If you were a teenager or in your twenties in the 70’s, you would probably know this rock band that took its name from a character in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. No, I was not into their songs, hits or otherwise, until I heard this one…
…which has remained a favourite of mine to this day.
Indeed, I was surprised to come across a contestant in a local talent show a couple of years ago named Uriah, pronounced you-rai-yah, and boy was he good! Of course he won in the end – the Astro Star Quest Chinese Singing Competition that year. This handsome young man…
…from Pontian, Johore whose mother, a piano music teacher, came from Sabah here in East Malaysia, went on to win the TVB International Chinese New Talent Singing Championship in Hong Kong that same year, beating the best from China, the US, Australia, Singapore, Canada and New Zealand. Now that was quite an accomplishment wasn’t it?
I saw some fishtail banners along the roads here publicising his show last Friday and it was in the newspapers too so when my girl came home that afternoon, I asked her if she would want to go and watch and she did – this would be a welcome change from our usual routine, a chance for her to unwind and relax a bit after the dreary and gruelling week at her school…so there we were that night for his live performance at a mall…
…in town. Gee!!! The last time I saw a singer perform live at a mall was Singapore’s Tracy Huang way back in 1973 at one place along Orchard Road, just imagine that!
Uriah kicked off his show with the rousing theme song from the movie Ola Bola. I didn’t know this one, only this slower one by Sarawak’s own Zee Avi, that was on television day in, day out way before the movie was released – it was screened during Chinese New Year and by the time I was free to go and watch, it wasn’t showing anymore. That’s how it is here in Sibu. Those genres that I like will never get shown here and if they do, it will not be for long.
This was the very pretty and eloquent emcee…
…for the show and for his second number, Uriah did a really impressive cover of Josh Groban’s You raise me up…
…followed by his rendition of John Legend’s hit, All of me…
– one of the songs that he sang in the competition on television.
He also played the violin…
…when he sang his own original composition, The only thing that matters, the Mandarin version…
Incidentally, the music video was filmed on location in Melbourne, Australia.
I was kind of disappointed he did not sing it in English…
– he penned the lyrics for this one himself, available online on amazon.co.uk…but never mind, we certainly enjoyed the one-hour performance that night. If he were to come for a full concert, I certainly would love to go and enjoy more of the very nice songs…
…from this very talented young man.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 