Penangnites came for PSY, not Najib, says Susan Loone
About 30,000 braved the sweltering heat to see top South Korean pop star Psy gallop on stage to perform his world famous ‘Oppa Gangnam style’ at the BN’s open house in Penang today.
They were with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak at Penang state BN Chinese New Year (CNY) open house held at the Han Chiang College field.The numbers were short of the expected 80,000, although a police officer on his rounds said he estimated the crowd as about 50,000.
As Najib was entering the venue, the emcee shouted “Are you ready for Psy! Are you ready for Oppa Gangnam style!” before welcoming the PM and his entourage of BN leaders.
Despite the emcee asking the people to give PM a rousing welcome, the crowd was mostly subdued, many fanning themselves under the burning February heat.
Puteri UMNO and BN supporters were seen waving ‘I love PM!’ banners but they were in the minority. Nibong Tebal MIC chief R Rajagopal said he had arranged 10 buses to the event.
When asked why he was not shouting “I love PM!”, the 62-year-old retiree replied “It’s okay, I’ve done a lot of that already”.
Attired in red traditional Chinese shirts, Najib and wife Rosmah Mansor together with children Ashman and Nooryana Najwa, arrived at 10.48am and were greeted by a lion dance troupe and a Chingay procession. He was accompanied by state BN leaders Teng Chang Yeow, Teng Hock Nan, and Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen as well as former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Yellow, green and red
As of 9.30am when the programme started, traffic was smooth and hundreds of police and volunteers corps were stationed at various points to direct traffic and manage the crowd.
When met on the field, Penang Plice chief Abdul Rahim Hanafi estimated the crowd to be about 50,000 to 60,000. “We deployed about 1,200 personnel today and it is a peaceful gathering,” he told Malaysiakini.
Many were seen in yellow, green and red. There were also UMNO members wearing red as it is their party’s colour. There were also those wearing the T-shirts of NGO BERSIH.
One, Alex Tan, 27 (right) from Klang, said he came to see Psy and to support Pakatan.
“I arrived as early as 7am with five others,” he added.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had earlier advised the public to wear yellow in a show of support for BERSIH, green for environment and red for change, but his suggestion didn’t go down well with BN leaders.
Initially, participants were not allowed to enter the field without special passes of ‘I love PM’ stickers and many were at a loss as to where to get them.
This is the first time BN had organised its CNY function in the open, at the Han Chiang field which has begun to be a symbol of Pakatan Rakyat.
Pakatan, with DAP leading, held a gathering here before the 2008 general election where thousands turned up to show their support, leading the opposition coalition to victory on March 8 that year.
Before Najib and his entourage arrived, the crowd was entertained by several performances from an orchestra. Traditional dances and a dragon and phoenix dance were also featured.
In his speech, state BN chief Teng Chang Yeow said BN had brought the best in the world and Asia through 1Malaysia initiator of Najib.”We want to bring the best to Penang,” he added.
Goodies for those with ‘pink papers’
At the end of event, the crowd lined up at the Han Chiang stadium venue for angpow, goodie bags and boxes of oranges. A senior citizen at the scene said that only people with special ‘pink papers’ were given the handouts by a group in ‘Kelab Penyokong BN’ attire.
“I managed to get three packets of angpow, a bag with packets of rice and packets of other edible stuff and a box of oranges,” he told Malaysiakini, telling this reporter to line up and get the goodies before they ran out.
Despite the global sensation created by South Korean artist Psy, PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik has been oblivious about it and even mistook Psy for a woman.
Even Psy is not exempted from PAS’ Modesty Rules
According to a Sin Chew Daily report yesterday, he urged Psy to tutup aurat (protect modesty) when told by media that BN has invited a South Korean celebrity to perform at its Chinese New Year open house on February 11.
When told that Psy is a man, Nik Aziz was concerned whether the content of the songs is positive for the youngsters.The 82-year-old politician also asked reporters, “In what language does he sing?” and after being told that it is Korean, he was perplexed on why people listen to songs in a language that they do not understand.
The Kelantan Menteri Besar commented that it is extravagant to hire foreign performers as the resources can be used to develop local artists.
