Although singer-songwriter Datuk Ramli Sarip has been in the music industry for more than five decades now, he tells StarLifestyle he still very much enjoys performing.
The 70-year-old adds that he sees it as his job; something he wants to continue as long as he can.
And that’s exactly what he’s doing with his upcoming concert at Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (DFP), KLCC, on May 13, at 8.30pm.
Titled Syair Timur, the concert is inspired by Ramli’s 1997 album of the same name, which takes folklore stories and incorporates them to the sounds of modern tunes. The compositions also carry many good advice for those who care to listen.
“Music is not just singing; it has a part to play in life. Anything that touches me, I try to share because I believe in giving sincerity ... art is a pure thing.” Ramli is quoted in a press release from DFP.
This is the fourth time the Singaporean artiste is performing at DFP.
The previous times were as a guest artiste to Datuk Khadijah Ibrahim’s concert in 2008, his own concert in 2010 and the staging of Konsert Tanah Airku with the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in 2017.
While Ramli enjoys the whole process of being on stage, the rock star admits that there have been changes in the way he performs today compared to when he started out as the lead singer of the group Sweet Charity, which released its debut album in 1979.
According to him, the style of his performance has “changed gradually” but that just means he’s “growing with age”.
He’s gotten more reflective, too, as he’s gotten older, preferring to sing meaningful songs and learning to be grateful with each performance he does presently.
“Being on stage is a way for me to share my experience. I do not know until when I can go on because I am now 70 years old. But I am still enthusiastic and interested in going to work every day,” he tells the Malay media.
Going to work every day is one of the ways he stays relevant in today’s music industry, the singer says.
“Keep working. Keep creating new things – songs and albums – and look around the scene to see what’s new,” he adds to StarLifestyle.
Besides his performance at DFP, Ramli also has a charity concert lined up on May 1 in Sabah, and a reunion concert with Sweet Charity, said to be happening on July 29 in Johor.
Even at the height of the pandemic in 2020, when he was in lockdown in Singapore, Ramli kept busy by working on his 23rd album, a project he started in Kuala Lumpur. In 2021, he released Rasa, his first full studio album since 2002’s Kalam Kesturi.
In an article by Singapore’s Straits Times, Ramli talked about the philosophy behind the album title.
“The music has to be soulful, you have to be able to feel and not just merely listen to the songs.”
Rasa contains 10 tracks including a rendition of the song Ayah Dan Ibu, originally recorded in the 1940s by singer A. Rahman and later made popular by Sudirman in the 1980s.
“Singing the song drove me to tears because it reminded me of my parents,” Ramli tells Straits Times.
Dubbed as “Papa Rock” in the music industry, Ramli credits his success in the business to the pressure he’s faced.
“If you ask many artistes or musicians, they will tell you they usually work under pressure,” he says to a Malay publication, naming Lagu Untuk Teman and Doa Buat Kekasih as two popular songs he wrote under pressure.
“In our journey as an artiste, sometimes magical moments and luck determine the success of a song.”
While that may be true, hard work plays a big part in it too – something that Ramli is proof of.
Tickets to Syair Timur are priced at RM550, RM338, RM298, RM258 and RM198. For more information, go to dfp.com.my
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