Singapore among 10 countries in Twitter's 24-hour global video relay

Home-grown singer Sezairi Sezali (left) and local comedian Preeti Nair (right) took part in the Every Character Matters campaign, a global video relay hosted by microblogging site Twitter. PHOTO: TWITTER

Singapore was one of 10 countries that took part in the Every Character Matters campaign, a global video relay hosted by microblogging site Twitter.

Starting at 10am Singapore time on Thursday (Aug 10), the campaign was a video relay running for over 24 hours and featuring continuous content from about 40 creators, according to Campaign magazine.

Home-grown singer Sezairi Sezali, 30, and local comedian Preeti Nair, 22, took turns sitting in Twitter's Singapore office and answered fans' questions virtually from the Blue Room.

Sezairi answered questions regarding his music, such as telling fans that the shortest time he took to compose a song was for My Girl from his EP.

"I took 4½ minutes to write it, in the toilet," he said.

Meanwhile, Nair entertained the audience with a truth or dare game, in which someone dared her to grab a mug from the office pantry - which she did. She was also asked where she bought her clothes from. "I need to ask my mum," she replied.

The participants included musicians who received input from fans on their upcoming work, social media personalities who showed unique aspects of their cities and individuals who spoke about important issues.

The event first started as a week-long campaign in India in 2016, before spreading to the entire world this year.

The relay began atop the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney at 12pm on Thursday (10am Singapore time), with pop singer Tom Jay Williams climbing to the top and introducing the sights around the area, including the Sydney Opera House. He also answered some fans' questions, such as about his next album and his fingernail polish.

The campaign ended in Vancouver, with photographer Christian Sasse talking about the solar eclipse.

Along the way, it passed through 14 cities in 10 countries, including Melbourne, Tokyo, Singapore, Jakarta, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Sao Paulo, Toronto, New York, Mexico City and Denver.

Twitter also launched a hashtag #EveryCharacterMatters, with which a cute blue speech bubble icon with designs inside would appear, adding a colourful touch to tweets with that hastag.

Twitter also launched a customised emoji of a cute blue speech bubble icon with Reply, Retweet and Like logo designs inside, which would appear with the hashtag #EveryCharacterMatters, adding a colourful touch to tweets with that hashtag.

Correction note: An earlier version of our article stated that Twitter launched a hashtag #EveryCharacterMatters for the campaign. What it actually launched was the customised emoji, not the hashtag.

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