STAR-Post #1/2018 Stories We Sing STAR_Post_Music_2018-01 StoriesWeSing | Page 13

My City And Me
Ms Heng Siok Tian, lyricist of My City, My Sayang,
described the circumstances that led her to move to
Australia, and how living overseas prompted her to reflect
more deeply on what it meant to be Singaporean. She
shared how she began viewing Singapore in an entirely
new light upon her return to Singapore some years later.
Conceptualised as a complementary poem to her earlier
poem my city, my canvas (1999), the lyrics to My City,
My Sayang are driven by a similar curiosity to experience
Singapore in a new way each day. Imbued with a
heightened sensitivity to the sights, sounds, tastes and
textures of her environment, My City, My Sayang invites
us to be suspended in a constant state of wonderment,
always discovering the new amidst the familiar, like a
tourist in one’s own country.
Click to view lyricist Heng Siok Tian describing the events and
epiphanies that inspired the lyrics of My City, My Sayang
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