Sabah Christmas jingles all the way
Local youths go native with Yuletide songs
KOTA KINABALU: A group of youngsters near here added some native flavour to their Christmas songs, and they’re proving to be a hit here.
The group from the Northern Kota Belud district here came out with an album of eight songs in their native Kadazandusun and Bahasa Malaysia dialects.
Its members – three local artistes, a secondary student and a college student – composed most of the songs while some others were written by their relatives and friends.
“So this is a totally Kota Belud Christmas album,” said local community leader Ewon Benedict, who served as its producer.
He said the group approached him a year ago about their Yuletide project after they sang at his Christmas open house in Kota Belud.
Ewon said the album was aimed at adding some local flavour to the season that was usually dominated by Western Christmas songs, especially over radio stations here.
Though the idea came up a year ago, the recording only began in October.
“It was a bit of a rush but I am glad we made it in time,” Ewon said at the launch of the album by state Rural Development Minister Datuk Radin Malleh in Penampang on Sunday.
Ewon hoped local radio stations would play the songs during this Christmas season.
The album would also be sold at various churches in Kota Belud for now.
“I am not really expecting commercial success. I would be happy just to recoup the costs of producing it,” said Ewon, the political secretary at the Rural Development ministry.
“It’s an opportunity to showcase these young artistes’ talents while infusing some Sabah flavour into the Christmas season.”