★★★★ 
"A subtly subversive yet thoroughly celebratory film… One of the best films about Singapore”
– The Straits Times

"We are Singapore"
– The Straits Times

"去听新加坡风,"
– Lianhe Zaobao

“Singapore GaGa presents a brilliant alternative gaga view of the go-go Lion City”
– The Star, Malaysia

★★★★ 
“If you see only one Singapore film, let this be it”
– Today

★★★★ 
“55 richly textured minutes of sounds”
– 8 Days

“Ingenious, warm and ironic documentary about the rough edges of the most manicured city in the world. A documentary with character and real protagonists. With a sensitive ear and a sharp eye, she records what often is not heard or seen. The absurd in everyday life. Despite its light tone, the film has a lot to tell us about modern life, especially in Singapore, a country who wants to make rules for the unruleable.”
– Gertjan Zuilhof, Rotterdam International Film Festival

Bangkok Film Festival Pick
– Kong Rithee, Bangkok Post

“In this revealing journey we hear people sing hymns to themselves and to their communities and a sense of what it might mean to be a modern Singaporean emerges without once resorting to the jingoism or rhetoric so often associated with such projects”
– Senses Of Cinema

“Singapore GaGa portrays bittersweet image of Singaporeans' complex relationship with their homeland”
– South China Morning Post, Hong Kong

“With subtlety, humour and pathos”
– Agence France-Presse

Melvyn Cedello. Busker
I stepped off Novena train station late one night, and stumbled onto Melvyn. There he was jamming away to no one in particular. The acoustics beside The MRT entrance was perfect. He sang Jim Reeves, Elvis Presley and hymns. Halfway through, he asked me, "You want happy or sad song?" I thought that this man must be crazy to perform at a station with no one in the middle of the night, but he was having a lot of fun.

Victor Khoo. Ventriloquist
Victor Khoo still wears a mullet and Charlee is even more life like now. On my way to the shoot, I felt excited, unsure what it would be like to meet after all these years. I entered the school hall and saw 1000 kids screaming, Charlee was performing the same magic now as he did many years ago. Victor told me later that he inherited Charlee from his father, who was also a ventriloquist. Together they have entertained Singapore children for 50 years.

Yew Hong Chow. Harmonica Virtuoso
He dedicated his life to the harmonica and to exhibiting the range of this wonderful instrument. It had seen him through extreme poverty and a divorce. Now in his sixties, he is still performing and giving harmonica lessons. I told him I was curious about the world that the harmonica represented in Singapore in the 60's and 70's. Over lunch, he revealed the history of the instrument in Singapore and how it became sidelined. There was no bitterness in his re-telling, just a certain wistfulness of what could have been.

Margaret Leng Tan. Toy Pianist
Margaret called me up one early Sunday morning, "Are you Tan Pin Pin the filmmaker? When I said yes, she said "Oh good, I called up all the Tan Pin Pins in the phone book to find you." She was back in Singapore from New York. I had written her fan mail because I loved her album 'The Art of the Toy Piano'. We promised to meet if she was in town. That was how she came to be in Singapore GaGa, fresh from Carnegie Hall into the void deck of Pek Kio, Singapore.

Gn Kok Lin. Busker
I met him by accident in a train station. There he was tap dancing, juggling and playing the harmonica simultaneously. He played the classics from both the eastern and western canon, all to the same clog stomping beat. Since that afternoon, he has been calling me every few days or so, updating me about his latest gig in this or that train station. His signature tune is "Rose Rose I love you", he plays that once a day.

Juanita Melson. Voice of the MRT
I was so happy when I found the Voice, and her name is Juanita. This is the voice that I have criss-crossed Singapore with. It turns out that she is also the voice for the Civil Defence Alerts ("This is an emergency"), the cheery Fujitech elevator announcements ("Going Up!"). Now that I have met her in flesh and blood, she is everywhere.

