KUALA LUMPUR: Specially for Malaysia's 14th general election tomorrow, singer Badri Ibrahim has created a Vote Malaysia song for this historic occasion.
His song, Undilah Malaysia 2018 (Vote Malaysia 2018) has had its two-minute music video on YouTube since May 1, and it is a multi-racial appeal for Malaysians to exercise their democratic rights at the ballot box.
Produced by Super Red Music and written and composed by Badri, the first runner-up of MyStarz LG in 2007, the Undilah Malaysia 2018 video features an informal studio performance by the singer and his close friends who call themselves Malaysia Amigos or Malagos.
Besides Badri, the 1Malaysia group also comprises bansuri flutist Sesatre, ukulele player Daeren Tan, tabla player Richard Skin Chua, cajon player Richard Vijay, and kazoo player Mages Chua.
“Our song is specially to make Malaysians exercise their voting rights in a harmonious manner. We want to encourage Malaysians to play their part in parliamentary democracy, and at the same time, keep away from political rivalry, name-calling and negativity,” he said in a news report today.
“We also want to promote national unity in this song, which calls on all Malaysians to set aside political differences and work together for the well-being of the nation.”
Undilah Malaysia 2018 is sung in a mix of Malay, English, Mandarin and Tamil, and has been widely shared by Netizens via WhatsApp.
During the last general election in 2013, singer-songwriter Tomok composed the song Jom Mengundi to encourage citizens to vote. It came with a music video featuring singers Ayu Damit, Shiha Zikir, Black and Tomok himself meeting and greeting Malaysians from all walks of life to spread their voting message.
In the same year, hip-hop group One Nation Emcees recorded an updated version of the longtime election song Mari Mengundi which was first performed in 1959 by Datuk Zainal Alam. This song was later covered by Nona Asiah and Jamaluddin Alias.