Singapore shines its light on the future with NDP 2023

SINGAPORE: The morning of National Day promised to be hot and dry for the festivities later that day. 

Sure enough, the heat was unrelenting when dusk rolled around. Despite that, 27,000 spectators wearing red and white thronged the stands at the Padang on Wednesday (Aug 9), ready for the National Day Parade and united in celebrating Singapore's 58th birthday.

By 5.35pm, spectators were packed shoulder to shoulder and the show was promptly opened by its four energetic hosts: Eswari Gunasagar, Fauzie Laily, Hazelle Teo and Joakim Gomez, who prepped the crowd with a cheer showdown between each of the four sections surrounding the stage. 

Spectators were also encouraged to use the drums in their National Day Parade (NDP) packs, which came with drumsticks that doubled up as light sticks. 

The hosts led an interactive activity with spectators, giving them poses for the NDP camera, which randomly spotlighted people in the crowd. 

Laily and Gomez went into the audience to play a game where spectators guessed the lyrics to NDP songs such as Home, Where I Belong and Stronger Together. 

The show soon began with students from Bedok View Secondary School, Deyi Secondary School, East Spring Secondary School and Victoria Junior College in vibrant costumes dancing to this year's theme song, Shine Your Light, and easing the crowd into the programme. 

This year, a total of 2,400 performers and 43 artistes were involved, with students and community groups converging from various schools, ministries and organisations to make NDP happen.

Another 400 students from tertiary institutions contributed as audience motivators, make-up artists and content creators, and they could be seen dotted throughout the stands, dancing to songs tirelessly throughout. 

Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng and Members of Parliament were welcomed to the NDP and made their way onto the stands from the National Gallery. 

Shortly after 6pm, a crowd favourite, the military free fall segment was conducted by the Red Lions, with eight descending from a transport aircraft in aerial formation and taking minutes to reach the ground. The crowd waited with bated breath, last year's mishap involving a Red Lion in an awry landing on everyone's minds. 

Each Red Lion landed, within seconds of the other, smoothly and to ecstatic cheers and applause from the crowd. 

The Island Voices and the Music & Drama company performed a medley of National Day songs, before the stage was cleared for a military tattoo, where the band marched into different formations, including "NDP 23".

Next was a full-scale physical parade with 1,700 participants in 34 marching groups from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), Home Team, uniformed groups and social and economic contingents.

This year also marks the inaugural appearance of the SAF's Digital and Intelligence Service Guard of Honour contingent. 

Once all were in place, the parade welcomed President Halimah Yacob, who was at the festivities for the last time as president before her term ends on Sep 13.

In the last light of the day, the crowd stood up for the national anthem and aerial state flag flypast operated by the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s (RSAF) CH-47SD Chinook helicopter, and escorted by two AH-64D Apache attack helicopters.

Five F-16D+ jets performed a bomb-burst, followed by a fly-through by three F-15SGs as a salute to the nation.

Madam Halimah Yacob, as the reviewing officer, inspected the parade, stopping to speak to some participants. A picture montage of previous National Day celebrations was played to commemorate the past six years of her presidency.

An aerial segment then wowed the crowd with a spectacular display of skill, including two F-16D+ fighters performing a cross-turn, before an F-15SG pulled up into a vertical climb.

RSAF’s largest aircraft, the A330 multi-role tanker transport, along with the RSAF's latest asset, the H225M helicopter, made appearances in the show. 

The enhanced display for the air force's 55th anniversary starred 21 RSAF assets, marking the largest fleet of aircraft used since NDP 2018.

The contingents then marched off stage before the Total Defence Parade, which featured six larger-than-life floats to represent each of the six pillars of Total Defence – social, psychological, economic, digital, civil and military. 

The segment was brought together by a short film centred on a boy who seeks to uncover what Total Defence is and tries to explain it to different members of his family. The result? Six everyday objects - a food cover net, a pencil case, a cream cracker tin, weights, a first aid kit with a torch, and an umbrella - that served as inspiration for the colourful floats. 

A drive-past featuring 20 assets from the SAF, Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) also made its way to the front of the National Gallery.

This year's drive-past saw the debut of the SPF's Tactical Strike Vehicle and SCDF's 6th Generation Light Fire Attack Vehicle, with the column braking and starting with impressive synchronisation.

The column's departure marked the end of the Total Defence segment and also the start of the four acts of the NDP show, titled Our Singapore, Our Strength, One Heart and Onward as One. 

The show picked up the pace as night fell, with 58 "doves" - volunteers from Team Nila Singapore - illuminating the stage with lit-up dove wings on the backs of cyclists riding in formation around the stage. 

Spectators were treated to the dulcet tones of artist Lewis Loh - who goes by lewloh - singing slower-paced songs as he made his way around a lake projected onto the stage in a "sampan".

The crowd noticeably rallied with the start of the next performance, a high-energy dance by 320 performers from the People’s Association, surrounded by large floats resembling origami boats, from which 10 artists took turns belting out community songs in various languages such as Jinkli Nona, One Million, Kopi O and Rasa Sayang. 

The act was an ode to Singapore's multiracial and multicultural society, underscored when the crowd went wild for Munnaeru Vaalibaa, a fast-paced Tamil song that had spectators hammering their drums in a joyful frenzy. 

The second act was a spectacle of hundreds of performers - 600 from the SOKA Gakkai Singapore Women's Division and 12 dancers from Dance Inspiration - each representing a petal forming a blossoming flower, highlighting the strength, unity and resilience of the country. 

The graceful performance was bookended by the third act, which again switched up its pace to something akin to a war cry after a short film about Singaporeans working towards their dreams. 

Artists such as 53A and Green Drumming, 180 dancers from Martial House, Music & Drama Company and Temasek Polytechnic executed a rousing performance augmented by the strains of an electric guitar and bathed in red light.  

Act Four featured 700 students from CHIJ St Theresa’s Convent, Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School, Nanyang Girls’ High School and Yio Chu Kang Secondary School. Dressed in white with slashes of red, the performers danced to the boppy tune of Shine Your Light, performed by the artists 53A, The Island Voices, lewloh, Olivia Ong, ShiGGa Shay, Iman Fandi and Lineath.

The spectators were then told to stand up to a medley of past National Day songs such as Stand up for Singapore and The Road Ahead, accompanied by a stunning fireworks display in a grand finale. 

Barely three hours had passed since the start of what promised to be an exciting programme and it had ended all too soon, drawing to an end months of preparation and effort to all involved. 

But as the pledge was said and the national anthem sung by Singaporeans from all walks of life at the end of the festivities, the nation was reminded of one message: Heading into the future, Onward as One.