\n<\/p>\n
Online, some people have questioned whether the songs work as NDP anthems, with comments coming from people of different ages and backgrounds.<\/p>\n
Some said the songs were “too heavily autotuned” to sing along to, while others felt they were less immediately memorable than past NDP songs. One commenter wrote that the songs were \u201cdifficult to sing along with, compared to previous years’ songs\u201d, while another said they \u201cdon’t sound or feel like NDP songs, but just normal songs about home and Singapore\u201d.<\/p>\n
At the same time, others welcomed the opportunity for younger local singers and songwriters to contribute to the NDP soundtrack.<\/p>\n
Veteran musician Monteiro, who composed the songs Stand Up For Singapore in 1984 and Count On Me, Singapore in 1986, and who was awarded the Cultural Medallion by the National Arts Council in 2002, weighed in on the discussion in a Facebook post on Monday (Aug 10).<\/p>\n
He acknowledged one of the more common criticisms: that some newer NDP songs are harder for large crowds to sing.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the newer songs are genuinely harder to sing. That complaint is fair,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThey are often written for trained voices, with intervals and runs that suit a soloist on a stage more than a crowd on a field, and many of us in the older generation simply cannot get our voices around them.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Monteiro argued that this does not necessarily mean the songs have failed to connect with younger Singaporeans.<\/p>\n
He pointed to younger songwriters and performers behind more recent NDP songs, including The Road Ahead in 2021, Not Alone in 2024 and Here We Are in 2025, and argued that younger Singaporeans are more comfortable with the musical language of these songs.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur young people can sing them. Easily, from memory, with feeling, because that is the musical language they grew up speaking,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
He compared this with the way songs such as Stand Up For Singapore resonated with his own generation.<\/p>\n
His broader point was that NDP songs, like Singapore’s musical tastes, will inevitably evolve and that younger voices are crucial to shape that soundtrack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Online, some people have questioned whether the songs work as NDP anthems, with comments coming from people of different ages and backgrounds. Some said the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--SBfZiQdn--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/08\/12\/dick_lee_jeremy_monteiro.jpg?itok=x8ZK2vBF","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1600,5946,11513,4787,7324,1063,28108,294,3510,153,4170,28107,2853],"class_list":["post-75965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-debate","tag-dick","tag-harder","tag-industry","tag-jeremy","tag-lee","tag-monteiro","tag-music","tag-ndp","tag-sing","tag-songs","tag-veterans","tag-weigh","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}