She’s almost gone.
The lady who announces which station you are approaching.
Her voice is commanding yet soft.
Never intrusive.
Informing passengers when they should prepare to alight.
Warning them not to get caught in the gap between train and platform.
SMRT, in all their wisdom, have decided to update the announcements.
In her place, a younger voice.
One that has strange enunciation, intonation and rhythm.
One that grates the ears.
An announcer that makes me want to reach into the speakers and yank the wires out.
There have been online complaints. (Ask Google.)
If SMRT replied, I missed it.
Thankfully, this new girl hasn’t ousted the dame completely.
She can still be heard… for now.
Just in case they decide to do away with her entirely, I recorded a few of the announcements.
Here they are for your downloading and listening pleasure.
(.wav files, all less than 300 kb)
- Doors closing
- Please mind the platform gap
- Bishan
- Next stop, Bishan
- Braddell
- Next stop, Braddell
- Toa Payoh
- Next stop, Toa Payoh
- Orchard (long)
- Orchard
- Somerset
UPDATE Alvinology posted a video clip, a deleted scene from Tan Pin Pin’s excellent documentary, Singapore Ga Ga. If you’ve wondered what the old voice of MRT looks like, take a look.
But if you want the voice to remain faceless, watch the documentary instead. (Actually, watch it in any case. It’s fantastic!) Tan Pin Pin interviews Juanita in the film, but you only hear her voice either on a black screen or over scenes on the MRT.
You can get Singapore Ga Ga at OBJECTIFSfilms. I’ve also recently seen it on sale at Kinokuniya at Takashimaya.
Any idea who’s the lady announcer? Should have her do a few more announcements like these before she goes.
My goodness, I googled to find those spoof announcements. She really should do something like that!
Her name might have been featured in the credits of Tan Pin Pin’s Singapore GaGa.
Pin Pin interviewed her about the announcements, and she said that she’d like to re-do some of them because she wasn’t happy with the results! Ah… a perfectionist, bless her. =)
I wonder what she makes of the new announcements.
Anyway, the reason I’m not sure her name appears in the credits is because she never appeared in the film! When the interview starts, the screen is blank. She talks about the announcements and how she did certain stations. Then MRT scenes come on as she continues to talk.
The audience never gets to see the Voice of MRT.
Reinstate the Voice of MRT and the Voice of the Tube!
Hi,
I will miss her dearly. Like the rainbow coloured flats that used to dominate Outram Park that voice on the SMRT is Singapore for me.
I have fallen in love with that voice. I never wish to see her. I have visions of a classic beauty with that lilting voice, standing idly by the driver in a place where I can never venture, leaning against the door, the curves of her reposed body accentuating her femininity, in a figure hugging cheong-sam, split seductively up the side, a microphone held gracefully in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. Each station is like a seductive step, as she guides me carefully and lovingly, like my first love, towards the climax that we reach at the destination.
I have a portion of that passion captured here…
http://tinyurl.com/yu3ky8
For me she is so real, not like the disembodied voice on the North-East line where I know there is no place for a woman to hide, out of reach behind a door.
John
John
Zalila and i would always mocked the newer announcer’s voice when they play the “Going to Johor Bahru? Take the SMRT bus services from…”
Thanks for capturing the audio clips.
I swear if I didn’t know you better, I’d think you’re obsessing about it.
Hahah…. alright… I don’t take MRT that often. Hopefully there’s a change over
@ John Now you’ve gone and put a picture in my mind. Lucky train driver…
@ Ee You’re most welcome! Used my Nokia E51 to record. Pleasantly surprised at the quality. Thankfully, the train wasn’t filled with noisy passengers that day. Feel free to link to the clips.
Heheh. I mock the new announcer’s versions of Bishan (very Ah Lian), Braddell (Bleh-del), Toa Payoh (Toh Payoh), Novena (NoVEEna), Somerset (Somer-very slight pause, then wrong emphasis on-SET)…
The list goes on.
@ Q Heh, didn’t you know, I’m quite obssessive…
Seriously though, I’m not the only one who thinks the new announcements are atrocious.
I am quite sound-sensitive, so I can’t tune the announcements out. They’re meant to be heard, after all. I can even hear them if I’m plugged in to my music or PSP.
eh….I liked it that you recorded the ‘old’ announcements….maybe I should do the same for the London tube eh? The announcements on the tube are spoken in complete sentences, for example, “The next station is Waterloo.”
Meanwhile in the London Tube…
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2008/04/calling_all_londoners.php