“Don’t we have many local singers? Why don’t we hire local youths? Isn’t is better to spend the money on our youths?” he asked.
Psy, or Park Jae-sang, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, rapper, dancer and record producer, who gained global fame after his hit single ‘Gangnam Style’ featuring his horse-riding dance became a worldwide sensation.
It is estimated that the cost to invite him to perform just the hit song would easily hit RM1 million. However, BN leaders have clarified that Psy’s performance will not cost BN or the government a single sen as it will be sponsored by private companies, but the Opposition and many people remained unconvinced.
Your Weekend Entertainment: With P. Ramlee and Saloma
Dr Kamsiah and I think that for this weekend we should play songs by Malaysia’s incomparable singing couple Tan Sri P. Ramlee and Puan Sri Saloma.
Enough has been said and written about both Penang born Ramlee and his special lady from Singapore that we both have nothing new to add except to say that there is yet another couple from the entertainment industry in Malaysia who can replace them. Duets are, in fact, not the same without them.
Listen to their voices and may these tunes bring back memories of what used to be as backdrop to what is happening now. There is a strong rumour that GE-13 will be held soon and before the heavy campaign and media blitz begin, we must enjoy the songs of Ramlee and Saloma.–Dr. Kamsiah and Din Merican
Your Entertainment for the Weekend–Let’s Bring on the Ladies of Song
The strange thing about music is that there are days when it sounds flat and uninspiring. Intervening events can affect one’s mood and how one feels about and react to music depends on one’s state of mind. Dr. Kamsiah and I have not been providing you with the beautiful sounds of instruments and vocal chords over several weeks. The mood was not right because of our politics that is increasingly desperate, dirty, hate rendering, and divisive.
But for this weekend, we decided that it is about time to bring back memories of what used to be in the belief that we have now the opportunity to bring about change in our country’s political landscape. Bring back timeless values and work towards a great future for all of us and generations to come, where we can feel safe in our homes, at work, on our streets and in our shopping malls.
For this weekend, we bring to you some of finest ladies of song. Our choices are Dame Vera Lynn, Doris Day, Patti Page, Joni James, Patsy Cline, Peggie Lee and Natalie Cole. Please feel their share your choices with us. Let us together have a refreshing weekend.–Dr. Kamsiah and Din Merican
Top-selling US female singer of the 1950s also hit No 1 with (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window
Patti Page, the “singing rage” who stumbled across Tennessee Waltz and made it one of the bestselling recordings in the US ever, has died. She was 85.
Page died on New Year’s Day in Encinitas, California, according to her publicist, Schatzi Hageman.
Page was the top-selling female singer of the 1950s, selling more than 100m records. Her most enduring songs remain Tennessee Waltz, one of two songs the state of Tennessee has officially adopted, and (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window.
“I was a kid from Oklahoma who never wanted to be a singer, but was told I could sing,” she said in a 1999 interview. “And things snowballed.”
She created a distinctive sound for the music industry in 1947 by overdubbing her own voice when she didn’t have enough money to hire backing singers for the single Confess. She went on to score 15 gold records and three gold albums with 24 songs in the top 10, including four that reached No 1.
She was popular in pop music and country and became the first singer to have television programmes on all three major networks, including The Patti Page Show on ABC.
In 1999, after 51 years of performing, Page won her first Grammy for traditional pop vocal performance for Live at Carnegie Hall – the 50th Anniversary Concert. Page was planning to attend a special ceremony on 9 February in Los Angeles where she was to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy.
Page was born 8 November 1927, as Clara Ann Fowler in Claremore, Oklahoma. The family of three boys and eight girls moved a few years later to nearby Tulsa.
She got her stage name working at radio station KTUL, which had a 15-minute programme sponsored by Page Milk Co. The regular Patti Page singer left and was replaced by Page, who took the name with her on the road to stardom.
Page was discovered by Jack Rael, a band leader who was making a stop in Tulsa in 1946 when he heard Page sing on the radio. Rael called KTUL asking where the broadcast originated. When told that Page was a local singer, he quickly arranged an interview and abandoned his career to be Page’s manager. A year later she signed a contract with Mercury Records and began appearing in major nightclubs in the Chicago area.
