Dearest Singapore,
I would like to wish you a most Happy Belated 42nd Birthday!
May you continue to grow and prosper as you have done so for the last 42 years.
So sorry that I’m more than one-and-a-half months late.
Nonetheless, I would like to present you with a most SPECIAL gift (see below), right from the bottom of my very heart.
It’s something which I’ve spent countless hours working on, and I trust that you will like it.
As this gift will attest, you will always retain a very special place in my heart.
Always and forever.
Best wishes,
Jeremy
P.S. Any chance that this song makes it to the shortlist of NDP songs next year?
S.O.S.! (Singapore, Oh Singapore!)
Music & Lyrics by Jeremy Yew
The Esplanade, Marina Bay
Fullerton and Shenton Way
Victoria Concert Hall
Raffles Place, and that’s not all
Our sunny island Sentosa
Peaceful now, but wait till IR
The Chinese Garden, the Japanese too
Only tourists go there, not me and you
Chorus:
And it’s Singapore, oh Singapore
Where we’re happy to be here forever more
And it’s Singapore, oh Singapore
We’re so happy to be here
You’re the one that my heart beats for
Botanical Gardens, Mandai Zoo
Jurong Bird Park welcomes you
Parliament House, MacRitchie Reservoir
Speaker’s Corner - what is it for?
We’ve got bryani, laksa and chicken rice
Dick says we’re a Paradise
We’ve got satay, rojak and mee goreng too
But if you wanna eat donuts better join the queue!
(Chorus)
We work and work to pay the bills
Most things are cheap but housing kills
Live HDB or live Condo
If got money then buy Bungalow
Everything here’s ‘Uniquely Singapore’
We’re a ‘Great Way to Fly’ and so much more
We are the ‘Land of Possibilities’
Possibilities which no one sees
‘This is Home, truly, where I know I must be’
‘There’s No I Place I’d Rather Be’
‘Five Stars Arising’, ‘Chan Mali Chan’
‘Munnaeru Valliba’ everyone!
Hopefully someone Big in the industry chances upon this from his/her google search (hee!).
I like the last part where you had sparse chords then launched into the full chordal accompaniment for last chorus.
Great on the feel :)
P.S Hey I like your pinky ODEO player better than my Box!
Hey thanks B!
Yeah, the ODEO player does look pretty good doesn’t it? Actually to be honest, I had no choice, cos the Box.net player is not embeddable in WordPress blogs (yeah, silly I know). The only music player which WordPress allows for embedding is ODEO. But now that I’m using ODEO, I think it looks rather good, haha!
(But I still think the Box.net player looks better on your blog than if you were to use an ODEO player.)
hey. i like the chorus..and the tongue-in-cheek for the lyrics. But i felt if the beat is faster for the verses, it would be nicer and more catchy, coz right now it feels a bit draggy.
but yah. nice lyrics. :)
Thanks for the comments Shir!
Haha… Fantastic. I love it. So many local references. A must-hear for any Singaporean staying overseas.
It came across pretty mixed though. On the one hand you are saying that we have a redundant Speakers Corner, but yet you say that you are happy to be in Singapore. Hmm… but I think that’s the beauty of it eh. There are many things about Singapore that we like to poke fun about, but at the end of the day, there is nowhere else I rather be.
My favourite line will have to be “If got money then buy Bungalow”. Haha… very Singaporean, both in terms of grammer and mindset.
Hmm… but the first verse a bit boring leh. Not as cheeky as the other parts of the song. My suggestion is to change the Raffles Place line to “Filled with conducters, who are usually bald”. Haha…
[...] The full lyrics to this song can be found (here). [...]
Hi Chin Hon, thanks for the kind words.
Yup, you’re right. Actually I was trying to create a sense of Irony in the song, to sort of reflect my love-hate relationship with Singapore. That explains the tongue-in-cheek verses contrasting with the lovey-dovery chorus!
Glad you liked the “Bungalow” line…haha!
Yup you’re right about the first verse. Cos what happened is that I started out writing the song wanting it to be very Politically Correct…it was only when I reached the 2nd verse that I thought “Ah, I’m just gonna write what I feel!”
What can I say, we must nominate Jeremy for the Medallion Award next year!