Local musicians express feeling on Covid-19 in a song

KUCHING: A group of Sarawakian musicians has made the effort to record a song while staying at home during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period with the aim of expressing their feelings regarding the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) situation that the world is going through right now.

One of the musicians involved in the project, Azhfar Raimi Mua’az Johary or better known by her stage name Opah who sang in the track, said that the idea for the project came after she and her friends wanted to come up with a platform that can help them express such feelings.

The result of the project yielded a song which is a cover of an original song by the late Michael Jackson entitled ‘ Heal the World’.

“We feel that what the world needs now is healing which was why we chose the particular song by Michael Jackson. This is because we believe that the lyrics of the song are a reflection of the current situation of the world, as people all over the world fight to combat the Covid19 pandemic,” she added when contacted yesterday.

She also said that the song has a strong message for people of the world today and with the fact that the song was originally performed and recorded by the late Michael Jackson, who was regarded as one of the greatest pop singers the world has ever seen, she and her friends believe that many people around the world would instantly recognise the message of the song.

Apart from that, Opah also said that she and her friends tried their best to record such an iconic song which tells a story about the importance of taking care of the world where everybody lives in.

“It was an honour for us to record our version of the song as we would like to remind ourselves and everyone to always do our best in taking care of our home which is the world that we live in. The words of the song also remind us that it is the responsibility of everyone to take good care of the world,” she said.

Opah revealed that it was local producer and her band mate Keevin Hansin who selected the Michael Jackson song for the project.

Apart from Opah and Keevin, others involved in the recording of the song are Jerry Kamit, who is a renowned Sarawakian sape player; Kressller Salie, Romina Grey Melvin, Joe Fraser and Steward Pelok.

To record the song, Opah said that each performer would record their own part by themselves while Keevin did all the work to compile each part into the final product.

“As Malaysians go through the MCO at the moment, we had no choice but to record our parts separately by ourselves. Although there was a little bit of challenge in the recording process, we nevertheless had fun in doing it as it might present a new experience for some of us involved,” said Opah.

The recording and videomaking process of the song took more than one week to finish.

The song’s video clip can be viewed on YouTube by clicking the link: https://youtu.be/ 2HkoEQrilW8

‘Heal the World’ is a song recorded by Michael Jackson from his eighth studio album ‘Dangerous’ released in 1991 themed around the ‘ betterment for all’ concept.

In 2001, Michael Jackson said that ‘ Heal the World’ was the song he was most proud to have created.