26 August 2011, Singapore – Tomorrow 27 August 2011, the finale concert of the Eco Music Challenge 2011 will be held at Orchard Central from 1.30pm to 5pm where the finalists will compete against each other to win sponsored cash prizes of over S$13,000. The top three winners will win S$5,000, S$3,000 and S$2,000 respectively. The top three winners will also showcase their talents such as performing at Timbre and at other events, including CGS 2012 launch ceremony in October this year. There are also 7 consolation prizes of S$300 each as well as a Young Musician Award of S$300 and Most Popular Song award of S$300.
There will also be special performances by indie singer-songwriter Inch Chua, Brandon Lee and 17 year old Campus SuperStar 2007 overall champion Shawn Tok.
The top 13 finalists come from various backgrounds including students, music teachers, cabin crew members, doctors and even one of Cleo Magazine’s 50 eligible bachelors. You can check their profiles at www.nea.ecomusic.sg or www.facebook.com/nea.ecomusic. What’s more, if you are able to guess the winning song, you may win yourself some prizes.
The competition has achieved a new milestone with over 300 song entries from more than 900 youth participants. NEA has partnered with Timbre Music Academy, Intune Music School and veteran singer-songwriter Clement Chow this year. The 13 finalists underwent a three-week mentorship programme in preparation for the finale concert with popular local musicians such as:
- Sara Wee, guest vocal trainer from Singapore Idol Season Three
- Luthfi Hamzah and Mang Irama Dusqie from Timbre Music Academy
- Peng Chi Sheng from Intune Music School
- Clement Chow
SUPERADRIANME.com interviewed Yvonne Chan the Deputy Director of Corporate Communications at NEA.
How was the Eco Music Challenge mooted?
In this time and age, reaching out to youths about the environment means engaging them based on their interest and media habits. NEA decided to use music to communicate with the youth as music can be used to express all forms of emotions and the messages are submliminal. Music is a universal language that creates an emotional link to the environment. The Eco Music Challenge was created as the second wave of NEA’s youth environmental engagement programme through music after a successful launch of the Clean and Green Singapore 2010 song “Let’s Make Our World the Most Beautiful Home” which was composed and performed by Clement Chow.
What are NEA’s social media initiatives since social media is synonymous with youths?
NEA constantly looks for new ways to reach out to the youths, custodians of our future, as well as the larger community. Nurturing a strong sense of environmental consciousness amongst the youths is vital.
Recognising the prevalance of gaming amongst youths, NEA launched an online game targeted at primary school students in 2009 called Operation MACE (Mosquito Annihilation and Control Enforcement). Set in a futuristic Singapore, MACE agents are recruited to deal with and eliminate the threat of mosqueros – a type of alien mosquitoes. The game is available at .
NEA also recently launched an iPhone application called myEnv and are also exploring setting up a music related mobile application which can continue to engage the youth through music.
Viral videos have also been produced to convey the environmental message I a light-hearted manner. Future programmes will heavily exploit the full potential of online and social media where there is interactivity to engage youths.
Eco education is a long term, so how does NEA intend to create longevity for this campaign?
The Eco Music Challenge is a Novel approach that NEA is using to inspire a greater consciousness of our beautiful environment.
The songs from season 1 of Eco Music Challenge were well received. Many songs have gained air play on YES 933, Ria 89.1FM and 987FM. To raise further environmental awareness, songs from season 1 of the Eco Music Challenge’s finalists were made available as online downloads as well as a music CD album. This CD album is an effective tool to engage the community to remind them about the environment. To date, more than 1,000 copies of this CD has been sold and the proceeds are donated to Nature Society to help them develop programmes to study the biodiversity in Semakau Landfill. In addition, NEA has plans to position and involve these finalists in outreach programmes, community events, corporate events and music workshops with industry partners so that they can serve as eco ambassadors to raise environmental consciousness.
