Mandarin Oriental SG turns its penthouse view into a symphony as it reopens

Following a six-month closure to revamp the hotel, Mandarin Oriental Singapore is celebrating its reopening with the launch of its new Royal Marina Bay Penthouse suite with a musical tribute and film that was inspired by the view of the Marina Bay skyline.

In collaboration with creative agency Forsman and Bodenfors (F&B), musicians were tasked to create a symphony to honour the view from the penthouse suite.

Titled The Exceptional Bay Symphony, the track was composed by pianist Jonathan Shin and performed by Orchestra of The Music Makers (OMM).

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“Music has that ineffable quality that can capture the excitement and fervour of a moment, and I wanted to communicate the feeling of seeing this incredible view from the Royal Marina Bay Penthouse for the first time,” said Shin.

“The magnificent skyline of the Marina Bay, with its gleaming towers, multiple domes and peaking silhouettes, created a natural typography, shaping the melodic contour of the music score,” he explained.

The Exceptional Bay Symphony also looks to capture some of the spirit of Singapore while creating a timeless way to mark the hotel’s transformation, added Philipp Knuepfer, general manager of Mandarin Oriental Singapore and area vice president of operations.

To further commemorate the musical milestone, a short film that tells the story of how the composer and orchestra experienced the view and worked together to compose the symphony has been released. The film ends with the song being performed inside the Royal Marina Bay Penthouse itself. 

The campaign will be amplified through Mandarin Oriental Singapore’s social media channels and on Spotify where The Exceptional Bay Symphony soundtrack is live, said a representative from F&B.

“We have seen the view from Mandarin Oriental Singapore evolve and be shaped into this incredibly renowned skyline that visitors from across the world come to witness and enjoy. We are proud to say we now have one of the most enviable penthouse views in Singapore that we believe deserves a symphony of its own,” Knuepfer further adds.

F&B was handed the hotel's global creative duties and tasked with managing all creative communications for the re-launch of the hotel earlier this year. 

It kickstarted its mandate with a cheeky social/PR activation campaign that captivated netizens earlier this year. The campaign saw the hotel's general manager personally writing letters to his peers at leading hotels across Singapore. He asked them to temporarily take care of Mandarin Oriental’s guests while the hotel took a break to rebrand. 

It released short films on its social media accounts as part of the campaign which saw Mandarin Oriental's general manager penning and reading out the letters while its lead bellboy hand delivered copies of the letters across Singapore.

Hotels such as Raffles Hotel, Shangri-La and Fullerton Hotel went out of their way to respond to these letters, creating a hilarious and heartwarming chain of events that netizens enjoyed thoroughly earlier this year.

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