S’porean songwriter Dick Lee proposes that members of public pick NDP theme songs
Famed Singaporean songwriter Dick Lee shared his thoughts on the ongoing criticism of recent National Day Parade (NDP) theme songs.
He suggested that members of the public should decide on which song they like most to use as the theme song.
Writer of ‘Home’ and ‘Our Singapore’ joins NDP songs discussion
On 8 Aug, a Reddit user complained that the three NDP 2026 songs were “really, really bad“.
Source: NDP
Many netizens agreed, saying that they preferred the older NDP songs. Several others felt that three theme songs were too many.
On 11 Aug, the prolific singer-songwriter Dick Lee joined in on the discussion via a TikTok video.
Mr Lee wrote and composed several popular patriotic songs, such as ‘We Will Get There’ for NDP 2002 and ‘Our Singapore’ for NDP 2015.
He also wrote and composed the Singaporean favourite, ‘Home’, sung by Kit Chan in 1998.
Source: Mediacorp via 陳潔儀 Kit Chan (Kit Cat Club) on YouTube
Dick Lee proposes committee of ‘ordinary citizens’ to choose NDP theme song
Mr Lee claimed that a different committee organises each year’s NDP. The committee is in charge of putting the show together, which includes choosing the theme song.
But since the theme song is such a big issue and always debated by all Singaporeans, I feel that maybe the people who choose the song should be from the public.
He proposed the creation of a special committee comprised of “ordinary citizens” across all ages, including local musicians.
Source: @dickleeofficial on TikTok
The organising committee could provide them with a selection of songs for the year. After that, the special committee would select the song that resonates with them to be the theme song.
As for the other original songs, Mr Lee said they could still be performed during the parade itself.
Local songwriters urged to keep making songs about Singapore
He pointed out that while ‘Home’ was a song performed at the NDP, it was not originally written to be an NDP theme song.
“It shouldn’t be just NDP that inspires local songwriters to write songs about Singapore, for Singapore. I feel that it’s important to have that sense of place in our music anyway, NDP or not,” Mr Lee said.
If the song proves popular enough, it would be organically adopted as “our song”, according to him.
Mr Lee thus encouraged more local musicians to keep writing and making songs.
Most of the netizens in the TikTok video’s comments remained critical of the recent NDP songs, but one user remarked that you “can’t ever satisfy Singaporeans”.
Source: TikTok
Also read: S’porean asks if anybody else thinks the NDP 2026 songs are ‘really, really bad’
S’porean asks if anybody else thinks the NDP 2026 songs are ‘really, really bad’
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Featured image adapted from @dickleeofficial on TikTok and NDP.
