ALFATIHAH SHARIFAH AINI - A Personal Recollection

I have always followed Sharifah Aini's career from the time she one she won one of the top three placings in the RTS Talentime competition in Singapore in 1968 followed by her first recording with EMI, SERI DEWI MALAM in 1969. I believe I have every songs she recorded though some are in vinyl and have not been issued on CD format till now.

My first encounter with her was in 1977 at the KL Equatorial Hotel Coffee House. We were both having lunch with our friends at separate tables and I took a chance and sent her a note congratulating her on the success of her first English album FOREVER AND EVER. She graciously replied back, both our notes were written on the coffee house table napkins!!

The second time I met her was was on a MAS flight to Amsterdam in 1988, me on my way to my posting in Warsaw, Poland and she to Abu Dhabi for a concert. We sat in 1st Class and I had the opportunity to sit next to her for an hour. We chatted like old friends and even exchanged addresses. There was no follow up to that encounter but a year later I wrote a pseudonym letter to the New Straits Times giving her a boost when I noticed her career was on stagnant mode.

In 1995 I came home for a holiday from my posting in Canberra and attended a live concert by her at the Hyatt in Johor Bahru. Her career then was on the upswing again after a successful comeback concert in KL and her recording of the song SEKSA. She invited me to her table after the concert. A few weeks later back in Canberra, Sharifah sent me a cassette of of the raw recordings of 12 songs for her latest album SELAMANYA, soliciting my comments. The album had good reviews after its release and my favourite tracks were GERIMIS MENGUNDANG and SURATAN ATAU KEBETULAN.

In 1996 back again in KL after my posting in Canberra, Sharifah once invited me to her recording session. It was for the song NOSTALGIA AIDILFITRI. There was only four of us in that old, rickety studio in PJ Section 12, Sharifah, producer S.Atan, the recording engineer and me. To my untrained ears she sounded fine during the initial recording but she was extremely unhappy with the sound quality and demanded another engineer to take over. We waited hours for a replacement and she sent for nasi bungkus!!

When I finally heard her sing again with the new sound engineer in charge I realised the great difference in the quality of the sound and her voice. That was how professional she was; she knew exactly what she wanted. Attesting to her great professionalism, the final recording took only two takes, only once interrupted by both me and S. Atan when she once went off key! NOSTALGIA AIDILFITRI became a big hit and until today is an annual Aidifitri anthem.

During my posting in Lima, Sharifah once wrote me a desperate email saying that she was in the midst of recording her latest album and one of the tracks chosen was a Spanish classic NOCHE DE RONDA (which every blue-blooded Spanish singer must sing at one time or another) and that the musical arrangements were all ready but she could not come up with the lyrics as nobody around her knew Spanish. I had my interpreter Rossana Arakaki-Touzin translate the lyrics into English, which I then translated into Malay and emailed it back to her. She made some changes to the lyrics and and came up with what I felt is a brilliant Malay version of the song aptly titled MALAM GELISAH. I still get goosebumps listening to the song today.She acknowledged me in the sleeve of the CD.

When I went for my haj in December 2005 Sharifah insisted I see her son Aliff who was studying to be a tahfiz in Medina. I made arrangement to see Aliff but he did not show up at the appointed time and called me hours before I was returning to Mekah. I could not see him by then but we had a good long chat and could tell what a well brought up young man he was.

In the last few years I had not much contact with Sharifah but I always keep abreast with news about her. I was very surprised to read about her tiff with Siti Nurhaliza and especially with S. Atan who produced most of her hit albums from the 80s onwards and for whom I had a special memory when we were in the studio together for the recording of NOSTALGIA AIDILFITRI. I am glad she and Siti had made up.

She left us now, Allah loves her more than her adoring fans. But her songs will remain forever. Thank you for the songs Sharifah, which had travelled the world with me and entertained and inspired me from the age of 18. May Allah SWT bless your soul always, amin.

http://youtu.be/z6OG8RMuex4