DHAKA: Today’s Google doodle celebrates a Singaporean musical icon - composer Zubir Said.

The musician best known for composing Singapore’s national anthem was born on July 22, 1907, 107 years ago, in the town of Bukit Tinggi in Minangkabau, Central Sumatra.

Clicking on the doodle will take browsers to a page with search results relating to the famed musician. 

The Google doodle does not appear for country specific sites such as for Russia and Denmark, but it appears on the global Google.com site.

This is not the first time Google has had Singapore-themed doodles. There have been doodles dedicated to Singapore’s National Day and the Singapore Arts Festival. 

Zubir was asked to compose a song by Ong Eng Guan, Singapore’s mayor, for the re-opening of Victoria Theatre in 1958. Singapore achieved self-government in 1959 and the tune Zubir had composed, Majulah Singapura, was chosen as the national anthem.

Writer Muhammad Ariff recalled in an interview with the Straits Times that he helped Zubir tweak the lyrics of the song to reflect the way in which Singapore achieved independence, through peaceful negotiations rather than a bloody battle.

He added, ‘The original lyrics written by Pak Zubir (who was born in Sumatra) were patriotic, sounding as if we had won independence after a great war, like in Indonesia. We didn’t have that. We achieved self-government through roundtable talks’.

‘I had written two how-to books at the time, Let Us Hold A Meeting and Let Us Make Poems. So for the lyrics, I suggested, Let us the people of Singapore progress towards happiness together’.

BDST: 1326 HRS, JUL 22, 2014