Majulah Singapura
national anthem of Singapore
"Majulah Singapura" is the national anthem and motto of Singapore. Composed by Zubir Said in 1958 as a theme song for official functions of the City Council of Singapore, the song was selected in 1959 as the nation's anthem when it attained self-government. Upon full independence in 1965, "Majulah Singapura" was formally adopted as Singapore's national anthem. By law, the anthem must be sung with Malay lyrics, but there are authorised translations of the lyrics of the anthem in Singapore's three other official languages: English, Mandarin and Tamil.
The national anthem is regularly performed or sung in schools and armed forces camps at ceremonies held at the beginning and/or the end of each day, during which the national flag is also raised and lowered and the national pledge is taken. Singaporeans are especially encouraged to sing the national anthem on occasions of national celebration or national significance such as at the National Day Parade (NDP), National Day Concert (NDC), at National Day observance ceremonies conducted by educational institutions and government departments and at sporting events at which Singapore teams are participating.
Originally composed in the key of G major, the national anthem was officially relaunched in 2001 in the lower key of F major as it was said to allow for a "grander and more inspiring arrangement".
History
The composition of "Majulah Singapura" occurred during a push for independence from the United Kingdom. Before its creation, the Colony of Singapore's national anthem was "God Save the King (or Queen)". In 1951, the colony was conferred city status by a royal charter from King George VI. In July 1958, Ong Pang Boon, the Deputy Mayor of the City Council of Singapore, approached Zubir Said, a score arranger and songwriter with Cathay-Keris Film Productions, to compose a theme song for the Council's official functions to be titled "Majulah Singapura" (Malay for "Onward Singapore").
The public source identifies “Majulah Singapura” as national anthem of Singapore. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Majulah, Singapura and national.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q209973. The first chronological checks are 1958, 1959, 1965 and 2001.
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This entry incorporates text from “Majulah Singapura” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.