KUALA LUMPUR, July 7 — Singer Anuar Zain has been in the music industry for 40 years now.
The 53-year-old who began his journey back in 1983 as part of a children’s duo, Anuar and Ellina for five years, has had his fair share of ups and downs in his career as a crooner.
From being pushed around as a child singer to making a comeback 12 years later as an award-winning adult singer with a string of chart-topping songs, Anuar said his career journey is nothing short of God’s plan.
“When I was a child singer, I felt that we’ve been pushed around, we had to do this, we had to do that, there was this uneasy feeling. Sometimes there’s a lot of awkwardness as well.
“Even though I was still young, I feel like I knew what I wanted to do but sometimes I had to sing songs that I don’t like, wear outfits that I’m not fond of.
“But we were young at that time, so complaining was the last thing on my mind.
“We learnt to restrain ourselves and listen to people so we could better ourselves in the future,” Anuar said.
The Lelaki Ini singer put singing aside after being told multiple times that a male singer could not make it in the industry and was content living life for a while, working as a flight attendant for Malaysia Airlines.
Anuar shared that his ten-year journey with Malaysia Airlines prepared him for his musical comeback.
He shared that patience is key to being a flight attendant as getting yelled at by discontented passengers is part of the job.
“We became their punching bag and we go through this a lot. So with patience, I would try my best to make my passengers happy and at the end of the day I would feel satisfied whenever I’m able to help make someone’s day.
“So my time at the airlines was actually training without me realising at that time, and I made my comeback,” he said.
Anuar made his comeback through the release of his debut album Anuar in 1998 which contains some of his evergreen hits such as the famous Bila Resah and Jangan Bersedih Lagi.
On his new single, Anuar said that he is still in the search for the ‘perfect song’.
He admitted that he has received some of songs but only a couple of them had caught his interest, saying current songs were different from those in the early 2000’s as most lacked dramatic pizzazz.
“It’s a nice beautiful song, it’s a very pleasant song but I notice that nowadays a lot of people will write only ‘pleasant’ songs.
“It’s not a bad thing, it’s not wrong and it’s nice but for my soul, I need something a little more dramatic in terms of its melody as well as lyrically.
“Because I love dramatic things, even in movies,” he said.
He added that he did request some local composers to compose his ideal single however he’s still waiting for response from them while admitting there are some who were reluctant to produce such a song.
He’s also open to receive any song submission from anyone as long as the song is relatable to him and his fans.
Anuar is currently preparing for his upcoming 40th anniversary concert dubbed the AZ40 concert, which will take place this October 28 at the Melawati Indoor Stadium in Shah Alam.
In preparation for AZ40, the singer who has just recovered from Covid-19, is actively trying to regain his stamina and energy with chest and lungs exercises to prepare for the two-hour show.
He added that the AZ40 concert will be for one night only and they have no plans to extend it.
Tickets for the concert will go on sale this July 12 at 10am, for more information on the AZ40 concert, please click here.
