A New ‘Home’: Patriotic Singapore anthem gets virtual choir remake for these COVID-19 times

Hundreds of Singaporeans have taken to the digital stage for the first-ever virtual choir performance of popular patriotic anthem Home. 

The kind of mass video recording that’s become popular in the new stay-home era, a rousing, four-minute video of the choir performance featuring 900 citizens locally and abroad premiered online last night and won praise for its feel-good vibe.

“Over 900 voices of people living in Singapore together with Singaporeans from 26 countries around the world unite to sing for hope, strength, and love in the first ever Singapore Virtual Choir,” the caption read. “We believe that music has the power to bring us together.”

It was produced by nonprofit Voices of Singapore and SG United, a government online charity platform. It closes with the words, “Stay home, for our home,” on screen.

Home is a favorite among Singaporeans to sing on National Day. Written by popular composer Dick Lee, it was first sung by local songstress Kit Chan in 1998 and has since been covered by other local acts such as JJ Lin, Stephanie Sun and The Sam Willows.

The video has been watched more than 90,000 times, with some saying it brought them comfort during this difficult period, and even tears.

“Such a splendid arrangement! I am tremendously moved to tears every time I listen to this song. Thank you for warming our hearts and keeping our spirits up with fellow Singaporeans,” Mike Lee said.

“Truly heartwarming to watch it. Put tears in my eyes. Home is where I want to be, Singapore, always home in our hearts no matter where we are. Take care, stay safe,” Jeanette Han said.

Voices of Singapore founder Darius Lim told reporters that it took five days to put the project together, including collating and syncing the audio. The organization began reaching out to Singaporeans for videos of them singing on March 31. 

Singaporeans as far as Italy and Norway joined in. Choir participants ranged from 5 to 80.

“It has been incredibly heartwarming to witness the extraordinary strength, love and support from those in Singapore, as well as Singaporeans all around the world. Wherever we are in the world, we are proud to be the voices of our nation – We are SGUnited,” the video caption continued.

Facebook user Shen Song Han said he was proud to call Singapore his home and encouraged others to work together to fight the pandemic.

“Every single year during NDP when I heard this song. Deep thoughts and feelings thinking how fortunate we have Singapore as our home,” Shen said. “This year and this song that sang by so many Singaporean all over the world, it deeply showed no one had forgotten their motherland. Let’s all stay united and stay home. We can do it.”

The original 1998 rendition of ‘Home’

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