There has been feedback that national songs of late are unmemorable, and some even avoid the mention of ‘Singapore’ in the lyrics. Do you think that destroys the characteristic of these songs in serving the purpose of galvanising the nation?

Personally, I only recognise them as national songs because of the music videos that accompany them. Voices aren’t a very convincing benchmark, because they generally sound Asian, so Singapore might not even pop into your brain at the first impression.

The latest National Day song, Jimmy Ye’s ‘There’s No Place I’d Be’ – aside from the very obvious similarity to Dick Lee’s ‘Home’ – could well be sung by a Russian (just a random choice, no hard feelings) in his/her mother tongue, and then people might go, ‘That’s a Russian song.’ For the song takes us on a round-the-world tour per line, but doesn’t explicitly mention where the ‘home’ is

Consider the lyrics:

I’ve walked the streets of Cairo and Bombay
I’ve seen the neon signs on ole Broadway
I’ve climbed the Eiffel Tower,
The Great Wall in one hour,
Experienced sweet and sour but that’s okay.

Seen Hollywood, the sunsets in LA.
The London Bridge, Big Ben, the Thames, UK
I’ve crossed the River Kwai
Yet still I don’t know why
I think of you each night and every day.

There’s no place I’d rather be
You’ll always be a part of me
And even though I’ve roamed the world
It’s still my home I long to see.

This is where my family
And my friends grew up with me
So I’ll cross the skies and sail the seas
To be where I wanna be.

Cos there’s no place I’d rather be!


So any nationality whose landmark or geographical locale does not appear in the song is entitled to sing it and claim it as his/her. It’s a song of EVERYWHERE and hence NOWHERE (borrowed from Geography).