IMAGINE singing on Malaysia Day which happens to be your birthday, only to be humiliated on stage in plain view of the audience.
This is what happened to singer Atilia Haron, 43, after her half-hour set at the KL International Jazz Festival, which took place at Universiti Malaya last Saturday.
Despite a rousing applause from the audience and the organisers approving a brief encore, Atilia received a harsh rebuke from a concert official for “unprofessionalism”.
To make matters worse, her music director, Jason Voo, also got a scolding for “interference” while trying to help.
“I take exception to this official’s conduct towards us. He had earlier informed us, via email, that we would be performing for 30 minutes, and we did just that,” Atilia told the New Straits Times yesterday. “Our set lasted 31 minutes. Before the final song, I checked with him if it would be a suitable time to end, and he responded affirmatively.”
Once the set ended, the crowd called for an encore, and Atilia performed for an additional four minutes.
“He indicated his approval, in full view of the audience by saying ‘okay’. However, he later ticked me off for exceeding the agreed time limit.”
Atilia claimed he raised his voice, saying “This is not a concert! This is a jazz festival, so you be professional!”
Voo enquired as to what was going on, and was scolded by the official. “He responded aggressively, saying “I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to her!”
She said the official could have been affected by the extension of her set, and thus apologised for the inconvenience.
“It cast a pall over a happy evening. The treatment I was subjected to falls below the standards of courtesy. I was incensed, and gave him 24 hours to apologise.”
Since the official did not respond, Atilia highlighted the incident on her Facebook account, after which dozens of fans and friends expressed support for her.
“Some of them are musicians, and they told me they suffered similar humiliations from concert officials. I dread to think other singers will be humiliated, too, by such officials’ lack of budi bahasa (manners).”
Meanwhile, the festival’s director, Rodin J.S. Kumar, said Atilia had breached contractual obligations made with him, and was 15 minutes late for her set.
“She was not waiting backstage before her turn, and our crew found her outside the concert hall. I did tell her to be more professional with her timing, but she lost her cool and scolded us instead,” said Kumar, adding that neither he nor crew members scolded her.
He said Atilia was not part of the festival’s original line-up announced last month, but he agreed to slot her in anyway for the third day of the festival.