Lady Gaga to the rescue: Singapore's 'Fun Pack Song' put on hold
The highly-ridiculed "Fun Pack Song" has been put in the cooler while the National Day Parade (NDP) organizers try and secure the rights to perform the modified version of Lady Gaga's hit single "Bad Romance" that has done little to distance the tune and the lyrics from the original.
"We're in the process of working with the recording and publishing company to try to secure the rights to modify the lyrics and until then we will not perform the song," said Colonel Ong Tze-Ch'in, chairman of the NDP 2011 Show Committee in a statement to the press.
Singaporeans have not exactly gone gaga over the song, which was conceived by local playwright Haresh Sharma.
A filmed segment of the NDP rehearsal on July 2 uploaded on YouTube (watch the video here) has received 194,401 views, 7,084 dislikes and comments that range from "embarrassing and no creativity", to "disgraceful and humiliating."
Sharma has not been available for comment, however this year's NDP creative director Beatrice Chia-Richmond told The Straits Times that the NDP hosts introduce items in the fun packs to spectators every year, and the "Fun Pack Song" was "a fresh and light-hearted way to do so".
In a report by The Straits Times, last year’s NDP creative director Dick Lee commented that the song may be "inappropriate" for the nation’s birthday: "Why do we need to sing about biscuits, sweets and Newater? It’s not worth celebrating these items in a bag."
The singer/songwriter also raised the copyright issue.
“You cannot just take somebody’s hit song and change the lyrics. If I were Lady Gaga, I wouldn’t be very pleased,” said Lee, who founded the production company Fantastic Entertainment.
Let's hope the go-ahead isn't given by Lady Gaga otherwise, this year's NDP spectators may be cajoled into singing along to:
Hold up your flag, don’t you forget
You can wave it, if you feel like it.
Let’s wave the flag
