Think of Hari Raya and the tune ‘Selamat Hari Raya’ will probably play in your head. But betcha don’t know the original singer behind it.
The answer is Nona Asiah, who recorded the track in 1954 for the Cathay film of the same name. Now 86, the doyenne of Malay cinema’s golden age has just received the Cultural Medallion, the city’s highest artistic honour, together with Koh Mun Hong, a 64-year-old Chinese calligrapher and visual artist.
Nona, born Asiah Aman, began her career as a teen and under conditions not exactly ripe for artistic expression: war. She was only 12 when she joined her mother’s opera troupe to perform for soldiers at their army bases in Singapore. When the Occupation ended, Nona found work – and lots of it. She was a regular cover singer on radio, became a music director with Shaw Brothers, worked with the legendary Zubir Said, toured the region with an orchestra, and even inked a record deal with HMV. They didn't use to call her the ‘First Lady of Entertainment’ for nothing.
Even though she retired in 1975, Nona’s legacy lives on. Her son, the late Iskandar Ismail, is himself a Cultural Medallion winner, and she counts the likes of Najip Ali as a protégé. ‘I never expected I would get the award,’ she told The Straits Times. ‘I thought I had finished achieving everything as a singer and teacher.’
Koh Mun Hong’s path was not as direct. Even though he first fell in love with the brush when he was a secondary school student, the calligrapher, ink painter and poet only became a full-time artist when he was 38, after quitting his job at a bank. Today, the bachelor shows his work at local and international exhibitions such as those organised by the Siaw-Tao Chinese Seal-carving, Calligraphy and Painting Society.
With the accolade, both veterans will receive $80,000 in grants and join luminaries such as Edwin Thumboo and Jeremy Monteiro in the pantheon of great local artists.