Despite listening to this year's National Day Parade theme song - Because It's Singapore! - on several different occasions, my peers and I cannot help but find the rhythm awful and unpleasing to the ear.
Apart from the lyrics, whether a song endears itself to the public is largely determined by its rhythm or melody.
The importance of the rhythm cannot be overemphasised.
In fact, it sometimes carries a greater weightage than the lyrics.
When compared with other NDP songs, it becomes all the more evident that this year's song is poorly composed.
It is quite unnecessary to create a new song every year for NDP, just like no one contrives to produce a song for every Christmas and Chinese New Year.
We should not compose new songs just for the sake of composing them.
If no suitable songs are created, the NDP organisers should make do by recycling NDP songs from the past which resonated with Singaporeans of all ages.
If there is a dearth of talent here when it comes to composing melodious NDP songs, we should not shy away from seeking help from foreign professionals.
Joe Teo Kok Seah
