NDP 2019 Creative Director Dick Lee Reveals His Favourite Part Of Singapore

Think of Singapore’s entertainment scene, and one enduring name synonymous with our local media landscape comes to mind: Dick Lee.

The self-styled “Mad Chinaman” has been appointed as the Creative Director of the National Day Parade (NDP) 2019 and we can’t wait to see what he has up his sleeve for spectators come August 9.

A true love of all things Singaporean, Dick uses Singapore as inspiration for his brand of musicality and lets it seep into every nook and cranny of his work throughout a 40-year career span, through his smash-hit national song Home or through his film Wonder Boy.

“I think the reason behind my longevity in the industry has everything to do with my Singaporean-ness,” he explains. “My best successes have been when I tried to be Singaporean, and made it a point to be Singaporean. That originality made me stand out, and was my greatest asset.”

For anybody with eclectic musical tastes, original is a word hard to come by in the music industry. Record labels like to play safe with tried-and-tested formulas that don’t rock the boat. That’s why Dick, in making Singapore his muse, was seen as avant-garde for his time.

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“In the eighties and nineties, Singapore was still a young country and we were not as established then on a global scale in terms of our music,” says Dick. “For one, we didn’t have any folk songs of our own. What we did have back then was simply borrowed from other ethnicities.”

This gave Dick a chance to develop Singapore’s identity from scratch, and by using his genre of pop music fused with a dash of local flavour, he created something that was uniquely us, for us.

“Take Home for example. The reason why it was such a hit was because I wrote it from the heart, and my heart, being a Singaporean heart, directed me musically,” he reveals about the iconic ditty he composed in 1998. “I was away from home then and I was feeling really down, so I didn’t have to try so hard with this song because I was going for the feeling of being Singaporean.”

Click through the gallery to see Dick in his natural element at Everton Park, his favourite Singaporean neighbourhood:

https://www.womensweekly.com.sg/gallery/family/dick-lee-reveals-favourite-part-singapore-ahead-national-day/

NDP 2019 Creative Director Dick Lee Reveals His Favourite Part Of Singapore

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Something else that makes him feel downright Singaporean? Everton Park, Dick’s favourite neighbourhood and the place he has called home for the last 25 years. “It takes me about 10 minutes to get anywhere from here, and I particularly love it because even though I’m in the city, it doesn’t quite feel like I am at all,” he says of the quaint little enclave.

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“Everton Park is like a microcosm of old and new Singapore. You can still find dusty antique shops clustered around a bunch of hip cafés,” he explains. “My neighbours blame me for the gentrification that’s happening in the area but I will never move, no matter how ‘hipster’ it gets.”

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The allure is understandable. There’s a quiet charm about this old-school sanctuary, despite the fact that it’s a short drive from the centre of town. It’s the perfect place to get a hefty dose of writing done, as Dick has with Wonder Boy, his first foray into films in 2017.

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“It’s a peek into my teenage years when I was really struggling to come into my own,” Dick explains. “There’s a lot that people don’t know about my early days and how it all started for me, and I’ve decided to share a lot of things that are not publicly known.”

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2019 has been a big year for Dick too in terms of creative projects. Not only is he helming the shot at NDP 2019 (arguably Singapore’s biggest stage!), the homegrown musician also launched a TV adaptation of his popular musical Fried Rice Paradise in June. The 13-parter series stays true to its 1980s aesthetic and sound, and featured his own songs from the same time period.

(Photos: Nicky Loh and Yann Cloitre; Nyen Chia/SPHM; The Straits Times; and Singapore Tourism Board / Art Direction: Christina Lim / Styling: Jerome Awasthi assisted by Jet Ong; and Lirong assisted by Caroline Neo / Makeup: Elyn from Cecilia Chng Beauty, Danny Kong and Shaun Lee / Hair: Edward Aw, Danny Kong and Nigel Woo from Passion Hair Salon)

This post was updated on August 6, 2019.

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NDP 2019 Creative Director Dick Lee Reveals His Favourite Part Of Singapore

To mark our nation’s 52nd birthday, we tagged along with three uniquely Singaporean entertainers as they took us to their favourite neighbourhood haunts.

WATCH THIS VIDEO TOO:

Asia’s Top Paid Celeb Couples

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NDP 2019 Creative Director Dick Lee Reveals His Favourite Part Of Singapore

To mark our nation’s 52nd birthday, we tagged along with three uniquely Singaporean entertainers as they took us to their favourite neighbourhood haunts.

WATCH THIS VIDEO TOO:

Asia’s Top Paid Celeb Couples

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