Her first major hit was With My Eyes Wide Open I’m Dreaming, but she got noticed a few years earlier in 1947 with Confess.
The arrangement of Confess required an echo effect from backup singers, but since Rael and Page were footing the bill, they decided that Page would do all the voices by overdubbing.
“We would have to pay for all those expenses because Mercury felt that I had not as yet received any national recognition that would merit Mercury paying for it,” Page once said.
Confess was enough of a hit that Rael convinced Mercury to let Page try full four-part harmony by overdubbing. The result was With My Eyes Wide Open I’m Dreaming. The label read, “Vocals by Patti Page, Patti Page, Patti Page and Patti Page.”
Tennessee Waltz, her biggest selling record, was a fluke. Because Christmas was approaching, Mercury Records wanted Page to record Boogie Woogie Santa Claus in 1950. Page and Rael got hold of Tennessee Waltz, convinced that a pop artist could make a smash hit out of it. Mercury agreed to put it on the B-side of the Christmas song.
“Mercury wanted to concentrate on a Christmas song and they didn’t want anything with much merit on the flip side,” Page said. “They didn’t want any disc jockeys to turn the Christmas record over. The title of that great Christmas song was Boogie Woogie Santa Claus, and no one ever heard of it.”
Tennessee Waltz became the first pop tune that crossed over into a big country hit. It was on the charts for 30 weeks, 12 of them in the top 10, and eventually sold more than 10m copies, behind only White Christmas by Bing Crosby at the time.
She went on to record such hits as Doggie in the Window, Mockin’ Bird Hill, Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, and Allegheny Moon. She teamed up with George Jones on You Never Looked That Good When You Were Mine.
In films, Page co-starred with Burt Lancaster in his Oscar-winning appearance of Elmer Gantry, and she appeared in Dondi with David Janssen and in Boy’s Night Out with James Garner and Kim Novak.
She also starred on stage in the musical comedy Annie Get Your Gun.She received the Pioneer award from the Academy of Country Music in 1980 and was also elected to CMA’s board of directors. She also is a member of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
In her later career, Page and husband Jerry Filiciotto spent half the year living in California and half in an 1830s farmhouse in New Hampshire. He died in 2009.Page is survived by her son, Daniel O’Curran, daughter Kathleen Ginn, and sister Peggy Layton.
An air of festivity surrounded the official launch of the DAP’s catchy multi-language ‘Ubah-Rocket style’ video at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall last night.
The individual who caught the most attention was ‘Datin B’, who dressed up as Malaysia’s ‘First Lady’ aka Rosmah Mansor, the Premier’s wife.
Datin B called herself ‘momma’ in a sketch depicting Rosmah’s allegedly expensive and extravagant taste in clothes and handbags, among other items. Many present took photographs with Datin B, who featured prominently in the four-minute Ubah video.
DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua, who produced the video, said the DAP got started after secretary-general Lim Guan Eng suggested last September that a video be made based on the ‘Oppa Gangnam’ style popularised by South Korean rapper Psy.
“Lim asked whether I had watched the video as it was very ‘hot’. It was a month after Psy launched the video and it had registered 178 million hits … (it) has become a worldwide phenomenon,” Pua said.
“There was difficulty in making the video as the authorities, namely the highway authorities and light rail transit (LRT) officials, stopped the shooting.”
Shooting was stopped twice along the Linkaran Trans Kota Sdn Bhd (Litrak) highway, while security personnel stopped shooting at malls in the vicinity of Jalan Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur.
“I had to ask assistant producer (Serdang MP) Teo Nie Ching to negotiate with security (personnel) to shoot the scene (in a mall), assuring them there was nothing negative,” Pua said.
In recording the ‘Datin B’ footage at a LRT station, the crew had to move between the Kelana Jaya and Damai stations because security personnel became suspicious.
“Nevertheless, we managed to finish shooting the video and produce it in the various languages,” he said in thanking the crew for their efforts.
At the launch, several bloopers were screened, including one depicting Litrak highway officials laughing in the background as a scene was being recorded.Another showed ‘Datin B’ pretending to fall several times at a LRT station.
