Inside the immersive world of SingaPop! – the exhibition that feels like home

Colourful. Emotional. Proud.

That’s how Dick Lee describes SingaPop!, the landmark exhibition opening August 2 at the ArtScience Museum. As Singapore celebrates its 60th year of independence, SingaPop! offers a reflection of the past six decades of Singapore’s history in a vibrant and immersive celebration of how the country’s everyday culture has shaped the city’s soul today.

Curated by Dick Lee – musician, cultural icon, and long-time chronicler of the Singapore experience – the exhibition leads visitors through six decades of sound, image, and everyday language. Instead of following a linear timeline of milestones, SingaPop! assembles the details that shaped daily life: Singlish catchphrases still in use today, the voices that filled childhood afternoons, the atmosphere of a hawker centre recreated in loving detail.

Interactive stations invite visitors to decode local lingo, explore playful nods to heritage, and vote for national favourites ranging from otters to Olympic gold medallist Joseph Schooling.

The journey begins in SingaWho?, where crashing waves and a chorus of multilingual greetings set the tone. Voices welcome visitors in English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil, leading into a video introduction from Lee himself. It’s followed by a captivating animated map that charts the migratory paths of Singapore’s early communities – traders, labourers, and families from China, India, the Malay Archipelago, and Europe who turned the island into home. Lee’s narration adds clarity and warmth, inviting visitors to understand the island’s foundations not just as history, but as inheritance.

The next chapter, RojakLane, offers a burst of nostalgia and colour. Drawing its name from the local term for a cultural mix, this gallery brings Singapore’s multicultural roots into vivid focus. Traditional motifs, retro signage, and familiar slang like “aiyoyo” and “kaypoh” line the walls. Beyond the surface, streets like Jalan Sultan, Chander Road and Arab Street appear with stories behind their names, revealing how language, community and memory live on in the city’s geography.

At the heart of the exhibition lies RojakLand, its most expansive and theatrical segment. Designed as a walk-through theatre set, this area unfolds across six zones that spotlight how pop culture has evolved over the decades. Visitors can pose with icons at IconSG (among them, Kumar, Phua Chu Kang, Singa the Kindness Lion, and the Merlion) and leave their mark by rubber-stamping favourite cultural moments at a central botanical pavilion.

The NDPop section takes a closer look at the National Day Parade. From its solemn beginnings in 1966 to its current incarnation as a televised spectacle, the display includes rarely seen costumes, goodie bag memorabilia, and a retrospective of how Dick Lee himself helped shape the event as both performer and creative director.

In SingaMakan, tiled tables, retro signage, and cones of kacang puteh conjure a time before hawker culture was recognised by UNESCO, when it was simply where people gathered to eat, talk, and linger. Modelled after Maxwell Market, this interactive zone is perfect for families with kids as it invites visitors to play games at digital stalls, with the chance to name a stall after themselves once they’ve racked up enough points.

As you’d expect from a Dick Lee-led production, music takes the spotlight. SingaSong celebrates the sounds that shaped Singapore, with a larger-than-life jukebox guiding visitors from the stirring notes of Zubir Said’s Semoga Bahagia to the rock-and-roll swagger of Matthew & The Mandarins, the harmonies of The Crescendos, and the powerhouse hits of Kit Chan, JJ Lin, and Stefanie Sun. Contemporary voices such as Yung Raja, Shigga Shay, The Sam Willows, and Shabir Sulthan keep the pulse strong and add fresh energy to a musical legacy that is still unfolding.

All around are bold reminders of local pop history, including Rahimah Rahim’s glittery performance glasses, first Singapore Idol Taufik Batisah’s album covers, and a DIY guitar from rock duo Mel and Jo Ferdinald, among others. These artefacts speak to the grit, flair and originality that have defined the Singapore music scene across generations.

In the Screening Room, clips from beloved television series like Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, Growing Up, Under One Roof, The Unbeatables, and The Return of the Condor Heroes are screened alongside scenes from local film icons such as Mee Pok Man and Money No Enough. Born from heartland humour and shifting dreams, these stories reflect our daily lives. Once dominated by imports, Singapore’s media now speaks in many voices that are authentically and unmistakably our own.

Nowhere is the city’s flair more vividly expressed than in SingaStyle. The room opens with pageant gowns designed by Frederick Lee and Moe Kasim – dramatic, dazzling pieces that call back to a time when national identity was stitched into every sequin and silhouette.

Just across, a wall of Her World magazine covers (including that of Iman Fandi, Chantalle Ng, and Joanne Peh among others) stretches through the decades, tracing the evolution of Singaporean fashion and femininity. Each one is a snapshot of the era’s style, confidence, and changing ideals.

“When I was thinking about how we looked and how we dressed, Her World came to mind immediately,” says Lee. “I grew up with it. It showed me how fashion evolved here, and how Singaporean women came into their own.”

The section also features a digital scrapbook of Lee’s own work in the now-defunct local label Ping Pong – a playful, genre-blurring project that brought pop sensibility to homegrown design. Taken together, SingaStyle reads like a love letter to the fashion, identity, and creative force that have always helped define Singapore’s cultural pulse.

The final galleries turn reflective. In SingaStories, a six-minute video installation whirls through defining cultural moments such as fashion, music, design, and social movements across the decades. 

The exhibition closes with SingaVoices, a powerful tribute to unity. Visitors are invited to relive the 2020 Singapore Virtual Choir performance of Home – the anthem composed by Lee and rearranged by Darius Lim. Over 900 Singaporeans recorded themselves from bedrooms and balconies during the pandemic’s isolating months. The footage, stitched together across time zones, is a reminder that voices can come together even when apart. 

You’ll walk in expecting a good time. But somewhere between the jukebox and the sitcom reruns, you’ll find yourself reminiscing about your old neighbourhood, that National Day song you sang in primary school, and the TV shows your family watched together after dinner. That’s the real magic of SingaPop!. It stirs up old memories and brings your childhood rushing back in the most uniquely Singaporean way.

SingaPop! 60 Years Of Singapore Pop Culture

Where: ArtScience Museum, 6 Bayfront Avenue
When: Aug 2 to Dec 28, 10am to 7pm (Sundays to Thursdays), 10am to 9pm (Fridays and Saturdays)
Admission: From $20. Click here for more details