Love At First Light

"Love At First Light" is a song by Singaporean artiste, Olivia Ong and child actress, Natanya Tan. Written by Paul Tan and composed by Iskandar Ismail, it was officially commissioned as the official theme song to the 2012 national day parade of Singapore, together with the 1995 National Day Parade song, My People, My Home which was reused for National Day in 2012. On the 9 August, the song was performed twice. Once by the combined school-choir and later by the duo themselves in a techno pop version. The techno pop version was incorporated into a medley, which includes song like "Stand Up For Singapore", "One People, One Nation, One Singapore", "Count On Me Singapore", "Home" and "We Are Singapore". The song's title is a play on the phrase, "Love at first sight".

Background
Alongside Paul Tan, local composer, Iskandar Ismail teamed up with him to write, produce and compose the song in early 2012. In an interview with Paul Tan on The Straits Times section, "Digital Life", Paul stated that Iskandar wanted a child to sing for the first verse of the song. 7 year old, Natanya Tan was picked along with Olivia as a duet, making Natanya to date the 2nd youngest NDP theme song singer after Shanice Nathan (who was then 7 when she sung the 2004 theme song, "Home"). On the 12 July 2012, it was officially announced and released in a press conference at Gardens by the Bay. Olivia gave her comment on the song, stating that "Love At First Light is about the determination of Singaporeans in a young nation, (and how they) are trying to build their dreams and goals.".

Description
The video is sponsored by the Defence Science and Technology Agency (also known as DSTA in short) and directed by Aaron Tan. The music video takes viewers through daily life Singapore and reflects on the Singapore identity.

Sypnosis
Like many National Day theme music videos, the short film opens with a sunrise over the heartlands. A drop of dew on a leaf is seen on screen before it drips, this scene then fades to reveal Olivia and Natanya on the observation deck of One Raffles Place. Both of them have their backs facing each other, possibly inspired by the way the mini Merlion and the original Merlion are positioned in the Merlion Park. Natanya, facing the camera, sings the first verse of the song as a pastiche of stills from the Punggol Waterway are shown.

As Olivia starts the second verse, the film cuts to a short story. Featuring young citizens, a Chinese couple, an Indian lady, a male Chinese guitarist and a Malay man. All of them walk past daily life activities and coincidentally meet up at a crossroad. Together as a whole, they proceeded to Changi airport to welcome their family members and friends. As the short story ends and cuts to the duo, Natanya returns to her parents. The latter then turns back to look at Olivia as she ends off the video.