Campaign via social media
Pua urged DAP supporters to share the video clip with friends and colleagues as part of the party’s campaign election material. “Please ‘like’ it on Facebook, and share in on Facebook, Youtube or Twitter to drive the message across to the people,” he added.
The video was first shown at the DAP national congress last month. Also present at the official launch BERSIH co-chairperson A Samad Said.
Let us all first thank God that the Mayan End of the World prediction did not materialise. We think we are still around in the physical sense. Are we? I think we have become virtual people linked together via the Internet and advances in telephony. We can debate that next year (2013).
It has come again to this time of the year when our Christian brothers and sisters and holiday makers the world over will be celebrating Christmas. It is a time of joy and peace in our troubled world, and of goodwill among men, a time we put our differences aside and celebrate our rich diversity, and also a time we leave our egos (and some of us have over inflated egos no doubt) on the sidelines. In that spirit, Dr Kamsiah and I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry ‘Xmas and May God Be with you as you celebrate this very special day.
Six days later on December 31 evening, Dr Kamsiah and I–and you all too- will be ushering in the New Year. Yes, 2013. We will be joining our friends at the Royal Selangor Golf Club for a dinner and some wholesome entertainment. For us in Malaysia, 2013 will be an Election Year. Politicians will be vying for our votes with lots of promises and goodies. There will be plenty of stories and exposes; that is normal in adversarial politics, but let us keep our cool and vote wisely. Our votes will count as we Malaysians will decide the government we want. We deserve what we will be getting.
Dr Kamsiah and I wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year and thank you all for the support you have given this blog throughout 2012. Your comments are welcome, if you write with consideration and respect for differences. The delete button will be used sparingly, and that is a promise. Please play by the rules and you will be fine. I want your comments as feedback to the next Government on what their policies and programmes should be. It must know that we have a right to demand good governance.
Before we get too worked up and become serious, let us listen to some old and popular Xmas tunes and relax.–Dr. Kamsiah and Din Merican
Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitarist and composer whose collaborations with Western classical musicians as well as rock stars helped foster a worldwide appreciation of India’s traditional music, died Tuesday in a hospital near his home in Southern California. He was 92.
Mr. Shankar had suffered from upper respiratory and heart ailments in the last year and underwent heart-valve replacement surgery last Thursday, his family said in a statement.
Mr. Shankar, a soft-spoken, eloquent man whose performance style embodied a virtuosity that transcended musical languages, was trained in both Eastern and Western musical traditions. Although Western audiences were often mystified by the odd sounds and shapes of the instruments when he began touring in Europe and the United States in the early 1950s, Mr. Shankar and his ensemble gradually built a large following for Indian music.
His instrument, the sitar, has a small rounded body and a long neck with a resonating gourd at the top. It has 6 melody strings and 25 sympathetic strings (which are not played but resonate freely as the other strings are plucked). Sitar performances are partly improvised, but the improvisations are strictly governed by a repertory of ragas (melodic patterns representing specific moods, times of day, seasons of the year or events) and talas (intricate rhythmic patterns) that date back several millenniums.
Mr. Shankar’s quest for a Western audience was helped in 1965 when George Harrison of the Beatles began to study the sitar with him. But Harrison was not the first Western musician to seek Mr. Shankar’s guidance. In 1952 he met and began performing with the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, with whom he made three recordings for EMI: “West Meets East” (1967), “West Meets East, Vol. 2” (1968) and “Improvisations: East Meets West” (1977).
Mr. Shankar loved to mix the music of different cultures. He collaborated with the flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and the jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane, who had become fascinated with Indian music and philosophy in the early ’60s. Coltrane met with Mr. Shankar several times from 1964 to 1966 to learn the basics of ragas, talas and Indian improvisation techniques. Coltrane named his son Ravi after Mr. Shankar.
Mr. Shankar also collaborated with several prominent Japanese musicians — Hozan Yamamoto, a shakuhachi player, and Susumu Miyashita, a koto player — on “East Greets East,” a 1978 recording in which Indian and Japanese influences intermingled.
In addition to his frequent tours as a sitarist Mr. Shankar was a prolific composer of film music (including the score for Richard Attenborough’s “Gandhi” in 1982), ballets, electronic works and concertos for sitar and Western orchestras.
