SO UN-MALAYSIAN OH BOY!

I might be inviting some (maybe even a lot of) disagreements when I say that there is not much that young Malaysians can be proud of when it comes to 'Malaysian Boy', a song produced by Astro in conjunction with the 'Suara Kami' concert. I love the idea of having singers of different races singing the multilingual lyrics and the concept of the video portraying young Malaysians coming together but I can't feel the song at all. Yes, the song is catchy and I'm sure that a lot of people like it very much. To some, it is even better than the original version (American Boy) but does it really express 'suara kami' (our voices)? Why couldn't they come up with something authentic (in all sense of the word) to depict the pride of young Malaysians? It's almost funny to think how on earth we ended up adapting 'American Boy' as a supposedly 'youth anthem' for Malaysians when many other singers have made it into a parody (check Wikipedia for a comprehensive list of 'American Boy' parodies). I am not doubting the sincerity and motive behind the song's production. I'm merely saying that we don't need to rely on a 'borrowed' popular tune to reach the masses. I'm pretty sure that we have enough talents among our youngsters and musicians. We should be capable of coming up with something much more original than that since Malaysian music itself is colourful and diverse. Can't we adapt and infuse those Malaysian elements into a song that we can be proud of? All in all, giving the song a pathetic dose of Malaysian flavour does not mean that it has a Malaysian essence. And that is that, thank you.

p/s I am definitely old school (no doubt about that) and I am proud to say that 'Warisan' by Sudirman and the original 'Saya Anak Malaysia' by dR. SAM are still among the best patriotic 'pop' songs so far.