Okay before Abang talks about this year’s Anugerah Juara Lagu, Abang wants to talk a little bit about the previous versions of Juara Lagu. In the past few years, Abang really feels that Juara Lagu was slowly losing its relevance, building its popularity on scandals and gimmicks.
Abang still remembers when Aina Abdul was first introduced onto Anugerah Juara Lagu 34. The white gown that was soaked with supposed blood caused organisers and many individuals to panic! Some said it reminded them of sanitary pad. Other said that the performance was triggering, so much so that it was actually banned from the final telecast of the program on television. Even the YouTube videos of the performance were banned from surfacing in any social media platforms for the next one year. Who could also ever forget Drama Band’s controversial performance that involved the portrayal of Malaysia’s beloved Najib Ali and Rosmah, which happened to also be staged at Anugerah Juara Lagu 34! Needless to say, that performance was banned too, but not on the basis that they portrayed a politician negatively—the performance was actually banned because the lead singer, Aepul Roza, just so happened to be seen kicking a prop-crown on stage. It was said that the royalties did not take that lightly, as kicking the prop-crown is seen as an offensive gesture and prosecutable by the laws in Malaysia!
Then the controversy continues with Anugerah Juara Lagu 35, where the head judge of the song-writing/ composing competition openly responded to the claims that he “doesn’t understand songs that has elements or originated from the hip-hop culture”. In his official statement, the head judge openly put down one of crowd’s favourite song, Sakit, by YonnyBoii, claiming that the song is monotonous, that it has no dynamics and in his words “not going anywhere, or not having new developments within the song”. Twitter was set ablazed with the head judge’s comment of the “song being monotonous”. Now here is abang’s take – if it is a competition focusing on song-writing and composing, then shouldn’t the song also be evaluated on the artistic vision and the artist’s objectives of putting up the song in the market? Apart from marketability and profitability, Abang is quite sure that every artist would have a desire to affect a change by giving words of advice/ wisdom through their songs which are mostly based on life experiences, or to explain a certain type of misconceptions. There have been many interviews where prior to Anugerah Juara Lagu, YonnyBoii has open said that he dedicated the song to his good friend, Zyn, who was popular with the song titled, “Terbang”. If we were to look at the lyrics, the song does feel like a conversation between two friends – one friend consoling while the other was reaching out for help. It talks about the pain of having to live with a mental illness. The song ended with “Ku sentiasa ada” which means, I am always here”. This is the recurring theme in the song, where one of the friends keep reassuring the other friend that no matter how the world evolve, or how cruel the world can be, I am here. Now, personally, Abang thought then the absence of dynamics and evoking the sense of repetition or the sense that the song, in the head judge’s words, “going nowhere”, totally makes sense. That both the melody and the structure of the song ac tually goes in tangent with the intended message… that I am going no where, and that I am here always, or “ku sentiasa ada”. That the world may change over a thousand times, but I am not changing because I will always be here. So, Abang really felt that YonnyBoii was robbed of his chance to get into the finals of Anugerah Juara Lagu 35, just because the head judge did not understand or knew how to interpret the song. Good songs don’t only reflect or rely on song dynamics. Abang feels that a good song sometimes is one that reflects the intention behind its creation. Anyway, what then made it more controversial was the fact that they decided to crown a hip-hop inspired song as the winner of Anugerah Juara Lagu 35. No disrespect to the winner… Abang feels that they deserve it, but at the back of Abang’s mind, Abang does have that tingling sense that this is a way for the head judge to say “F*** You” to those who said that he did not understand the hip-hop culture and to shut them down.
So, after two years of controversies, Abang was a little sceptical of this year’s standard. Abang wasn’t sure if there were going to be more gimmicks and controversies from the production and creative team of the song-writing/ composing competition. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much gimmicks this time round, apart from the competition now feels like a major advertisement for Noir and Oppo, which Abang can live with. The winners are pretty much set from the time the 12 finalists were announced. If you had no idea who won, here is the list of winners for this year’s Anugerah Juara Lagu:
Juara AJL 36
Pelukan Angkasa – Sog X Shila Amzah
Komposer: Raja Nazrin Shah
Penulis lirik: Fazleena Hishamuddin
Trofi serta RM100,000
Naib Juara
Cinta – Marsha Milan
Komposer: Bunga Cantik & Hang Nadim
Penulis lirik: Hang Nadim
Trofi serta RM50,000
Tempat Ketiga
Tempat Ketiga
Mimpi – Haqiem Rusli
Komposer: Haqiem Rusli & Datuk A.Aida
Penulis lirik: Haqiem Rusli & Datuk A.Aida
Trofi serta RM30,000
Vokal Terbaik
Aina Abdul (Sepi)
Trofi serta RM12,000
Persembahan Terbaik
Marsha Milan (Cinta)
Trofi serta RM18,000
Penyanyi Pilihan Popular
Aina Abdul & Khai Bahar
Trofi serta RM5,000
We already knew that Aina Abdul and Khai Bahar were going to win the Voters’ Popularity, because out of the 10 performers that night, they were the most popular and had very strong base. If Aida Jebat was in the competition though, abang felt that thing would have been more exciting and unpredictable.
The only category that Abang quite disagree was the Best Performance award. No shade to Marsha Milan; she really has the vocal capability of an alien, that is to say, her vocal power is out of this world, but Abang just feels that the harmonies between Shila Amzah and the Sekumpulan Orang Gila Band just resonated a little more with Abang.
Also if you do have the time, you should check out both songs by both set of artists – Cinta by Marsha Milan; and “Pelukan Angkasa” by Shila Amzah and Sekumpulan Orang Gila Band. Superb lyrics and awesome song composing! Abang is especially looking forward to more works by
0 comments:
Post a Comment