The Road Ahead — Linying, Sezairi, Shye, Shabir
2021 was a tough year for not just Singapore but the entire world, which had been reeling from the devastating impact of the COVID pandemic. For then-27-year-old singer-songwriter Linying, songwriting had been the canvas for all the thoughts and feelings she harboured as she came of age — not just in Singapore, but also as a restless young student who travelled across continents.

Making an NDP song, especially during a time of closed borders, required her to shift focus back home and change her usual songwriting process. 

“All my life, I’d only ever been confident writing from my own experience,” she told the now-defunct The New Paper. “Because as an artist, that’s the only truth that you’re able to confidently convey.” The timing of the opportunity gave the song its engine: “The Road Ahead”, written by Linying and music producer Evan Low, was inspired by local frontline efforts during 2020’s global lockdown.

The song — which is performed by vocalists Shabir, Shye, and Sezairi alongside Linying — came at the right time for the country as it was dialling back to normalcy.

“The Road Ahead” galloped into 2021, its gentle synth-pop welcoming in sunlight as Singaporeans were looking for a way out of darkness. Its chorus line “We did it before, and we’ll do it again” embodies the kind of resilience Singaporeans could get on board with; its hook, which expresses gratitude for our land and community, inspired a TikTok dance trend. Its optimism continues to be infectious to this day.

Sparkle — Gareth Fernandez, Dru Chen
“Sparkle” is unusual for an NDP theme song in that it encourages Singaporeans to express themselves and find their unique, well, spark.

The soul-infused number by Gareth Fernandez and Dru Chen — two artists with a love for classic funk — is not the usual sing-along that Singaporeans would expect. It’s the first NDP theme song in a long time — maybe ever — that focuses on the individual rather than the community. It compels Singaporeans to look within and discover what makes them — rather than the country — unique.

NDP music director Bang Wenfu settled on not one, but three different NDP songs for 2026 — songs that, as he tells The Straits Times, “cater to different ideas, viewpoints, and tastes among the different brackets of society”.

So it is with this spirit that Chen and Fernandez composed a song that unashamedly reflects their own tastes and personalities, in hopes of spurring Singaporeans to discover theirs. While not explicitly a song about being Singaporean, it may just make you recalibrate your feelings about being one.

Here We Are — Charlie Lim, Kit Chan, The Island Voices
2025’s NDP theme song, the slow-burning “Here We Are”, aimed to bring generations together in more ways than one. 

First, there was the song’s call for harmony and reflection. Writing for a nation writ large was a change of sensibility for singer-songwriter Charlie Lim, whose stirring music is drawn from his personal experiences. Like Linying did for “The Road Ahead”, Lim had to shift modes to write “Here We Are”, moving from introspective to nation-minded.

Then, there was Lim’s choice of collaborators — something pivotal in lending the track its spirit of community. Its varied mix of performers, including Mandopop icon Kit Chan, gives the song its colour. Chan’s familiar vocals — who can forget “Home”? — are a reassuring feature, while The Island Voices swoop in as a chorus of uplifting harmonies.

As the entire ensemble croon lines such as “I’m so glad you’re my neighbour” and “this is what home means to me” together, you can’t help but buy its sentiment: that it is Singapore’s diversity that makes the country feel like the place we belong. And speaking of belonging …

Where I Belong — Tanya Chua
NDP’s first pop-rock anthem, 2001’s “Where I Belong”, was written and performed by Tanya Chua. At the time of release, Chua was a burgeoning Mandopop talent who was gaining recognition in and out of Singapore.

Chua’s hectic schedule regularly took her between home and Taiwan. So, when tasked with writing an NDP song, she found it hard to find the words.

Reflecting on home meant unearthing some unpleasant memories — it meant remembering how she was once treated like an “ignorant young punk” as an aspiring artist and how she bristled against the expectations placed on her. But, during one of her many transits, she awoke to the sight of Changi Airport’s palm trees, which gave her sudden warmth in their familiarity.

“Where I Belong”, as a result, is perhaps the most complicated NDP theme song to date, packing a multitude of emotions. It contains feelings of comfort and cosiness, but it is also grounded by honest, not-always-rosy lines such as “Every day’s experience / Bitter, sweet or sour / It’s still wonderful”. Still, the song’s punchy melody made it a refreshing addition to the NDP canon at the turn of the millennium.

So iconic is the song that a new rendition was performed by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, rising local talents Syakirah Noble and Umar Sirhan, and Chua herself, on its 20th anniversary in 2021.

Home — Kit Chan
Kit Chan’s National Day debut is as synonymous with Singaporean life as kopi o kosong. Taught in school assemblies and sung in unison at yearly parades, the song has endured for decades as a warm, comforting reminder of the country we call home.

Chan recorded “Home” at age 26, when she was still an up-and-comer in Mandopop. She was paired with songwriter Dick Lee, who by then had a knack for distilling uniquely Singaporean moods into earworms. The song is suffused with melancholy because Lee wrote it while living away from Singapore, where he’d built a second career as a hitmaker for Cantopop stars like Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui.

Lee was homesick for the country that had been home through his career’s highs and lows — and that longing needed Chan’s voice to fully land. Her sweet, emotive vocals soar into the climactic chorus, not as a show-stopping flourish but as something quieter that has nonetheless stopped generations of Singaporeans in their tracks. Where past NDP songs leaned into hand-on-heart patriotism, “Home” trades that for something more intimate.

The song is steeped in nostalgia, the kind Singaporeans feel as they find their footing in an ever-modernising country. But it’s Chan’s quiet assurance — “For this is where I know it’s home” — that gives both song and listener courage and conviction.