208 Of Merdeka and Music

For this 51th Merdeka Day, here's a something for you people. While there's a lot of other things I could tell you about now, well, I guess for my own good, I better keep it short. In what was a tumulous year in Malaysian politics, I guess there is still something Malaysian to be proud about and that would actually be our music.

The Malaysian music industry is not as big as we would like it to be, and when it comes to the patriotic song department, Malaysia is quite far behind Singapore and certainly leaves a lot more to be desired, for instance, in its catchiness. The Singapore National Day Parade (NDP) Songs are still among the best I've heard so far. Singaporeans still love the NDP songs of years past, and during that time we've been stuck listening to "Keranamu Malaysia", which isn't as great as we would like it to be.

...and I'll admit it, the NDP is at least 20 times more watchable than the Merdeka Parade, which simply involves watching a lot of people march past the PM. There is real need for something more spectacular, but then again, people will just complain it's a great waste of tax payers money.

But among the whole lot of songs, there are still are few diamonds in the rough that I am extremely proud to call Malaysian, simply because it is representative of Malaysia and means a lot to anyone who calls himself or herself Malaysian. These are favourite 3:

1. Here In My Home - Malaysian Artistes for Unity. I've blogged about this song before, so it needs no introduction, by it truly deserves an encore:


2. Olimpik Di Beijing - Various Artistes: The Malay(sian) version of the one of the 2008 Summer Olympics theme songs. Based on a Cantonese song of the same name in direct translation. A very good listen, and rather catchy too.
3. Sejahtera Malaysia : One of those Merdeka songs no one hears about anymore, but it was from an era long gone, where there wasn't so much weird things happening in Malaysia, and life was so much simpler. But the fact I still remember this song, is a sign that this song is more powerful than it sounds


That's it for now. Happy 51st Merdeka!!

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