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| Meeting Ruth Sahanaya in Person | |
by
Farah 'Fairy' Mahdzan
(25-Aug-2003) | Readers Say |
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Well, well, what do you know, I happen to be a Ruth Sahanaya fan! (Uthe for short.) I would have been crazy to refuse the job assignment. At once, I dropped everything that I was doing and sprinted outside to my car to see if I had brought any of Uthe's albums for her to sign. I would usually have one in the car, an album of hers called Seputih Kasih from 1980-something but I was bitterly disappointed to not find it. But no matter, I was pleased enough with the chance to meet her. Uthe and her escorts finally arrived at the studio, and I had the pleasure of guiding them there. Light&Easy (the radio station) is English-based, so we had been expecting Uthe to speak in English for the interview. However after the first question she expressed her preference to converse in Bahasa Indonesia. Caroline, the DJ, didn't mind at all, so it became mighty interesting to hear the questions being asked in English and then listening to Uthe answering them in Bahasa Indonesia. This is Malaysia after all; anything goes as long as you're not speaking Afrikaans or something uncommon like that.
As Uthe took breaks in between her interview questions, I conversed with her as much as time allowed. I asked her what she thought of her Malaysian audience, to which she said "orang Malaysia sangat appreciative, saya senang sekali manggung di sini. (Malaysian audience is an appreciative lot, I like performing here.)" This was rather contrary to my belief and experience of working that Malaysian audiences are somewhat passive during concerts, almost like people who are given sedatives before watching a concert.
I spoke to Uthe in mostly Bahasa Indonesia; apparently this is a habit I cannot shake off when I meet Indonesians. My Malaysian Malay tongue has a funny way to conforming to the other person's dialect or language (provided I know the language spoken!). Uthe looked at me intriguingly and asked me how often it was that I visited Indonesia for I was beginning to sound more Indonesian than Malaysian (I was addressing her as Mbak, using words like doank, emang, keren and everything). I smiled and said, "Ya sekali sekala lah mbak, (once in a while)." Funny enough, even her husband cum manager, who I met at the end of the interview, asked me if I were Indonesian.
Ruth also expressed her interests to sing in Chinese and Japanese. She's got quite a following of Japanese fans, judging from the fact that she has recorded her all time famous song, Kaulah Segalanya in the Japanese language. Wouldn't I like to get my hands on that Japanese album! That's a collector's item right there! Uthe is good friends with quite a few Malaysian artists, among them Zainal Abidin and her contemporary Sheila Majid. In fact Sheila Majid and Ruth Sahanaya rose up together at around the same time in the 1980s. I asked Uthe how many albums she's recorded, just to make sure I know my Uthe facts. She answered sepuluh (ten), including her latest one which was just released last Monday. "Beli ya album baru saya!" she hinted at me with a twinkle in her eyes. She doesn't even have to tell me that! :) I have six of her albums so far, so I have four more to hunt and buy!
Damn, where were you guys when I needed you??
An hour had passed by and it was time for Uthe to wrap things up. Before she left I asked her to sign something for me:
 A leaflet from the Poems for the World concert at which she performed last Friday. I had been asking everyone in the office if they had a Ruth Sahanaya CD to spare me but no one did; so this was the next best thing. At least it's got a picture of her pretty face on it. She misspelled "Fairy" and wrote "Fery" instead. But I don't care. She could have spelled "Fairy" with three X's, nine Q's, five P's and a couple of digits for all I cared; I'll always be her eccentric-Malaysian-Indonesian-speaking fan.
Isn't she lovely?
Ruth Sahanaya then, back in the 1980s!
Wow, delapan puluhan sekali Mbak! ;) (This picture is from her Seputih Kasih album, back when a cassette still costs only Rp.2500!)
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#34. epi pengan bgt ketemu ma ruth,kapan ya?bls domg ke email epi  Posted by epifania on 7-Jun-2007, 19:11 MYT
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I was about to wrap up work for the day when a colleague mentioned that Indonesian diva Ruth Sahanaya was coming in at 6pm and that I was welcomed to photograph her for one of our many radio websites.
But since Uthe is saying the audience here in Malaysia is responsive, hey, who am I to rebut that answer? It also takes an amazing performer to woo and stir wild the hearts of shy Malaysians, and I do have to say that she did get quite a bit of attention when she performed at 
In her impressive resume, Uthe has recorded a unique 
.
Gambar yg paling bagus itu yg pas Uthe lagi nanda tangan... luthu expresinya... Hmm Fai bakalan ketemu siapa lagi yaaa... wondering.... 
