official Facebook page for the parade.

Another spontaneous ode, written by civil servant Judith d'Silva and singing teacher Ann Hussein, called All Things Singaporean, has favourable online reviews, as well as schoolchildren singing along. (It helps that it sounds vaguely like The Carpenters' Top Of The World, as one colleague pointed out.)

There's even a Facebook page lobbying for it to be included among this year's NDP songs.

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.

While I do like What Do You See, I can't quite see Singaporeans young and old, home and away, singing it each year.

In fact, that's probably been the case for every National Day song since the ever-popular Home more than a decade ago.

If you ask me what I see, it's this: more of us coming up with our own songs. It certainly beats complaining about the official effort when it doesn't live up to our expectations.

After all, if Mr Brown and Judith d'Silva can do it, why can't we?

nicy@sph.com.sg