In general, NEA continues to face environmental challenges which are complex and dynamic given our small size, location and demographics. Moreover, there are factors that contribute to the complexity such as climate change, growing population, changing demographics and others. Some of these challenges include maintaining a high standard of public cleanliness and hygiene, managing increasing waste generation, ensuring good air quality, preventing and controlling dengue outbreak (as Singapore is located in a dengue endemic region) and mitigating the effects of climate change.
NEA has taken steps to enhance its operations and readiness to deal with these challenges. In addition, the agency has looked into building new capabilities in various areas such as climate science which is essential in developing more robust projections of how Singapore might be affected by climate change in the future. These projections will help in developing our climate resilience strategy. Another area is in dengue research and control where NEA’s Environmental Health Institute (EHI) has been
designated a World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre for the Reference and Research of Arbovirus and their Associated Vectors in the research of vector borne diseases. This allows EHI to share our best practices in dengue research and vector control and strengthen disease surveillance and outbreak response capability in the region. This partnership will contribute to the advancement of vector-borne diseases control, particularly dengue.
As NEA prepares itself for future challenges ahead, encouraging greater community ownership of the environment remains a key priority and challenge. To raise our 3P (People, Public and Private) efforts to higher level to promote environmental ownership, NEA has advocated the concept of Total Defence for the environment. Singaporeans must view taking care of the environment in the same way as Total Defence – like defence, the environment is too important to be left to the government alone, and everyone must play a part. Singaporeans need to SAFEGUARD our clean and healthy environment, NURTURE an eco-friendly culture in every generation, and CHERISH our Beautiful, Clean and Green environment for present and future generations.
On a partnership level, has NEA considered partnering other agencies to bring the message to the community.
NEA regularly collaborates with various partners both from the public as well as the private sector. On the public sector front, the annual Clean & Green Singapore (CGS) campaign is led by NEA and jointly organised by the CDCs, PUB and NParks. CGS is a key platform for us to work with partners from the 3P (People, Public and Private) sectors to engage the community to promote environmental ownership. In addition, NEA’s 5 regional offices work closely with the CDCs and grassroots organisations on
district and precinct-level initiatives to promote and reinforce the environmental messages.
What are your comments on this year’s contestants?
- Wider music genres and styles, ranging from pop, rock and folk to jazz.
- Good mix of English and Chinese songs.
- Creative lyrics that reflect unique interpretation of the environment.
- Poetic and Metaphoric display of environmental messages which will be more appealing to the general public, especially the youths.
We also interviewed Clement Chow, Sara Wee (Eco Music Challenge 2011 Mentor representing Timbre Music Academy) and Inch Chua (Eco Music Challenge 2011 Ambassador) on what they felt of this year’s Challenge.
Please speak freely on your thoughts on NEA Eco Music Challenge 2011.
Inch: Instead of having a typical music contest, a songwriting contest is most apt in expression, especially for a cause such as care for the environment. Good songwriting is very hard to discredit, hence I think it’s the best medium to get the ‘go green’ message out as well as putting some unheard of songwriters into the spotlight.
Sara: I think that it’s a very interesting way to reach out to budding songwriters and musicians while still getting the main message across. Most music competitions just get bands/singers to submit videos, choose which contestants stand out for the finals and decide on a winner based on judge/audience votes. But NEA Eco Music Challenge actually gets more experienced musicians in the industry to mentor and guide the bands/singers, which I think is a really encouraging and nurturing process for a lot of these new musicians.
Clement: The NEA Eco Music Challenge is a great platform that continues to provide local songwriters a place to express not just a universal issue but also showcase the positive, progressive musical development of our local musicians, their skills, their thoughts, their unique expressions.
We have seen a great number of fresh talent coming out of the woodworks both last year and this, and it’s very encouraging.
How do you feel about this year’s contestants?
Inch: I think the lyrical content seems to be stronger this year, very excited to hear them live at the finals.
Sara: I’m very excited about the standard set by this year’s contestants, there are a few who will definitely be giving us a run for our money in the near future! It proves that our country really has a lot of hidden talent and it’s good to see them come out and do it for a good cause.
Clement: This year’s talent is mature and varied in their lyrical, and musical expression, some writing has really impressed us & the judges will have a hard time again.
