EDIT BY : JASON-AMO
A winning voice, a song to match
To make a name for yourself in the highly-competitive Malay song industry, you have to do an Alleycats with a M. Nasir number, notes SHUIB TAIB
GIGI Villa was the darling of the Malaysian music scene more than a quarter of a century ago with her song Che Mek Su.
Che Mek Su took the airwaves by storm in 1982 where it was the favourite of Malay radio listeners, going by the number of requests for it.
The irony of it all was that despite singing Che Mek Su, a very catchy Malay song, Gigi from the Philippines was no Malay lass and neither did she speak the language.
Gigi was not the first non-Malay singer to have had a Malay chart topper.
Sakura Teng was the sensation of the 1960s with her hit numbers that included Rek Ayo Rek and Jali Jali.
Famous for her yodelling, Sakura, from Johor Baru, was multi-lingual, singing in English, Japanese and Mandarin as well.
They were not the only ones.
The long-enduring Alleycats, Roy and Fran, Andre Goh, Helen Velu and the more recent Vince Chong and Jaclyn Victor all have enjoyed success in the Malaysian music industry singing Malay songs.
Which leads us to the question, how does a non-Malay become popular in the Malay music industry?
Perhaps the Alleycats, arguably one of the most successful non-Malay bands, can provide the answer. In fact, it wouldn't be wrong to say that Alleycats is more successful than most Malay bands.
Interestingly, when Alleycats released its first album, it was not in Malay. The band wrote its own songs and released its first English album.
"The album flopped," said lead vocalist Datuk David Arumugam.
"Our record label suggested we sing in Malay. We thought about it and agreed."
David admitted that Alleycats members were no songwriters and "we realised we were better off singing than composing".
And sing they could.
"The record label got us great writers and lyricists like M. Nasir and S. Amin Shahab to compose our songs. They wrote most of our major hits.
"We recorded the songs for our first Malay album and left for Hong Kong where we had a singing engagement."
The Malay album did so much better than the English debut album, prompting the record label to continue releasing albums in Malay.
By its third album, Alleycats was already a household name.
"We were singing in Hong Kong when my father called to inform us that our song, Hingga Akhir Nanti, was a chart-topper.
"I merely replied 'ok' because I had no idea how popular we were."
The Alleycats had contractual obligations to perform abroad but the band continued to record its songs in Hong Kong and sent the master tapes to Malaysia.
"It was only when we came back to Malaysia to do a tour to meet our fans did we realise that we were popular," said David.
Like most established singers, David didn't go into show business to compete with other singers.
"No. We didn't want to. We looked at ourselves as just another band that wanted to make a small contribution to the music scene.
"It is the fans who made us who we are today. It is the fans who urged us to continue to record songs in Malay."
To date, Alleycats has recorded 29 Malay albums!
news contributed by : shuib@nst.com.my
