Over the past two weeks, I’ve been listening a bit to Malaysian legend Sheila Majid and our contemporary superstar Yuna on Instagram during their live shows during MCO/lockdown/quarantine/your choice of term.
Just yesterday, Sheila sang Gerimis Semalam, as a tribute to Indonesian singer Glenn Fredly who passed away earlier this week. When I read the news of his death a couple of nights ago, I turned to YouTube to look for his song Januari.
As I started singing along to these songs, I was surprised to realise that I still remembered a lot of the lyrics. Funny how these things stick in your head!
Anyway, as a result, I started digging out songs in the Malay (and Indonesia) language I used to know. I thought I’d get some help walking down memory lane so turned to Facebook and asked friends to recommend some too.
The result is the Spotify playlist below. I’ve put in 37 songs from across the decades (maybe less current), primarily from Malaysia (with a few Indonesian ones thrown in). Most of them are in Bahasa Melayu/Indonesia, although I did include one in English by the legend that is Sudirman because I just love that song.
Even if you don’t understand Malay, have a listen – maybe you’ll enjoy some of the songs!
Also, check out these other playlists created by others: folk singer-songwriter Azmyl Yunor created this playlist with lots of classics which date back to earlier than the one I created, while the fabulous and creative Jiman Casablancas made this playlist, which has interesting selection from big names but less known songs!