Ever walked the streets of Cairo?

(belated comments on that song)

The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gay,

The glory that was Rome is just another day,

I've been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan,

I'm going home to my city by the bay.

I left my heart in San Francisco...

This is what came to mind the first time I heard/saw There's No Place I'd Rather Be, this year's National Day song. I'm really not into locally 'created' works which copy other styles, storylines, etc. Granted, 'copying' and suiting the 'new' work into a different situation require some skill, too, but, well, let's just say some people have better skills than others. For example, I like I Still Call Australia Home, which has been cited as a 'similar' kind of song.

So, anyway, this poor song was fiercely lambasted by someone in last Saturday's ST. This guy wrote that the earlier debate about whether the song should have the word 'Singapore' totally missed the point, which, to him, is, 'How did such a dreadful song become the National Day song?' Ouch. He also called the song a 'poor cousin' to Home (which I like) and commiserated with Kit Chan for having had to sing it. Ouch again.

But he does have a point. I agree with him, and others who have also made this point, that the mention of 'Singapore' is not the issue. After all, and this has also been pointed out, songs such as Home, Where I Belong (from some years ago, sung by Tanya Chua) and We Will Get There (sung by Stefanie Sun) also do not have the word and yet, nobody made a fuss.

To me, the problem with this song is that it is not targeted at the majority of Singaporeans. Most of us never walked the streets of Cairo or Bombay, and I wouldn't be surprised if many don't even know of the existence of Big Ben or the River Kwai. Frankly, it doesn't touch my heart at all. Aren't national songs supposed to?

(night pic of Cairo, from here, where I learnt that Cairo also got casinos...)

One test is whether you can imagine the song being sung en masse, say, by primary school students during their National Day celebrations. National songs should be beaty, catchy and easy to sing, so I don't think these ballad or pop song types work all that well, though I like some of them as songs. The so-called cheesy songs, Count On Me, Singapore, Stand Up for Singapore, One People, One Nation, One Singapore and We Are Singapore are, to me, the Big Four. (Not bothering to insert links for them; everybody knows them, right?!) Play them anywhere, any day and people are likely to feel like singing along. Patriotic songs have to be 'cheesy', what.

In all fairness, I suppose Jimmy Ye and whoever commissioned him to do the song were just doing what they were expected to do, i.e., produce a song like that. And I guess the song did its job, too, at least with some of the people it was targeted at. This guy, who has been overseas for 4 years, loved the song and wrote, 'For once, I actually missed home'. Actually, I thought it was rather sad that it took him so long to miss home...

Anyway, I preferred the other song, Will You, especially this line, 'will you write us grand new stories, songs that everyone will feel?' Somehow, this just speaks to me in a way the other song doesn't. It was weird, though, that it had to be performed in 3 different styles during the parade!

I must confess that I didn't pay that much attention to the broadcast of the parade and now, I can't quite remember how either song sounds. What I do remember is people harping on 'the world's largest floating platform'. Aiyoh, I don't know how many times it was mentioned. If I hear it anymore my ears are going to drop off.

I didn't pay close attention to the rally speech either because I had to iron clothes that night. I did notice, though, that our newscasters have suddenly acquired an American twang in saying the word 'annuity'... Come on, lah, we are Singapore, okay??