This year’s National Day Parade (NDP) theme song is written by home-grown singer-songwriter Charlie Lim, and it resonates with Singaporeans both young and old.
If you’re not familiar with Lim, he is the man behind the songs ‘Hollow’ and ‘Knots’ who is known for his soulful, melancholic sound. His 2015 EP TIME/SPACE reached number one on the iTunes Singapore chart within an hour of its release and has received rave reviews, bringing him to stages all across Asia.
The song is titled after NDP 2018’s theme ‘We Are Singapore’, a celebration of unity and togetherness among diverse cultures in Singapore. Those that lived through the 80’s and 90’s would be all too familiar with the iconic original song written by Hugh Harrison in 1987.
This year’s theme song, produced by Lim, Evan Low (who goes by the moniker Evanturetime) and Dr. Sydney Tan, boasts two new verses at the start of the song and incorporates modern sounds to appeal to the younger generation while retaining key elements of the original ‘We Are Singapore’. The chorus also sees guest appearances from Joanna Dong, Shak, Aisyah Aziz, Vandetta and THELIONCITYBOY, who jumps in to rap the pledge.
Charlie said of his rendition of the song, "I decided to take a stab at this from a more personal space without sugar-coating anything. Let's just call it what it is, let's not look at anything through rose tinted glasses. We all have our differences, we may not see eye-to-eye on everything, but we're still a family, we're still Singapore so let's take some ownership in the changes we want to see."
Watch Charlie Lim's video for 'We Are Singapore' below:
