Rafaee Mahmood Emerges Winner of Eco Music Challenge 2010

Posted on October 24, 2010 by yiqi

Singapore, 23 October 2010 – The National Environment Agency’s (NEA) inaugural Eco Music Challenge 2010 ended with a bang as Rafaee Mahmood emerged the winner among 13 talented finalists with the song “Heaven on Earth”.

The Eco Music Challenge is an online song-writing competition that kick-started in July, to search for talented and passionate individuals to express their appreciation and support for our beautiful environment through music. The finalists underwent three fruitful weeks of training in preparation for the Grand Finale performance at Orchard Central last Saturday, 23 October 2010.

The Eco Music Challenge 2010 underscores NEA’s ongoing efforts to galvanise everyone to play a part for the environment. It also represents the second wave of NEA’s youth environmental engagement programme through music, following the successful launch of the Clean and Green Singapore 2010 Song, “Let’s Make Our World the Most Beautiful Home”.

“We are honored to be a role model” said Shawn, part of the group led by Mr. Mohamad Rafaee B. Mahmood. “We’re definitely more conscious of the environment after participating in this event.”

3rd Runner-up Mr. Muhammad Haramain Bin Osman said that he has always been very aware of environmental concerns, and wishes to spread the message of giving back to the planet through his music. “I minimise the use of air-conditioning at home as much as possible, and I also make it a point not to litter”.

Consolation prize winner and Most Popular Song prize winner (as voted online) Diverse Attentions practice what they preach as well. Miss Ng Imm Khim tries to save electricity at home by turning off all appliances not in use – including modems. She also doesn’t use air-conditioning at all when home. The group also tries to recycle as much as possible, and notes that their school has an ample number of recycling bins all over the campus. Their song focused on daily activities, including observations that they have made over the years.

Of course, the event brought together people from all walks of life and participants generally agree that it was a very positive experience. “We made many friends, it was a very positive exposure”, said Mr. Alexander Wong from Diverse Attentions. Mr. Osman agreed, saying “this was a very positive competition, and was a good educational experience”.

Mr. Andrew Tan, CEO of the National Environment Agency, said “this is a good way to reach our to the younger generation. The top-down heavy approach probably won’t sit well with them. It’s best to get their peers to speak out to them on topics like the environment, and we’re very happy with the how much support we have garnered for the event”.

Overall, the large number of participants, and perhaps more importantly the immense number of supporters who turned up to support their favourite finalist was heartwarming. The Eco Music Challenge 2010 is definitely a breath of fresh air in the approach of spreading messages of environmentalism and sustainability here in Singapore, and Olive Ventures was proud to be a media colleague for the event.