In 1988 his seven-movement “Swar Milan” was performed at the Palace of Culture in Moscow by an ensemble of 140 musicians, including the Russian Folk Ensemble, members of the Moscow Philharmonic and the Ministry of Culture Chorus, as well as Mr. Shankar’s own group of Indian musicians. And in 1990 he collaborated with the Minimalist composer Philip Glass — who had worked as his assistant on the film score for “Chappaqua” in the late 1960s — on “Passages,” a recording of works he and Mr. Glass composed for each other.
“I have always had an instinct for doing new things,” Mr. Shankar said in 1985. “Call it good or bad, I love to experiment.”
Ravi Shankar, whose formal name was Robindra Shankar Chowdhury, was born on April 7, 1920, in Varanasi, India, to a family of musicians and dancers. His older brother Uday directed a touring Indian dance troupe, which Ravi joined when he was 10. Within five years he had become one of the company’s star soloists. He also discovered that he had a facility with the sitar and the sarod, another stringed instrument, as well as the flute and the tabla, an Indian drum.
The idea of helping Western listeners appreciate the intricacies of Indian music occurred to him during his years as a dancer.
“My brother had a house in Paris,” he recalled in one interview. “To it came many Western classical musicians. These musicians all made the same point: ‘Indian music,’ they said, ‘is beautiful when we hear it with the dancers. On its own it is repetitious and monotonous.’ They talked as if Indian music were an ethnic phenomenon, just another museum piece. Even when they were being decent and kind, I was furious. And at the same time sorry for them. Indian music was so rich and varied and deep. These people hadn’t penetrated even the outer skin.”
Mr. Shankar soon found, however, that as a young, self-taught musician he had not penetrated very deeply either. In 1936 an Indian court musician, Allaudin Khan, joined the company for a year and set Mr. Shankar on a different path.
“He was the first person frank enough to tell me that I had talent but that I was wasting it — that I was going nowhere, doing nothing,” Mr. Shankar said. “Everyone else was full of praise, but he killed my ego and made me humble.”
When Mr. Shankar asked Mr. Khan to teach him, he was told that he could learn to play the sitar only after he decided to give up the worldly life he was leading and devote himself fully to his studies. In 1937 Mr. Shankar gave up dancing, sold his Western clothes and returned to India to become a musician.
“I surrendered myself to the old way,” he said, “and let me tell you, it was difficult for me to go from places like New York and Chicago to a remote village full of mosquitoes, bedbugs, lizards and snakes, with frogs croaking all night. I was just like a Western young man. But I overcame all that.”
After studying with Mr. Khan for seven years and marrying his daughter, Annapurna, also a sitarist, Mr. Shankar began his performing career in India. In the 1940s he started bringing Eastern and Western currents together in ballet scores and incidental music for films, including Satyajit Ray’s “Apu” trilogy, in the late 1950s. In 1949 he was appointed music director of All India Radio. There he formed the National Orchestra, an ensemble of both Indian and Western classical instruments.
Mr. Shankar became increasingly interested in touring outside India in the early 1950s. His appetite was whetted further when he undertook a tour of the Soviet Union in 1954 and was invited to perform in London and New York. But it wasn’t until 1956 that he began spending long periods outside India. That year, he left his position at All India Radio and undertook tours of Europe and the United States.
Through his recitals, as well as recordings on the Columbia and World Pacific labels, Mr. Shankar built a Western following for the sitar. Interest in the instrument exploded in 1965, when Harrison encountered a sitar on the set of “Help!,” the Beatles’ second film. Intrigued by the instrument’s complexity, he learned its rudiments and used it on a Beatles recording, “Norwegian Wood,” that year.
The Rolling Stones, the Animals, the Byrds and other rock groups quickly followed suit, although few went as far as Harrison, who recorded several songs that appeared on Beatles albums with Indian musicians, rather than his band mates. By the summer of 1967 the sitar was in vogue in the rock world.
At first Mr. Shankar reveled in the attention his connection with popular culture brought him, and he performed for huge audiences at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 and at Woodstock in 1969. He also performed, with the tabla virtuoso Alla Rakha and the sarod player Ali Akbar Khan, at an all-star concert at Madison Square Garden in 1971 that Harrison organized to help Mr. Shankar raise money for the victims of political upheaval in Bangladesh.
