Angry netizens mistake Ramli Sarip's rendition as new National Anthem recording

Before we dive into our regularly scheduled programming about internet outrage, we gotta make this very clear — the new version of the National Anthem is not the one sung by local rock legend Ramli Sarip. 

The official new rendition of Majulah Singapura doesn’t change much from the old, except that it has a faster tempo, new voices singing the lyrics and a new instrumental performance by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO). 

This new version would be the one that schools and other government institutions have to play out loud. Not the slow, wistful one that Ramli sang at this year’s National Day Parade. 

Alas, people keep getting them mixed up. Since the new Majulah Singapura was released on Tuesday (Dec 3), netizens have cried foul about Ramli's version, truly believing that his soulful rendition was the one that everyone would have to sing along to. 

It certainly didn’t help that both the new SSO-led national anthem and a music video for the Ramli-led interpretation were released on the same day. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYht8NM2MoU[/embed]

The confusion resulted in a storm of angry online commenters expressing very strong feelings about what they thought was the new national anthem. 

Even Dr Rohana Zubir, the daughter of Majulah Singapura's composer Zubir Said, thought that Ramli's version was the new official version. In an open letter obtained by The Online Citizen, she questioned why the anthem was “experimented with to suit the whims for someone else’s musical inclinations”.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2666543160103735[/embed]

Thankfully, there were some people who knew what's what.

ilyas@asiaone.com