Behind NDP’s booming voice: Radio DJ Joanna François on landing one of Singapore’s biggest gigs

When Joanna François first found out she had been chosen to announce this year’s National Day Parade (NDP), she was so overwhelmed that she burst into tears.

“This is a huge honour and I’m extremely grateful,” the 32-year-old Power 98 radio presenter told Stomp.

François grew up watching the NDP and has spent the past nine years as a radio presenter with Power 98, where she has also hosted live audio simulcasts of the annual parade.

This year, she will make her debut as an NDP co-announcer alongside veteran stadium announcer William Xavier, better known as Mr X.

She is also the only female announcer at this year’s parade.

‘A woman can be a strong voice’

François said she was “really happy” to have been entrusted with the role and saw it as an opportunity to showcase a different kind of female voice.

“I think it’s important that a woman’s voice is present and I’m really glad that I got to show that behind the scenes — to show how a woman can be a strong voice, not one that’s always gentle,” she said.

Announcing to a 55,000-seat stadium requires considerably more projection and energy than everyday speaking, and François said there were likely other women capable of doing the same.

“We don’t often get to hear such voices, but I’m sure there are other women out there who have it as well,” she said.

Wanting to give people a glimpse of what goes into the role, François has also been documenting her NDP journey on TikTok and Instagram, with some of her videos garnering more than 300,000 views.

Years of training behind that stadium voice

François’ preparation for the role draws on years of vocal experience.

Besides her work in radio, she has been singing since the age of 10 and has undergone vocal training and English lessons, where mentors taught her fundamentals such as enunciation and diction.

For NDP, she went even further, watching footage of past parades dating back to 1998 to study how the event had been announced over the years.

She also turned to YouTube tutorials and other online resources to learn techniques such as speaking at a lower pitch to achieve the powerful “stadium voice” required.

Although François has covered previous NDPs on radio, she found being part of the “rigorous” production more demanding than expected.

“I have to be confident every time I’m in front of the microphone because there are a lot of people listening, and you owe every show a good performance,” she said.

Consistency, she added, is key.

The hardest part isn’t following the script

François has to stick to the NDP script word for word and, to her relief, has not made any major mistakes so far.

However, there have been occasions when she “fumbled” or wished she had delivered certain words better but she said the bigger challenge is making each announcement feel right.

Dive in

“It’s about how you want to make people feel,” she said.

Different parts of the show call for different approaches: leading tens of thousands of spectators in reciting the pledge, for example, demands a different tone from rallying the crowd to cheer.

François said she has continued refining her delivery throughout rehearsals based on feedback from the team.

“I’ve been very privileged to have been around people who allow me to make mistakes,” she said.

For a first-time NDP announcer, each rehearsal has been an opportunity to learn and improve.

Juggling radio, studies and NDP rehearsals

Since rehearsals began, François has been spending every Friday and Saturday at the National Stadium while continuing her full-time radio career and pusuing a master’s degree in communication and media studies at the National University of Singapore.

Despite the demanding schedule, she said she was never nervous about taking on the NDP role.

Instead, the bigger challenge was containing her excitement.

“I was so excited. I had to control myself from being too excited,” she chuckled.

The long hours behind the scenes have also given her a greater appreciation of the hundreds of people who work tirelessly to bring the annual spectacle to life.

“I’ve always been impressed by the teamwork and how everything comes together in the end, from the creative minds down to the individual performer and how their enthusiasm fills the whole stadium,” she said.

“They’ve put together something so beautiful.”

François also takes extra care of her voice during the gruelling rehearsal schedule, drinking about two litres of water before each show, taking regular sips throughout and doing vocal warm-ups such as lip trills.

‘I hope they don’t forget me’

For François, all the preparation is ultimately about doing something she loves.

“Using my voice makes me happy, and it seems to make other people happy,” she said. “I believe in loving what you do.”

Having grown up watching NDP, she never imagined that she would one day become one of the voices guiding Singaporeans through the nation’s biggest celebration.

“It is an honour to be part of anybody’s memory and to be a woman’s voice here in the stadium,” she said.

“I hope (the attendees) don’t forget me.”

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