Mr. Shankar eventually came to regard his participation in rock festivals as a mistake. Looking back at that era, he said he deplored the use of his music, which has its roots in an ancient spiritual tradition, as a backdrop for drug taking.
“On one hand,” he said in a 1985 interview, “I was lucky to have been there at a time when society was changing. And although much of the hippie movement seemed superficial, there was also a lot of sincerity in it, and a tremendous amount of energy. What disturbed me, though, was the use of drugs and the mixing of drugs with our music. And I was hurt by the idea that our classical music was treated as a fad — something that is very common in Western countries.
“People would come to my concerts stoned, and they would sit in the audience drinking Coke and making out with their girlfriends. I found it very humiliating, and there were many times I picked up my sitar and walked away.
“I tried to make the young people sit properly and listen. I assured them that if they wanted to be high, I could make them feel high through the music, without drugs, if they’d only give me a chance. It was a terrible experience at the time.
“But you know, many of those young people still come to our concerts. They have matured, they are free from drugs, and they have a better attitude. And this makes me happy that I went through all that. I have come full circle.”
He maintained his friendship and working relationship with Harrison, who released a recording of a 1972 performance by Mr. Shankar on the Beatles’ Apple label and produced a recording in a more popular style — short, bright-edged songs with vocals, rather than expansive instrumental improvisations — by Shankar Family and Friends (who included Harrison, listed in the credits as Hari Georgeson, as well as the bassist Klaus Voorman, the pianist Nicky Hopkins, the organist Billy Preston and the flutist Tom Scott) on his own Dark Horse label in 1974. That year, Mr. Shankar toured the United States with Harrison. They last worked together in 1997, when Harrison produced Mr. Shankar’s “Chants of India” CD for EMI.
Mr. Shankar continued to be regarded in the West as the most eloquent spokesman for his country’s music. But his popularity abroad and his experiments with Western musical sounds and styles drew criticism among traditionalists in India.
“In India I have been called a destroyer,” he said in 1981. “But that is only because they mixed my identity as a performer and as a composer. As a composer I have tried everything, even electronic music and avant-garde. But as a performer I am, believe me, getting more classical and more orthodox, jealously protecting the heritage that I have learned.”
Mr. Shankar was a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, from 1986 to 1992.He taught extensively in the United States. In the late 1960s he founded a school of Indian music, the Kinnara School, in Los Angeles. He was a visiting professor at City College in New York in 1967. Recordings of his City College lectures were the basis for “Learning Indian Music,” a set of cassettes that explain the basics of the style. Mr. Shankar was the subject of a documentary film, “Raga: A Journey Into the Soul of India,” in 1971, and published two autobiographies: “My Life, My Music” in 1969 and “Raga Mala” in 1997.
In 2010 the Ravi Shankar Foundation started a record label using a variation of the name of his collaboration with Menuhin, East Meets West Music, which began by reissuing some of his historic recordings and films, including “Raga.” Mr. Shankar’s first marriage, to Annapurna Devi, ended in the late 1960s. They had a son, Shubhendra Shankar, who died in 1992. He also had long relationships with Kamala Shastri, a dancer; and Sue Jones, a concert producer, with whom he had a daughter, the singer Norah Jones, in 1979; as well as Sukanya Rajan, whom he married in 1989. Mr. Shankar and Ms. Rajan had a daughter, the sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar, in 1981. He is survived by his wife and two daughters as well as three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
“If I’ve accomplished anything in these past 30 years,” Mr. Shankar said in the 1985 interview, “it’s that I have been able to open the door to our music in the West. I enjoy seeing other Indian musicians — old and young — coming to Europe and America and having some success. I’m happy to have contributed to that.
“Of course now there is a whole new generation out there, so we have to start all over again. To a degree their interest in India has been kindled by ‘Gandhi,’ ‘Passage to India’ and ‘The Jewel in the Crown.’ What we have to do now is convey to them an awareness of the richness and diversity of our culture.”
For this weekend’s entertainment, we have chosen to remember Broery Marantika, Indonesia’s crooner par excellence.