Dialect News Readers
I was surprised to hear the Chinese dialect news in a taxi one evening. Since Mandarin was nationalised more than twenty years ago, Chinese dialects are banished from mainstream media and this newscast was a concession for the elderly dialect speakers who grow fewer by the day. At 8 pm every night, six readers speaking six different Chinese dialects (Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew, Hainanese, Hakka, Hockchew) read news for 3 minutes each. When I finally met them, I asked if anyone listened to them. One said, "It is a privilege to read in a dialect few speak anymore, we are the last generation and I will continue to do it until they ask me to stop"

— Chen Yoke Chin
— Loke Tai Tay
— Nyeo Siok Kee
— Tan Tew Hoon
— Koh Pheck Lian

Also featuring: Alex Abisheganaden

My elderly neighbour suffers from Alzheimer’s and my uncle sings to her to calm her and also to jog her memory. One day, one of the songs he sang caught my attention. The lyrics went (in Mandarin)

China will not fall
China will not fall
Look at how heroic its troops are
China will not fall
China will not fall
Watch the 800 strong men
Rush to the battlefield

It transpired that this was the song they both sang when they were Communists fighting the Japanese in the Malayan jungles in World War Two. With this song, my aunt who appeared catatonic all day calmed down, started to rock to his lyrics and miraculously, started to hum along. For my aunt, the song was a lifeline to her past that lay dispersed in her mind. I resolved to start collecting songs and sounds that meant something to me and my life in Singapore, especially sounds that otherwise would never be noticed or heard of again.

With Support
Infinite Frameworks
Singapore Film Commission
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
Lee Foundation
Maxell Professional Media
CameraQuip

Singapore GaGa was conceived with support of the Asia Artist in Residence Programme, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
Produced and Directed by Tan Pin Pin
Production Manager: Josephine Seetoh
Cinematographers: Ryan Seet, Reu Low, Tan Pin Pin
Sound Recordists: Brian Lim, Rafi Dean, Michael Lee
Editors: Martyn See, Low Hwee Ling
On-Line Editor: Chia Noi Kheng
Sound Designer: Nigel Woodford
Sound Engineer: Andy Lam, Yellow Box Studios
Colorist: Nigel Fernandez
Post Production Producer: Gavin Chelvan
Transcribers: Daniel Tham, Low Chun Foon, Hazel Ngiam, Priya Balraju, Renee Chua Hui Ling, Wang Zineng
Website: ohplay interactive
Subtitles: Tan Dan Feng, Interlexis
With Assistance: Jasmine Ng, Suryahti Abdul Latiff, Tan Siok Siok, Lian Tsui Yee, Sun Koh, Linette Heng, Tong Jo-Tsze, Yin Phua, Lee Wong, Woo Mun Sen, Nigel Woodford

• 2024 National Library of Singapore, Big Picture Series

• 2023 NUS, LKYSPP

• 2023 Singapore Art Week, Outdoor screening, Dingdongbeep

• 2022 Meiji Gakuin University

• 2011 Flaherty Seminar

• 2011 NUS, USP

• 2011 Society of Social Studies Teachers, Singapore

• 2010 Cinema Typhoon, Japan Foundation, Tokyo

• 2009 Singapore Tokyo Film Festival

• 2007 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• 2007 Cut Cineclub, Macau

• 2006 Rotterdam International Film Festival

• 2006 MOMA, New York Asian Cinevisions

• 2006 Asian Film Festival in Lyon, France

• 2006 Taiwan International Documentary Festival.

• 2006 Bangkok International Film Festival

• 2006 Commonwealth Film Festival

• 2006 Focus Films at Cannes Film Market May

• 2006 Freedom Film Festival (KL & Penang, Malacca Tour)

• 2006 Brisbane International Film Festival

• 2006 1st Toronto-Singapore Short Film Festival

• 2006 Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival

• 2006 USA-Asean Film Festival

• 2005 London Fire Cracker Showcase

• 2005 Festival of Three Continents, in Competition

• 2005 Malaysian Video Awards

• 2005 Rotterdam International Film Festival

• 2005 Singapore International Film Festival 2005 (World Premiere)

• Screened on Okto, Singapore Airlines Inflight Entertainment. It was also part of the Total Defence exhibition at Discovery Centre.