RTB holds song creation contest
By Maya Salleh

In ushering the New Year 2004, Radio Television Brunei (RTB) held a popular song creation competition - "Simfoni Tanah Air 2003" - on Wednesday night. The event, the first of its kind to be held, was a follow-up of previous competitions such as "Simfoni Merdeka".

A total of ten songs were contested, which had been selected from a submission of 18 songs. The songs underwent an internal selection process, then they were entered into the radio charts where listeners were given the chance to vote for the songs to qualify them for the final round and subsequently entering the video clip stage.

Present, as the guest of honour at the ceremony was the Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office, Pg Dato Paduka Hj Abd Hamid bin Pg Hj Mohd Yassin.

The winning song went to "Syukur" by Rachael Dato Malai Ali who walked away with a cash prize of $3,500 and a trophy. Second prize went to Ak Hj Khairul Amilin Pg Hj Yahya who penned the song entitled "Tanah Airku", he received a cash prize of $3,000 and the third prize was won by Fathan Anwar (Hans Anwar) with his song entitled "Belaian Kasihmu", he walked home with a cash prize of $2,500.

Meanwhile, the Best Video Clip was awarded to Shazana's Production House for the song "Syukur".

The objective of holding the competition was to provide the opportunity for local enthusiasts to expose their creativity and their works of art, to offer the chance for local recording studios to jointly be involved in audio and video works of art, to add to RTB's song collection and to produce quality products in the form of compact discs of broadcast quality that would improve the local music industry's productivity.

The concept of the competition was open, but needed to have commercial value and was in line with the concept of Malay Islamic Monarchy. The competition was divided into four stages, the preliminary round, popular radio chart songs, video clips and showmanship.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin