With just two more days till the big Polling Day, election candidates are surely feeling the heat of the proceedings. Like the rest of us, they’re probably keeping calm through the potent magic of music. It does make you wonder though — what’s in their iPods (or discman, walkman, gramophone; delete where age-appropriate) anyway?
Local music website Bandwagon managed to get the answers from personalities from three opposition parties, and you’d be kinda surprised what they’re listening to these days.
Newly inducted Reform Party (RP) member and candidate for the Ang Mo Kio GRC Roy Ngerng is a true ’90s balladeer by heart, loving songs such as Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey’s ‘When You Believe’ and Aerosmith’s dreadfully overplayed ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’. Then of course, he’d relate with Katniss Everdeen’s revolutionary theme song ‘The Hanging Tree’ from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay soundtrack. Then out of the cold blue comes ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen — which Ngerng remarks that he likes “the concept of letting it go”.
SingFirst’s Jurong GRC candidate Tan Peng Ann is a true old soul, preferring popular songs from the ’50s and ’60s including the likes of Engelbert Humperdinck, The Everly Brothers and other similar evergreen tunes. Bandwagon editor Daniel Peters even mentions that Tan keeps a list of around 80 of his all-time favourite songs on a CD, complete with an Excel spreadsheet of the track list.
Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) head and 2015 General Election MVP Dr Chee Soon Juan was the first to send his playlist though, despite being one of the busiest personalities this past week. He’s more of a rock kind of fellow it seems, highlighting his top songs to include Eagles’ ‘Tequila Sunrise’ as well as Bee Gees’ ‘How Deep Is Your Love’. The good doctor even points out that he sometimes performs together with his daughters at SDP events, playing the likes of James Taylor’s ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ and surprisingly, boyband McFly’s ‘It’s All About You’. And of course, Dr Chee also includes SDP’s campaign song ‘I Will Be The One’ in his playlist. Hey if it pumps you up, all the better.
Bandwagon may not have gotten playlists from other candidates (we’d love to know what Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s jamming to), but they’ve conveniently guessed what the other politicos are listening to. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s playlist mostly includes national day songs (and bonus Drake); Workers’ Party’s Sylvia Lim should be down for womanly jams; activist and indepedent candidate Han Hui Hui will just have songs relating to money (return our CPF!!).
Photo: SDP Facebook page
