On Fri night, while out on our evening walk, 'Good Fren' chanced upon some heavy rocking at SMU. Not sure whether it's due to lack of marketing and/or slight drizzle. The crowd was thin. We saw the programme for Sat night, i.e. what seemed like a Chinese Oldies concert, and decided to drop by on the next night.
So we did.
We got to SMU just past 7pm. Loads of Chinese Baby Boomers (born in the 1950s and 1960s) had gathered, presumably in hope for the Oldies concert to give them a nostalgic jolt of their younger days.
The white tents in the background are food stalls.
'Good Fren' and I bought some food and drinks, then found a dry spot and settled for the evening.
This 65 year old gentleman started off the concert. He is known as 歌迷王子，黄清元. The winner of a HDB-organised national singer competition in 1979.
As far as possible, most of them sang either locally-written songs (e.g. the 新谣 people) or Chinese songs which were popular in Singapore during their time. And yes, I thought that was befitting of the theme, i.e. Heritage of Singapore. And at some point, I began to realise that because I knew the lyrics to most of the songs, I must be part of Singapore's heritage.
And as far as we could see, 'Good Fren' and I were the only 2 people who were waving the fans and our hands in the air. The crowd was largely sedate and politely clapped only at the end of each song.
The idea of the Heritage Fest and these music concerts is great. Music and nostalgia flood one with good feelings. However, what I didn't understand was the need to be blatantly politically correct for such events:
(1) If it's about Singapore's Heritage, there is no need to segregate the concerts on different nights according to Race/Culture and Language. Instead, the music concerts could have been grouped together according to Music Genres (folk, love ballads, agogo/disco, rock etc), across time and local cultures.
(2) The need to include a new immigrant singer. The presenter tried to explain that this former PRC immigrant had been in Singapore for 18 years, presumably to highlight that she's already part of us. But once she got on stage, it's quite apparent she's not. Her long wavy tresses, glittering body hugging sleeveless dress. Made you feel like you were watching her sing in 大富豪 or 天安门. No other singers before or after her wore so much make-up, or attempted to be sexy onstage. They merely sang. And of course, it didn't help that she sang very PRC songs (of which I knew the lyrics very well... Remember the commie in me?). If these songs are much appreciated by the local crowd, I'm sure the organisers could have gotten locals to sing it.
(3) The glaring exclusion of dialect songs. Tell me, which Chinese Singaporean does not recognise the classic Hokkien songs or the Cantonese TVB drama theme songs (e.g. the Bund 上海滩)? Even those who resist anything that is vaguely Chinese? Dialect songs are obviously part of our heritage, which have been excluded in last night's so-called Chinese heritage concert. Maybe the official line would be that including dialect songs would have made these concerts resemble too much like getai (especially during this month). *shrugz* To me, dialects are significant part of our true heritage, and cannot be ignored. What's more, the organisers allowed a Korean song, but no dialect songs, to be sung?! O_o
Anyway... Take a few minutes and soak yourself in the politically-neutral, healthy, and wholesome voice of 潘盈.
Someone should do an academic piece on the rise and demise (and current revival attempt) of 新谣. A genuine innovation in the local music scene.
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