I rarely pay attention to local singers, but these two singers are not local anymore. They have become international stars, which is rare for Malaysia.
Years ago, we’ve heard of Yuna but I wasn’t very impressed with her music. I felt that she ripped off Norah Jones, and it’s just because our local Malaysian audiences were not exposed to that kind of music that she became popular. As for Shila Amzah, I only noticed her when she did all those YouTube videos of herself singing covers. (That, and the embarrassing Sharnaaz Ahmad vs ND Lala incident) Suffice to say, I wasn’t sufficiently impressed.
However, I’m happy to be proven wrong. These two starlets went into unknown directions; one went West (America) and the other went to the East (China).
Boy, did they bloom into superstars!
Yuna released a song produced by the amazing Pharell Williams titled ‘Live Your Life’, and now she’s under the Verve label working together with the legendary David Foster!
Shila Amzah is a household name in China, thanks to her winning the Asian Wave, a Chinese reality singing show. Imagine that. A Malay girl singing Mandarin songs! In China no less!
These two make me proud to be Malaysian again. I sincerely hope that our youth can see that we Malaysians can do better, not just locally, but internationally. It’s all about self-belief.
BELACAN GIRL CHEESE BOY 