Malaysian singer Firdhaus has clarified that he never cheated on his ex-girlfriend, fellow Malaysian singer Diorlying Tan. This was after rumours about his personal life surfaced online.
The singer-songwriter of Malay descent is fluent in Mandarin and known for singing Mandarin songs. He wrote a long social media post on Nov 18 to say that while he is in the process of getting to know someone, he is single.
Firdhaus and Tan, both 25, announced their split in October after four years together. The former lovebirds had a hit song with the 2023 duet Divorce In Ghana and went public with their romance that year.
Although the break-up initially seemed amicable, rumours of infidelity have since surfaced.
Tan, who has a public Instagram account, allegedly posted on a separate private account on Nov 17 and said: “I’ve never said that (Firdhaus) cheated, he just found someone else pretty quickly.”
She also allegedly said Firdhaus had spread untruths about her using his money.
On Nov 18, Firdhaus took to Instagram to address the situation and said the online speculations are out of control.
“I was not unfaithful, but I do not deny that I have been getting to know other people in the two months since our break-up,” he wrote.
Firdhaus, who held concerts in Melbourne and Sydney in October, added: “I got to know this girl a few years back from a shoot. Although we’ve worked together a few times, we did not grow close until we had to get in touch again for some shoots for my concerts in Australia last month. I do indeed have positive feelings for her, and even visited her in Australia on my days off, but we are not together.”
He urged people to behave more rationally and said they should not dox the girl or call her a third party.
He also insisted that he did not spread untruths about Tan after their break-up. He said they split most of their expenses equally when they were dating. Also, Tan spent her own money to make her music and film her music videos, without help from him.
Netizens do not seem to believe Firdhaus’ side of the story, with comments mocking his explanation as excuses. A Malaysian content creator known as DaBangji left a comment, “Escaping accountability in the Malay Peninsula”, a play on Divorce In Ghana.
The scandal has hurt Firdhaus. He has lost close to 30,000 followers in four days since Nov 16, dropping to 593,000 followers on Instagram.
The singer first went viral on Chinese social media site Douyin with his ballad Gulf Of Alaska in 2020. He will perform two solo concerts at Singapore’s Sands Expo and Convention Centre on Jan 3 and 4. His last concerts at the Esplanade Theatre in June sold out soon after tickets went on sale. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
