Brunei and the music of <PERSON> · Global Voices
Today's advent of information technology has provided citizens with more opportunities to access and embrace various types of music around the world. <PERSON>, a Swedish national of Lebanese descent, visited Brunei early this month as part of a world tour to introduce his music to his fans. According to Wikipedia,
“His first album ‘Thank You Allah’ of 13 tracks and two bonus songs was released on 1 November 2009. His music videos on youtube has collectively gained more than 4 million of views.”
The video shows <PERSON> singing one of his popular songs, ‘Barakallah Lakuma’, which was welcomed by his Brunei fans during a meet and greet session organised by Athirah Management.
<PERSON>, who is popular with Islamic inspirational songs, made several radio interviews in Brunei. According to Pelangi FM DJ and blogger <PERSON>, <PERSON> confirmed that he has 107,000 fans from Brunei alone on his Facebook page, out of more than 700,000 fans globally.
<PERSON> blogged about the radio interview:
“Fans of <PERSON>, an influential figure from Lebanon, stormed in at Radio Televisyen Brunei recently to capture the moments with the global sensation, according to a deejay working at RTB, DJ <PERSON>. <PERSON> inspirational music video on YouTube, ‘Insha-allah’ has gained a remarkable one million views. During a short interview over Facebook chat, <PERSON> also mentioned that <PERSON> is a ‘very inspirational figure to everyone…especially to the youth’. He added, “Other international artists had to bow down and give way to him especially our local charts at Pelangi FM.’ <PERSON> interview on Pelangi FM will surely leave a legacy in Brunei, and as we speak the interview is now history.”
<PERSON> saw <PERSON> making a huge impact in Brunei, especially among the youth
“With just a span of two weeks, the initial hype was more than enough to spread the awareness that a music icon <PERSON> will be in Brunei Darussalam for a meet-the-fan session. My Twitter and Facebook responses have been phenomenal after I announced that he will be coming to Brunei officially.”
<PERSON> also had the opportunity to interview the celebrity about his impressions on Brunei and his many fans. Twitterians fielded these questions
<PERSON>: I read in one of your interviews that you were lost in “music” at one stage. Can you explain more?
<PERSON>: I felt something was missing. I was thinking a lot. I went back to Sweden and my friends brought me to the mosque in Stockholm. 23
Then my heart just opened for the brothers and I'm glad Allah guided me and I felt very happy. It took some time for me to adjust when I stopped my music and my work for a while. Then I realised that maybe I can help and do something with my experience to convey a good message, my thoughts, my feelings through music. From there, I contacted my record company Awakening Records and the rest was history.
<PERSON>: Do you have problems entering western countries such as the U.S? (Question by @zul277)
<PERSON>: <PERSON>, so far there's no problem. If they actually listen to my music, we are trying to show a good picture about Islam. My music has a lot of happiness, about love, humanity etc. I have been to the United States a few times and I will be having a few tours in the States this year. So far so good.
<PERSON>: What inspires you to be in the music scene? (Question by s_a_m1995)
<PERSON>: I wanted to share what I've heard and experienced and I wanted to thank Allah and hence the album is called Thank You Allah. There's always a lot of inspiration from doing a good thing. I want to convey a message and inspire people.
<PERSON>: When is the next album? What can the fans expect?
<PERSON>: The second album will be slightly different but it will have more messages on Islamic issues, motherhood, friendship etc. It's like a package. The next album will be released some time next year and insyaAllah, there will be different languages like the current ones in iTunes and this is because we have a big community from different races. This shows that Islam is big, not only Arabs.
Randomly techno and Kinsella blogged about how the songs of <PERSON> are touching the lives of many people. UBDStudentaffairs also blogged about <PERSON> visit to the Uni's Radio Station. 820