Broery is arguably the best of his generation, and none can come near him. He has a unique voice and great persona making him the most popular entertainer both in Indonesia and Malaysia and beyond. He sings with passion. Who will succeed him? We think Harvey Malaiholo is a possibility.
Please listen to Broery and Harvey and relax. Set aside our cares and our political banter and take a well deserved break.–Dr. Kamsiah and Din Merican
Thanks, Hamid, for reminding us to play some kerongcong and related Malay asli songs for this weekend. Dr. Kamsiah and I hesitated at first because we have not heard from our New Yorker Bean, who was caught in Hurricane Sandy. Alas, we have had confirmation from him of his safety. There is, therefore, now cause to rejoice.
Definasi “perempuan melayu terakhir” disini adalah seorang perempuan melayu yang penuh dengan sifat kemelayuan, ayu dan bersopan santun dan lemah lembut…
We dedicate this selection to Bean and his family, and wish them and New Yorkers all the best as they brace themselves for the challenges ahead as they deal with the devastation wrought by Sandy. Like they did in New Orleans after Katrina, America will recover and be strong again. They have the will to overcome adversity and profit from it. That’s America.
We have chosen to play some fine songs by singers of a bygone era. We feature for the time the voices of Din’s cousin, Dato’ Ahmad Daud, and his friend, Zain Azman, the Nat King Cole of Kuala Lumpur in mellow tone. We also bring back Rafaeh Buang, Hamzah Dolmat, Katrina Dahari and Wan Salman (Din’s favorite) singing his hit tune, Kelohan Dara. Let us relax and remember the good old days. –Dr. Kamsiah and Din Merican
Aidil Adha is behind us. Enough of ketupat, lemang, asam laksa, rendang and other dishes that come when Muslims in Malaysia welcome this occasion and with one stroke, we have also been able to reduce the population of cows in our country, while Shahrizat and her family are battling in our court over the National Feedlot scandal. So let us put all that behind us momentarily as we welcome the Sabbath.
Hari Raya Haji 2012
For this purpose, we present Ronan Keating and Boyzone, Air Supply and the Stylistics. We hope you like what we have chosen for you this weekend.–Dr. Kamsiah and Din Merican
For this weekend, we feature some unforgettable oldies, songs of yester years, in the belief that you will enjoy listening to them and will reflect on those great years of your lives.
Featured this weekend are Tommy Edwards, the unforgettable Nat King Cole, and Sir Cliff Richard (left). Sir Cliff was very popular during Din’s time at the University of Malaya. Din remembers attending the concert at Merdeka Stadium by Cliff Richard and the Shadows. Please have a nice weekend. Just put politics aside and enjoy these songs.
By the way, our friend, Semper Fi and his wife Aini from Los Angeles are in town for the Aidil Adha holidays. He spoke to us this morning and we hope we can meet him and Aini as soon as possible. To them, we dedicate Tommy Edwards’ On the Morning Side of the Hill.–Dr. Kamsiah and Din Merican
The Budget 2013 Speech was delivered by the Prime Minister Najib last Friday. The debate continues in Parliament while both the mainstream and alternative media have given their take on the budget proposals and we ourselves have expressed our opinion on it. Now let us have some entertainment.
Dr Kamsiah and I thought that we should bring you music from contemporary singers in Indonesia for this weekend. We think they are talented and outstanding because they have passion for music. So, let us start with some slow romantic songs by Melly Goeslow, Ari Lasso, Roosa and the dynamic Ruth Sahanaya.
We then bring in Harvey Malaiholo, a favorite of Din’s, who ends our entertainment with four of his popular tunes. Harvey has a great voice and it does not surprise us that he is popular in his country but also in Malaysia. We hope you like our choices. Have a great weekend.–Dr. Kamsiah and Din Merican
The Associated Press (Updated: Wednesday, September 26, 2012, 10:39 AM)
With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and the signature “Moon River,” Andy Williams was a voice of the 1960s, although not the ’60s we usually hear about.
“The old cliche says that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t there,” the singer once recalled. “Well, I was there all right, but my memory of them is blurred — not by any drugs I took but by the relentless pace of the schedule I set myself.”
