Beginning in the early 80s, while living and working in Southeast Asia as a writer, producer, director and composer, I was privileged to work on numerous nation-building projects for the Singapore government – projects that focused on economic development, national defence, public health, productivity and civic pride.
This included writing and composing Singapore’s first three official National Day songs – Stand Up for Singapore (1984), Count on me, Singapore (1986) and We are Singapore (1987).
When I first arrived in that renowned tropical city-state, small sampans still crowded the quays delivering their cargoes to the ramshackle shop houses and crumbling warehouses that lined the filthy, foul-smelling Singapore River. In fact, one of my first offices was above a shark fin warehouse in a derelict three-storey shop house in Chinatown. Around town, ancient emaciated Asian men still transported porcine passengers through heavy traffic on hand drawn rickshaws and rusty old pedicabs. There were few neon signs lighting city streets at night. The People’s Action Party was determined to keep their tranquil equatorial outpost from descending into the kind of gaudy glittering rat’s nest that Hong Kong’s laissez-faire lifestyle had fostered. And around Boat Quay, it wasn’t unusual in the early 80s to still see elderly Chinese women timidly tip-toeing on barbaric bird-like bound feet – a practice outlawed in China in 1912. However, less than a decade down the road, all this had changed. The once polluted waters of the Singapore River were now suitable for swimmers. Pedicab pushers who hadn’t passed away were put out to pasture or in some cases found their way behind the wheel of a shiny new Toyota taxi. By the late 80s, flashy neon signs boldly brightened the night skies. And Singapore was well on its way towards modernity and the global economic success it enjoys today.
Although I left Southeast Asia in 2012, Singapore still occupies a special place in my heart. It was, therefore, a great honour and pleasure for me to be invited once again to pen a new song for the nation. This latest composition, entitled Dream Big, Singapore is essentially a sequel to my 1986 song, Count on me, Singapore and the letter below, ostensibly addressed to the citizens of Singapore, outlines the thinking behind the conceptualization and underlying message of this latest addition to Singapore’s ever-expanding song book.