One of the biggest Malaysian music awards gave us (or at least myself) a wonderful shock with the win by Estranged’s Itu Kamu despite their last night’s technical glitch (missing keyboardist?). I was certainly hoping for the best and expecting the worst with these underdogs, who ended up winning for overall Best Song and Best Song in the Pop/Rock category. Competition was stiff for all categories (Pop/Rock, Ethnic Creative, Ballad), but I believe every one of the winner in each category (even Mawi for Best Performance) deserved it.

The 22nd AJL looked to be doomed with the ban of Faizal Tahir and a no-show by Kaer and Rio Fabrian, but the artistes standing in for them — Fiq, Sahri, Bob and Lah — have done wonderfully. Photo gallery and coverage can be found at Gua.com.my.

I see one aspect that’s pretty obvious with this year’s AJL. The fact that a significant number of its performers — four in the winners’ line-up — were once reality show participants, particularly from Akademi Fantasia, goes to prove that Akademi Fantasia specifically is not just a feckless show trying to rob us of our texting/SMS dollars, but is showing its force as a powerful platform to boost careers of talented wanna-be stars. I hope this positive trend by reality shows can continue to spurn out fantastic artistes and give more chance for new composers and writers to impress us. Let’s continue to support our Malaysian music industry, shall we?

When I heard an alt-pop-rock song called “Itu Kamu” (roughly translated as That’s You) playing on the radio, I thought, man, that’s another cool Indonesian song — I wonder when Malaysian artistes will step up to that kind of quality. Wow, was I shocked during the recent Akademi Fantasia concert, to know that the band that made that song not only hails from Malaysia, but the lead singer is a tanak wagu (boy) from Sabah — AF season 4’s very own Rich! I’m so proud of him, so proud! Maybe if I’m free this weekend, I’ll run over to the music store and buy me an Estranged album! The next important thing for the group is to get very good marketing and PR teams for them to zoom up internationally. The good news for now is that they’re going to be one of the opening acts in the Good Charlotte concert this week, together with the likes of my other favourite Malaysian local English acts, LO and One Buck Short.

The lyrical concept of Itu Kamu is as universal as any other love songs — it is of a person expressing the depth and dedication of his love to his one and only. Enjoy the following YouTube clip of Estranged’s Itu Kamu. My English-speaking friends should be able to enjoy the catchy tune even if you don’t understand the Malay language.

*Yawn* As I predicted since the announcement of the AF teaching faculty, ALL the students’ vocals were mediocre, and Cikgu Syafi has YET to DO ANYTHING with expanding their vocal talents. Someone just give her a slap on the head and GET HER TO DO WHAT SHE’S SUPPOSE TO DO! OK, I’ll just hold that thought for a while and go through my comments starting with:

EBI: It breaks my heart to say this to a fellow Sabahan, but his facial mimic was all wrong for this song, and his voice and performance were pathetic. Ebi gave us a sample of his vocal prowess (or rather, lack thereof) in Diari AF week 1, but I still kept my fingers crossed hoping I was just hearing wrong. As soon as he started singing Sudirman’s “Milik Siapakah Gadis Ini” though, I right away wished that he would be the first person voted out of AF. And I was almost on the spot, if not for the fact that Diya screwed up her performance, and Zana pulled out at the last minute. (more…)

There wasn’t really anything exciting to see in Tirai Akademi Fantasia apart from the usual student introductories. Here are my thoughts so far:

• Overall, I was a little surprised initially that AF planned to televise the same time as American Idol. But just as I suspected, AF 5 will run an extra month, thus allowing AF a week or more after Idol ends. Also, from this I predict that there’ll be one round where 2-people elimination will take place.
• The pranks where lame, apart from Ebi’s mildly interesting pocong scare. Surprising Noni and Candy at Center Point (on separate occasions of course), and a fake robbery at Farha’s house, made me go “nyeh”.
• Make-up does wonders to a person. Without one, Candy looks just like any other sumandaks, and Noni doesn’t look like Syafinaz at all, although she’s still very pretty. Farha is one photogenic guy (which means he’s not as cute as you expect), and Ebi actually looked less intimidating than his photos; his photos made him look like a samseng (gangster), if you ask me. (more…)

This has got to be the most Sabahans ever to be selected in Akademi Fantasia — if you’re considering Ekin of AF3 to be a Sabahan, get your geography right… even the people of Labuan don’t consider themselves as Sabahans, alright? I lived there during AF 3, I know. Our Sarawakian counterparts weeren’t so lucky — only one guy was selected. In any case, let’s hope their quality is any better than AF3 (no offense to Velvet and Lotter of AF4, but Marsha and Felix were waaaayyyy better).

But wait, did I count right? 16 total participants, instead of the usual 12? It’s interesting enough that Astro decided to premier AF three months early. I’m guessing that Akademi Fantasia will run a bit longer than its usual 2-month period, which means that our mobile and phone bills will be suffering for a while longer, hah!

Grabbed from Sultan Muzaffar’s site, here are the Sabahans selected for this season — Candy, Kadazan-Dusun from Tambunan; Ebi, Malay from KK; Farha, Bajau from KK; and Noni, Sino-Malay from KK. Is it just me, or doesn’t Noni in the picture look a bit like the AF guest judge and One In A Million judge Syafinaz? Candy, in the meantime, reminds me of Nikki from Malaysian Idol, but I could be wrong ’cause I don’t watch Malaysian Idol much. Coincidentally, these two hails from the same hometown.

and…

I’m gonna check with my little sister Laura later, and see if she knows any of them.

Trivia: My uncle’s niece is Marsha AF3, who is a cousin of Linda AF2. Rich AF3 is a former classmate of my sister Laura, and Velvet AF4 is my relative (his dad came by my mom’s batik shop in Tuaran during AF4 to buy some stuff… and to lobby for Velvet, indirectly of course, hahah!). You know, when you’re a Dusun living in Sabah, you have relatives everywhere.