Anuar Zain 3 Dekad was how it felt to do shows in the 1980’s
until the late 90’s. Our artistes did
public concerts, sometime recorded for
TV and audio releases too and people came and paid to see them. Sudirman, M.
Nasir, Ramli Sarip, Jamal Abdillah, Sharifah Aini, Ella, Ziana Zain, Awie,
Slam, Search, Wings, Sheila Majid, Zainal Abidin and others. During that
time the technology may not have been as forward as now and we ourselves may
not have had the exposure to international standards but we started systems and now we are on par.
With shows like yesterday (Feb 16) people are moved to go and see the
show cause they get the entertainment value.
I have learnt three things :
Those of us that have been exposed to working with
internationals like Mac Chew, Jenny Chin, Steve Ho, Alvin Koh and myself (Whether here or abroad) we have learnt
systems and ways of working that we have applied in our careers. That exposure has led to professionalism and
a high regard for creative talent.
Therefore I disagree to not allowing foreigners into our country and
competing openly. We only learn what we
want to… if you decided to close your eyes and your minds you will never learn
anything… but when you go in with an open mind you can become as good, if not
better, that is all up to you.
Secondly we will not get back to that “Golden era” if we
continue to do free shows… apologies but this is the truth. An artiste needs to have the right amount of
exposure and the right amount of “exclusivity”.
We are not a big country, so every time an artiste does a FREE show even 3-4
songs they lose their public value unless they are a new artiste seeking to break
ground. When they do too many public show
no one wants to pay cause they just saw them 3 months ago for free. People need to pay for shows to show their
appreciation for their favorite artiste.
To the Artiste themselves the commitment level is high.
Practise, Practise, Practise and then practice some more. Fitness level to be able to carry a 2 hour
show all by yourselves. Promote,
promote, promote… no one can do promotion without you, the Artiste. You want
people to come to YOUR show… YOU invite them.
Endless media interviews and angles, countless stations IDs, massive one
on one interviews... THAT is the nature of engagement.
To the public you must understand that China and US can
afford to do production shows ALL the time because cost is spread out over 100
shows (in their own country and then venturing our worldwide). Musicians and Engineers are block booked for
months at a time. Not so here. So when you ask why we can’t do like this or
like that… it’s not that we can’t, we can, we have the knowledge and the ability but we don't
have budgets or the kind of crowd turnouts that will qualify putting the
amounts that internationals apply.
It is my hope that with the start of Anuar Zain and his team
showing the way that others may do the same.
We have so many Artistes that are able to present shows like that. The industry and fan buzz is phenomenal and
for us it is a pleasure to be able to flex our wings once in a while and show
Malaysia, what we got! We have the best
of the best… we just need to recognize it, support it and then it will grow.
Peace, Love and Respect
P/S : Dear
Government, We are asking NOT for
charity, we are asking you to open your eyes and recognize our creative talent
before we lose it all. We need those
systems in place so that we may start something that will have a long lasting, meaningful effect for generations to come and not just handouts.
Lastly and NOT LEAST this is not only for our cultural side but also our POP-CULTURE which
has now existed for almost 50+ years... we have a history that matters.
Thank you for your kind attention.
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