One of Singapore’s most beloved patriotic songs has gotten a remake in India – sort of.
It turns out that people there have been singing along to 1986 National Day Parade anthem Count On Me Singapore to profess their love for India by replacing “Singapore” with “India” or “Mother India.” One teacher in India who decided to perform the localized version with her three students today removed her YouTube video after being called out for copying.
The video, posted by Amuzica Swar last year, had been viewed over 60,000 times before it was removed today. Users had recently discovered it and had been filling the comments with hate.
“Pure blasphemy. Yeah, and it shows what India can really be. Blatant copy.” YouTuber Loopless wrote.
Swar said in the comments that she did not know that the song originally came from Singapore and had discovered it through other people’s “India” versions.
“I was unaware of this information regarding this song. I hope you won’t mind as it is not a worst presentation by the students. Many others also sang this song and I followed. So please kindly accept.” Swar wrote in reply to one comment. In the video’s caption, she said that her birthday also falls on Singapore’s independence day, which is Aug. 9.
It’s unclear who was the first to borrow the song.
Other covers have also been posted online since July under the title We Can Achieve. They include recordings and live performances by individuals and students. The most popular, with close to 90,000 views, did credit the song to the original composer.
Count On Me Singapore was performed by local singer Clement Chow and written by Canadian composer Hugh Harrison, who composed other patriotic anthems such as Stand Up for Singapore and We are Singapore.
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