SINGAPORE - He is only 2½ years old but little MoMo is already taking after his parents, singing and writing his own songs.
The son of singers Tay Kewei and Alfred Sim is one of the contestants who took part in the "In This Together" Singalong Challenge.
Organised by The Straits Times in partnership with Nets, 10 budding singer-songwriters stand a chance to win $1,000 each.
MoMo's entry, uploaded on Tay's Instagram account, features him singing and dancing along to a short ditty he came up with titled Everything Is Inside.
Tay, 36, says: "He does sing his own tunes from time to time, so it's a lot of fun to try and capture him (on video)."
The contest has attracted entries invarious genres, including pop, rap, folk, blues and R&B.
One of the participants, 18-year-old Olivia Hung, sounded an optimistic note in her song We're In This Together. "I included lyrics about how we need to stand strong and how it won't be long until we can see our loved ones again."
The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) student, who sang and played the ukulele in the video, also paid tribute to foreigners in Singapore who are away from their homes and families during the pandemic.
National serviceman Azri Yusof's entry, Shine A Light, is another positive tune.
The 22-year-old incorporated advice from his late father into the lyrics. "He always told me that if today is a bad day, tomorrow will be better. We've got to keep our hopes up. If you think positive, good things will come your way."
The contest is ongoing and participants have until May 18, 6pm, to submit videos of themselves singing self-composed songs that must be in English and include the phrase "in this together".
The videos must not be longer than one minute.
They can also rope in friends and family members, but collaborations with those not from the same household must be done online.
Those who want to take part can e-mail their entries to stpromo@sph.com.sg with the subject header "In This Together". Contestants can also post the video on their Instagram or Facebook page with the hashtag #stnetschallenge. The settings must be set to public so that the video can be viewed by all.
The full terms and conditions can be found here.
Participants will be judged on their singing ability, how creative they are with the song and video as well as the energy level of the performance.
The results will be published in The Straits Times Life section on May 30.