Williams’ plaintive tenor, boyish features and easy demeanor helped him outlast many of the rock stars who had displaced him and such fellow crooners as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s, and continued to perform in his 80s at the Moon River Theatre he built in Branson, Mo. In November 2011, when Williams announced that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer, he vowed to return to performing the following year: His 75th in show business.
Williams died Tuesday night at his home in Branson following a yearlong battle with the disease, his Los Angeles-based publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday. He was 84.
He became a major star the same year as Elvis Presley, 1956, with the Sinatra-like swing “Canadian Sunset,” and for a time he was pushed into such Presley imitations as “Lips of Wine” and the No. 1 smash “Butterfly.” But he mostly stuck to what he called his “natural style,” and kept it up throughout his career. In 1970, when even Sinatra had given up and (temporarily) retired, Williams was in the top 10 with the theme from “Love Story,” the Oscar-winning tearjerker. He had 18 gold records and three platinum, was nominated for five Grammy awards and hosted the Grammy ceremonies for several years. [Read On: Andy Williams]
Dr. Kamsiah and I think it is time we brought back some crooners from the past and also two contemporary singers for your weekend entertainment.
When we are in Los Angeles last year, visiting Semper Fi and Dr Bakri Musa, we went to the final resting place of Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood-Wagner, Mel Torme, Peggie Lee, Farah Fawcett and others. Semper Fi was our guide. That is why I dedicate Dean’s Everybody Loves Somebody to him. Since Frank is a New Yorker, Mr. Bean gets honorable mention here.
The crooners we feature this weekend are Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine with tunes that are identified with them. You will agree with that these crooners are among the best that has come out of American music.
We also play songs by Barry Manilow and Canada’s singing sensation, Michael Buble, who is very popular in Malaysia. Trust you will enjoy our selection for this weekend.–Dr. Kamsiah and Din Merican
Dr Kamsiah and I like keroncong music too. So for this weekend we bring you some oldies which may bring back your memories of times past. We will do that with this soothing musical journey.
Let us start with Titiek Puspa (2 songs including Semper Fi’s favourite), followed by Singapore’s Lady of Song, Kartina Dahari, Malaysia’s Nightingale, Dato’ Siti Nurhaliza, and back to Indonesia’s Keroncong Sweetheart, Hetty Koes Endang.
We hope you like our selection of keroncong melodies. These great voices make great music. We are confident that you share our view.–Dr Kamsiah and Din Merican
We are back after a rather busy period entertaining and visiting friends and associates as part of the Eid Aidil Fitr celebrations. It was nice to meet up with them to renew friendship and chat about the good old days. It was during our Open Day at home in Damasara Jaya, a friend talked to us about the great songs of the late 1960s and the 1970s and how meaningful the lyrics of these songs are compared to those of more recent times.
We thought it is appropriate that we play some tunes of that decade. Please enjoy yourself by recalling the thrilling and frustrating times of your lives. But no matter what, remember life is great if we accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.–Dr. Kamsiah and Din Merican
Are you ready for Oppa Gangnam style!” before welcoming the PM and his entourage of BN leaders.
Attired in red traditional Chinese shirts, Najib and wife Rosmah Mansor together with children Ashman and Nooryana Najwa, arrived at 10.48am and were greeted by a lion dance troupe and a Chingay procession. He was accompanied by state BN leaders Teng Chang Yeow, Teng Hock Nan, and Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen as well as former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
One, Alex Tan, 27 (right) from Klang, said he came to see Psy and to support Pakatan.
The 82-year-old politician also asked reporters, “In what language does he sing?” and after being told that it is Korean, he was perplexed on why people listen to songs in a language that they do not understand.
The individual who caught the most attention was ‘Datin B’, who dressed up as Malaysia’s ‘First Lady’ aka Rosmah Mansor, the Premier’s wife.
“Lim asked whether I had watched the video as it was very ‘hot’. It was a month after Psy launched the video and it had registered 178 million hits … (it) has become a worldwide phenomenon,” Pua said.
In recording the ‘Datin B’ footage at a LRT station, the crew had to move between the Kelana Jaya and Damai stations because security personnel became suspicious.
