THE lyrics were in a different language, but the melody was the same.

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Local stars JJ Lin and Didicazli Ismail. Picture courtesy of: ZAHARIAN OSMAN

Ms Dayana Ismail was listening to local Malay radio station Ria 89.7FM when local Malay singer Didicazli Ismail’s song Seribu Kenangan (A Thousand Memories) came on air.

She recognised the melody instantly - it was local singer JJ Lin’s 2005 hit Yi Qian Nian Yi Hou (A Thousand Years Later), from his third album Serial Number 89757.

A big fan of JJ, Ms Dayana, 20, a paramedic, was upset, and e-mailed The New Paper.

‘To hear JJ’s song being sung by others in another language and him not getting credit for it, it’s enough to make a fan mad,’ she wrote.

But it appears her anger was misplaced.

The song was adapted from JJ’s hit with full permission.

Didicazli had approached Ocean Butterflies and Touch Music for permission to use JJ’s song, and record producer Billy Koh supported the project.

Calling the song a ‘cross-cultural collaboration’, Didicazli told The New Paper: ‘The reason why I chose JJ’s song is because of the wonderful melody.

‘I wrote the Malay lyrics to the melody. JJ has always been credited for the single and he retains the royalties for the song.’

The lyrics in the Malay single are original and not a translation of JJ’s song, he added.

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Didicazli works as a project executive at the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (Compass) and the idea to do a cross-cultural collaboration came from his CEO, Mr Edward Lam.

Mr Lam told The New Paper that he has always wanted to have the 1,000 Compass members - who are largely made up of Malay and Chinese music composers - collaborate.

‘In countries like France and America, artistes leverage on their unique cultural differences through collaboration. I thought why not do the same here,’ he said.

It was Mr Lam who encouraged Didicazli to approach Ocean Butterflies and Touch Music.

Didicazli’s single was released last December and it has been No 1 on the local Malay charts for the last four weeks.

It is nominated for Most Popular Singapore Song at the upcoming Malay music awards, Anugerah Planet Muzik.

Mr Lam said he was very pleased with the Malay community’s positive reception of the song.

‘It is quite a good achievement and it shows that music has no cultural or language boundaries,’ he added.

The New Paper could not reach Mr Koh for comment.

Ms Dayana said that she was not aware that JJ’s recording company had given permission to Didicazli to use the song, which was one of JJ’s biggest hit ballads and was at the top of the local radio charts that year.

She said she might have been ‘oversensitive’ about it since she was a ‘really huge fan’ of JJ.

She wasn’t alone.

When Ms Joanne Pan, a committee member of JJ’s fan club JJFC (Singapore), heard Didicazli’s song, she called Ocean Butterflies to check if it was authorised.

The 18-year-old student said the fan club members felt proud that JJ’s composition can transcend language barriers and reach out to another culture.

She said: ‘It’s very good for JJ. It’s quite interesting for his song to be sung in many different languages.

‘It’s some sort of evidence to prove that his music is so influential that even the Malay community notices.’ - Taken off the Electric New Paper by Sheela Narayanan

Reading this on the Electric New Paper angered me quite a bit, but I suppose she didn’t know jack about how songwriting and publishing works. But after Taufik was “caught” by fans singing a LeeAnn Rimes number and everybody thought it was made for him, I thought the public, or least popsters like Ms Dayana here, would have been educated. Songwriters and composers can “sell” their songs to just about anybody. More than 1 person can perform it, after going through proper protocol. You hear cover versions all the time, even the most famous of people do it. It is a pattern in all genres, and common fact, too. It is a perfect example of how backward we are in Singapore when it comes to entertainment, because those who loved to be entertained are ill-informed.

I’m not even going to go any further about this Malay girl making issues about this Malay singer trying to cari makan. She can join the gazillion Singaporean abusers on YouTube who comment about every little thing local artistes do asking why we doing this song, how bad we are at it. Astarafirghullah! Why don’t you share it with the folks who’ve been doing Rihanna’s “Umbrella” all over the world? It’s called a ‘cover version’. And I hope you realise that Aliff Aziz’ next hit “Cinta Arjuna” is a song originally sung by Michael Wong called “Tong Hua” because if I read one more case about mistaken assumptions such as this Didicazli vs JJ Lin case, it would officialize that we’re in a state of emergency: everybody is part of the destruction of local entertainment and not at all a part of the development. And I’m not only talking about this not-knowing-the-real-truth-behind-these-songs case. I’m talking about local Malay music in general. It cannot grow if you keep on stamping on it. Read up Malay folks who love to condemn local artistes anonymously in forums, you’re guilty as charged.

Just play the music, and enjoy it. If you don’t like it, turn it off.

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