On Sunday night (09/08/2009), we went to see this..
As a child I'd always liked Jamal Abdillah. Hooooboy, who doesn't remember the movie "Azura" and how hawt he was back then? Yeah yeah you can argue that he was as scrawny as a pole, and what with all his drug involvement.. poor fella. Now he ain't as handsome as he used to be, but he's still really talented alright.
This picture looks really familiar lah. Doesn't Michael Jackson have a similar picture..?? Oh wellll.
Truthfully I am not a big fan of the local music scene. The singers and their musics nowadays lack a certain sort of charisma. Now singers from back in the ol' days (from Tan Sri P. Ramlee's days up till the 80s) are in a different class of their own. Somewhere from the mid 80s, I just stopped being able to grasp the local music scene. As a teenager I wouldn't be caught dead listening to Malaysian music. Cool lah tu konon, eh? Pffft.
Anyway.. before I go too far off-tangent..
So despite the H1N1 worry, with Dad babysitting the kids (and the maids!); Mom, Sister, BIL, BIL'S Mama (my sister's mother-in-law la..), Dr. D (BIL's little sister) and I got dressed up and went to Jamal's last night performing at Istana Budaya for the Kembara Seniman tour.
I've forgotten 90% of his songs' lyrics and resorted to humming like a bee throughout the play+concert. The fella has a super-awesome voice, I tell ya. He sings so effortlessly, it got kinda scary to watch at times. You know.. the note is soo high, you'd expect the guy's voice to break and it doesn't. Phew.
Ohhhh ohhhh let me just tell you who we met there.
Tun Mahathir!
Yeah yeah so sue me. I'm a HUGE fan of Tun Mahathir. Always been, always will be. No politician is without flaws, but to me that old man is really something.
Tun Mahathir's car pulled up beside us as we were walking up the entrance of Istana Budaya and we got to wave "hi" at him. Hehehe. Batak sungguh. Well at least he smiled at us to acknowledge our mad wavings. Know why he pulled up right beside us? Because we took the wrong way and ended up at the V.I.P. entrance, that's why. See, I did say we were acting like bataks, right? Kekekee.
Since we sat beside the entrance, we got quite close to the V.I.P. entourage. Sister and Dr. D's highlight of the night was the fact that they got to salam the Tun. Grr. Yes I'm jealous.
Mom and me. Got resemblance, you think?
From left; BIL's Mama, Dr. D, Sister and BIL.
And after the concert, we once again we took the V.I.P.-route to the car (very few people followed this route), and waved again like bataks as the Tun and Dr. Siti Hasmah drove away. We had hoped to get personal pictures with Jamal, but BIL was being a real joykiller! He was hungry and wanted to leave a.s.a.p. Tsk tsk. So all I got was a picture of 50 year old Jamal Abdillah from afar (yes that's Datuk Rais Yatim beside him).
The performance was worth every penny. We got the RM150 tickets (after discount it was about RM137), but there were empty seats at the RM300 place and a few of us (Mom and me included) sat there for the second half of the show. So we got a really good view. The first part of the performance was a musical play, and it gave us an intimate view of Jamal's career; his achievements and personal turmoils. The man is indeed superbly talented, but what a lonely life he leads. In short, it was a heartwrenching, raw and honest piece of performance where he showed how lonely a life as a performer can be. Kudos to the man for fighting his inner devils (i.e. his drug problems in particular) and may Allah give him strength to stay strong and fight.
Overall.. what a night!
If anyone knows of any 80s Malaysian artists giving stage performances in the future, do holler!!
