| The Songs We Sang | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| 我們唱著的歌 | |
| Directed by | Eva Tang |
| Produced by | Eva Tang |
| Distributed by | Golden Village |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 128 minutes |
| Country | Singapore |
| Language | Mandarin |
| Budget | $35,000 |
| Box office | $84,000 |
The Songs We Sang is a 2015 Singaporean documentary directed by Eva Tang. It is about xinyao , Singaporean folk music that was popular in the 1980s.
The documentary covered the last years of Nanyang University and how it affected the Chinese educated students who graduated from there. It also documented how the poetry club in Nanyang University, before the closure of the institution, branched out to song writing, influenced by Taiwan minyao (民谣), a Taiwanese folk songs movement in the 1970s and their school campus songs (校园民歌). The history of was then chronicled from its birth in educational institutes to local success and then to commercial success.
Interviews were conducted on three different groups of people: local xinyao singers such as Eric Moo, Billy Koh, Koh Nam Seng, Liang Wern Fook, Wong Hong Mok; singers inspired by xinyao such as Stefanie Sun and JJ Lin; and local DJs who helped popularised xinyao.
The film ended with clips of footage of the free xinyao concert, with performances by various xinyao singers, held by the producers.
The documentary film was budgeted at $35,000. [1] It was also supported and partly funded with a grant of 30 per cent of the original budget by the National Heritage Board of Singapore. [1] [2] [3]
As part of the documentary, a free concert was staged on 6 July 2014 at Bras Basah Complex. Various xinyao singers such as Eric Moo, Roy Li, Dawn Gan and Pan Ying performed at the concert for two hours. Footage of the concert was shown in the documentary. [3]
The Songs We Sang premiered at the Singapore International Film Festival on 29 November 2015. [4] The performance was sold-out. [5] Golden Village released it to five Singaporean theaters on 24 March 2016. It grossed $23,508 on the opening weekend and a total of $84,661. [6]
On 8 August 2020, the film was released via Netflix. [7]
After its festival premiere, the film received positive reviews. [8] [9] In praising Tang's research, Boon Chan of My Paper rated it 4.5/5 stars and wrote, "The Songs We Sang is a labour of love that puts our stories front and centre." [10] Tan Kee Yun of The New Paper rated it 4/5 stars and called it "truly a gem of local cinema", as it avoids the melodrama associated with That Girl in Pinafore . [11]
Her World rated it as one of the best Singaporean films of 2015. [12]
Singapore has a diverse music culture that ranges from rock and pop to folk and classical. Its various communities have their own distinct musical traditions: the Chinese form the largest ethnic group in Singapore, with Malays, Indians as well as a lesser number of other peoples of different ethnicities including Eurasians. The different people with their traditional forms of music, the various modern musical styles, and the fusion of different forms account for the musical diversity in the country.
Raffles Girls' School (RGS) is an independent girls' secondary school located in Braddell, Singapore. Established in 1879, it is one of the oldest schools in Singapore. RGS, together with its affiliated school Raffles Institution, offers a six-year Raffles Programme, which allows students to skip the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level examinations and proceed to take the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level examinations at the end of Year 6.
Stefanie Sun Yanzi is a Singaporean singer and songwriter. In 2000, she released her debut album, Yan Zi, which won her a Golden Melody Award for Best New Artist. In 2004, she released her eighth studio album, Stefanie, which won her another Golden Melody Award for Best Mandarin Female Singer. Having sold more than 30 million records, she achieved popularity in Greater China and among the Chinese-speaking world.
Eric Moo Chii Yuan, better known as Eric Moo or Wu Qixian, is a Malaysian Chinese award-winning singer-songwriter and record producer.
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Mavis Hee Pee Hong is a Singaporean singer, songwriter and actress. She was the second runner-up and also Miss Photogenic and Miss Amity in the Singapore's Miss Chinatown Pageant 1992.
Xinyao is a genre of songs that is unique to Singapore. It is a contemporary Mandarin vocal genre that emerged and rose to fame in Singapore between the late 1970s to 1980s. Xinyao songs are composed and sung by Singaporeans and it is an outlet for them to express their thoughts and feelings around themes like friendships or love stories. Xinyao is a Chinese noun comprising two words: Xīn (新) which is an abbreviation for Singapore, and yáo (謠) for song. The extended form is Xīnjiāpō gēyáo (新加坡歌謠), which simply means "Singapore songs".
Dr Liang Wern Fook is a Cantonese Singaporean writer, musician, singer and researcher in Chinese literature and pedagogy. He was one of the pioneer figures in xinyao movement in the 1980s and 1990s.
Jimmy Ye Liang Jun is a Singaporean former singer and Director at Singapore Management University (SMU).
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Crescendo is a Singaporean musical drama produced by production company Wawa Pictures and telecast on MediaCorp Channel 8. It stars Christopher Lee, Tay Ping Hui, Darren Lim, Jacelyn Tay, Cynthia Koh and Ann Kok in this series.
Joanna Dong is a Singaporean singer, actress and host. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she is the first artiste signed to Singapore label, Red Roof Records.
Boon Hui Lu is a Singaporean singer-songwriter and actress.
Jeremy Koh is a Singaporean operatic tenor, adjunct voice lecturer at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), United World College South East Asia (East) and artistic director of the Spot Pocket Opera Theatre. He is also one of the only two successful auditionees to join the Singapore Lyric Opera as a Leow Siak Fah Young Artist in 2016.
Yan Liming, better known as Dawn Gan, was a Singaporean xinyao singer. She was one of the pioneer xinyao singers in Singapore.
Wee Li Lin is a Singaporean director known for directing the feature films Gone Shopping and Forever, as well as several short films, such as Centrepoint KidZ.
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