The launching gimmick of Superman versus Batman symbolises the fight to eradicate piracy to ensure the Dayak music industry can sustain for more years to come.
KUCHING: The Dayak music industry has seen tremendous improvement over the past few years.
Now it has gone beyond our shores and reached other parts of the world.
As such, it is necessary for singers, musicians and art activists to be able to sustain the development, advised Snowdan Lawan, the chairman of Dayak Artistes and Musicians Association (Dama).
“Today, we can see that our talents are varied and we have really good singers and musicians of various genres including ballad, pop, rock and many more. We have moved beyond ordinary in terms of music quality, lyrics, music arrangements as well as the artistes.
“Nevertheless, we must strive to make other people, especially those outside of Sarawak, to understand that Dayak music is no longer just traditional music and show them our new generation of music. That is an achievement for us all,” he said in his speech when launching Dayak Music Awards (AMD) 2016 at Dayak Bidayuh National Association (DBNA) Hall here recently.
He also pointed out that there was a need to make people love our music, although they might not understand our language.
“We love to listen to songs that we do not really understand the lyrics or language, but we tend to memorise the song by heart, including popular Hindi and Korean songs.
“So, what is the difference between our Iban, Bidayuh and Orang Ulu songs? If we are able to charm music enthusiasts with our extraordinary music arrangements, music, and melody I am sure other races that do not understand our language will also love our songs,” said Snowdan, adding that several Dayak songs had been made famous by foreigners including Andrewson Ngalai’s ‘Bekikis Bulu Betis’.
He thanked the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (MDTCC) for their continuous effort in fighting piracy.
“The issue of piracy must be eradicated to ensure that the Dayak music industry will be able to sustain for more years to come and we will continue to fight the good fight,” he added.
To continue the effort in elevating Dayak music industry to international level, Dama will hold the fifth edition of AMD in October.
“We are currently looking for interested individuals to send in their nominations using these three methods – through recording companies, middlemen including other artists, singers, composers, designers, lyricists, music composers, and last but not least, the support of fans.
“On the actual date of the event to be held at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching, we will announce it from time to time,” said Snowdan.
On the development of the prestigious award event for the Dayak community, Snowdan said the organiser was looking at putting in more categories.
“We have Malay, Chinese and Melanau friends from Sarawak who have requested for us to include categories especially for them for songs from the respective races. That is also in our discussion to be included as part of our development,” Snowdan added.
The evening was made merrier with live performances by Dayak artistes Gabriel Fairuz Louis (winner of the Best Dayak Album, Best Iban Song, Best Dayak Pop Artiste, Best Dayak Ballad Artiste and Best Dayak Male Artiste for AMD 2014), The Crew band (winner of Best New Dayak Artiste and Best Dayak Group or Duo for AMD 2014) and winner of the recent AMG rising star Charlene Johnny.
Also attending the launching ceremony were AMD organising chairman Brown Sang Lagan, MDTCC Sarawak chief enforcement officer Abdul Hafiz Abdul Rahim, representatives of recording companies, music producers, singers, art activists and fans of Dayak music industry.