KUALA LUMPUR: Singer Syamel Fodzly was elated when his song, Hidup Dalam Mati, was announced as the Longest Song in Carta Era at the inaugural Era Digital Music Awards (Eradma) tonight.
“This is a blast! Thank you so much, my dear fans,” said Syamel.
Thanking his fans for their support throughout his two-year career, he promised to come up with more entertaining and chart-topping songs.
“I’d love to share this honour with Edry Abdul Halim who was my Akademi Fantasia 2015 principal. You are my hero!”
Eradma, the first digital and social media awards in the country was hosted by comedian Nabil Ahmad and was recorded live on Facebook (FB).
Awards were given to six categories of entertainers – Best Singing Collaboration, Best Cover Version in Social Media, Most Emotional Song 2016, Best Guest Interview on Carta Era 2016, Longest Song in Carta Era 2016, and the Digi Choice New Singer.
The winners in these categories were Faizal Tahir, Akiem Rosli for Segalanya, Aiman Tino for Aku Rela Dibenci, Ayda Jebat, Syamel for Hidup Dalam Mati, and Colour Of Voices, respectively.
Faizal said: “It’s amazing I’ve defeated heavyweights as Yuna and juniors as Juzzthin to come up tops.
“I’m so honoured to have had the chance to collaborate with Datuk Siti Nurhaliza, Altimet and Joe Flizzow. They are great singers and I salute them.
“I’m currently promoting my new album and composing songs for Harris Baba, Aizat Amdan and Aziz Harun.”
Aiman said: “Winning this award has given my confidence a boost and since I’m singing this song again at the Anugerah Juara Lagu 31 this weekend, I’ll go all out to give fans a performance to remember!”
Era FM content manager Dhan Andreas said: “This awards show is especially for social media users who are growing in number around the country. They’re among our station's strongest fans and we want to reward them for their loyalty.
“About 3,000 to 4,000 votes were received by each winner, and this is encouraging. We plan to hold this event annually and all of the shortcomings we have had this year will be rectified in future.”
Performances for the evening came from Syamel, Sufian Suhaimi, Aiman, Altimet, Amira Othman, Khai Bahar and Colour Of Voices at the ceremony held at Malaysia Tourism Centre in Jalan Ampang tonight.
The award categories were presented by Era announcers as Dina Nadzir, Adi Fashla Juraimi, Ray, Haniff and Radin.
Fans voted for the winners at edma.era.fm to determine all category winners sans the Longest Song in Carta Era.