NDP 2025: How Benjamin Kheng is whisked from Marina Bay to Padang in 10 minutes by boat, buggy

SINGAPORE – Just before 8pm on Aug 9, singer Benjamin Kheng will have just finished performing the National Day Parade (NDP) 2024 theme song Not Alone on a floating stage in Marina Bay, near Merlion Park.

About 10 minutes later, he will enter the Padang for the 2025 show’s finale, after traversing 800m over water, and then by foot and on wheels.

Lieutenant-Colonel Shahreel Rajaratnam, 36, bay show management chairman, said that after Kheng performs a duet with singer Rahimah Rahim, who will be at the Padang, he will hop onto a small navy sea boat that will whisk him off to Queen Elizabeth Walk.

From there, Kheng – who has a manually activated flotation device incorporated into his costume for the bay performance – will board a buggy that is a short jog away, and appear at the Padang in time for NDP 2025’s finale.

Bringing Kheng to the Padang shows that he’s “not alone”, LTC Shahreel said, and this closes the narrative arc of the show, where the singer “returns home” to be with other performers at the Padang.

Among them will be Kit Chan, who will sing Home – NDP 1998’s theme song – in the 2025 show’s fourth and final act.

While there is much to coordinate in the bay for NDP 2025, said LTC Shahreel, getting Kheng back to the Padang is the most exciting task, because there are many moving parts.

“Ben is popular. He’s a hit with the crowd,” the infantry officer added. “When people around the bay see him, cameras go crazy, people start screaming. So it’s always exciting for us – the team working on this.”

Chan, 52, said she thought her parade appearance at NDP 2015 would be her last. But she was convinced to return when NDP music director Sydney Tan let her listen to 2025’s theme song Here We Are, written by Charlie Lim.

“I really liked it, and Charlie also is one of my favourite singer-songwriters from Singapore. So definitely it was easy to say yes,” said Chan, who will perform Here We Are with Lim in the show’s first act.

Songs come and go, but Home feels special, as it has become “owned by the people”, she added.

“I may have given birth to it, but it totally belongs to everyone, every Singaporean, and you get the same feeling wherever I perform it, anywhere in the world where there is a Singaporean audience – it’s always just a very different feeling, and it’s a very joyful feeling.”

The audience can also look forward to works by artists with disabilities, adapted into the designs of eight floats – four at the Padang and four floating in the bay.

One land float was based on Busy In Spring by mouth painter Aaron Yeo, which features a bee buzzing around in a bed of flowers.

Viewers may not notice the fuzziness of a bee atop the float, but set and props designer Quck Zhong Yi made it a point to include details from the artwork, such as the insect’s hairs.

At a show production tour for the media on July 25, Mr Quck, 45, said that after choosing the eight works, designers studied how to turn the two-dimensional pieces into three-dimensional objects, before running a workshop with the original artists to get their feedback.

“We missed it, but Aaron told us that his bee was painted with very fine strokes to imitate the fuzziness of the hairs of the bee,” said Mr Quck, an architect.

“With that in mind, we tweaked the design of the props and made sure that the bee is really as fuzzy as he wanted it to be.”

Despite the NDP stage at the Padang being around for only about two months, the creative team took pains to make sure it blends in well with the city’s roofscape, said Mr Quck. Thus, a colour scheme that centred on terracotta orange was chosen, matching roof tiles on nearby buildings such as the former Supreme Court and Singapore Cricket Club.

Mr Quck noted that inclusiveness was the main consideration in the design of NDP 2025’s stage – the fourth he has designed for an NDP.

“We really wanted the audience to feel like they are part of the show,” he said, adding that this was why stages abutting the audience stands were built, to bring performers right in front of those watching at the Padang.

LTC Derek Tay, 36, the Padang show management chairman, said a team of about 200 people – mostly full-time national servicemen – operate the show’s large props and help to coordinate performers’ movements.

He noted that the show’s third and penultimate act requires the most coordination.

This includes Kheng and Rahimah’s duet, and the release of large balls into the stands while long cloth strips are unfurled from the stands towards the central stage.

Ensuring all goes according to plan is a team that includes Ms Petrina Dawn Tan, 36, the show segment’s technical cue caller, who gives cues for elements such as lighting, sound, music and videos.

Everything is planned to the second, said Ms Tan, and callers have just seconds to rectify any changes.

“If there is a mistake, as callers, we have to be quick to recover,” she said, adding that she works with a show caller to make contingency plans.

“We have to make a decision in the span of five seconds – otherwise it becomes awkward,” said Ms Tan.

From a control room at the Padang where she will sit on Aug 9, callers cue action not just for the show’s main stage, but also across Marina Bay.

LTC Shahreel said this includes drummers at Marina Bay Sands and One Marina Boulevard, building projections and a water-based stage and floats.

Referring to the “expanded canvas” for NDP 2025 that includes the Padang and Marina Bay, LTC Shahreel said: “Every element is designed to reach both locations, creating one seamless, singular experience for all, regardless of where you’re at.”