Nona Asiah was born to be a star.
During the golden era of Singapore cinema from the 1940s to 70s, often the voice that actresses in iconic Malay films lip-synced to was hers, and it even got her through a war unscathed.
A singer, producer, and eventually beloved cultural icon who was heard across airwaves and silver screens in Singapore and Malaysia, she inspired not just her children but an entire new generation of entertainers to follow in her footsteps, until her passing in July
2024.
Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video
During the golden era of Singapore cinema from the 1940s to 70s, often the voice that actresses in iconic Malay films lip-synced to was hers, and it even got her through a war unscathed.
A singer, producer, and eventually beloved cultural icon who was heard across airwaves and silver screens in Singapore and Malaysia, she inspired not just her children but an entire new generation of entertainers to follow in her footsteps, until her passing in July
2024.
Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00Talent is God's gift. Either you can sing, or you cannot sing.
00:06The moment when I hear that particular voice,
00:09we all know that's Mona Asyaf.
00:12I don't think there's other singers that can sound like my mum.
00:15It all started from the late Zubia Syed, our national anthem composer.
00:37He used to take my mum under his wings.
00:41He composed one particular song just for my mother.
00:46And the title of the song is called, Chempaka Biru.
00:52Chempaka is a type of flower.
01:01So chempaka is usually yellow.
01:03But the fact that Zubia Syed named it blue chempaka means that it's a very rare chempaka.
01:08And I believe maybe that's how the late Zubia Syed saw my mother through his eyes.
01:15One might say, Mona Asyaf was born to be a star.
01:21She was born into a very artistic family.
01:24Her mother and her father were very well established during the era of Mao Zedong.
01:29Her mother was a prima donna back then, and she continued that tradition.
01:34She started at a very, very young age.
01:37I believe that she didn't go to any school of music, but it's just that it comes naturally to her.
01:45During the Japanese occupation, she was very young, maybe 10 years old, 12 years old.
01:50Survival is very important.
01:53She learned how to speak Japanese.
01:58She used to follow the Japanese soldiers into the forest and used to perform for them the songs.
02:07♪♪♪
02:38They got sugar, they got coffee.
02:41They were not deprived like other people.
02:44For a person at that age to start thinking, doing all those kind of things, to support her whole family, someone was so remarkable.
02:54While her singing talent got her through the war relatively unscathed, it would do much more for her after.
03:03She grew up in a fascinating time when Singapore's priorities were different.
03:08Singapore was the entertainment center in Southeast Asia at that time.
03:13A 16-year-old Asya landed her first paying job at Radio Malaya as a host.
03:19But once she was discovered, her voice was destined for more than the radio.
03:26During the golden era of Singaporean cinema from the 1940s to 70s,
03:31movie studios Shaw Brothers and Cathay Curris were driving a new kind of film that needed a new kind of voice.
03:40During that period when Malay movies were really hot, those actresses, they were lip-synching to her singing actually.
03:50We can hear my mother's voice a lot in those movies.
03:55We used to laugh.
03:56Ah, mummy's voice, mummy's voice.
04:07She sings in Bahasa Baku, she speaks in Bahasa Baku.
04:10That's her character trait, that is really iconic of Luna Asya.
04:14In normal Malay, you would say, apa?
04:18But she would say, apa?
04:20You know, so that's Baku.
04:21She will enunciate it phonetically.
04:36Then the movie of P Ramlee started.
04:39P Ramlee was very, very, very popular.
04:42And when you are actually singing for all these movies, right, that speaks for itself.
04:47People contributed to the spirit of entertainment of the current generation of Malay singers.
04:53You can never bring back that era.
04:55The acting, the song, the way people emote their feelings during that time.
05:00A lot of Malay children grew up with these movies and they've watched it hundreds of times.
05:06We believe that if you cannot carry your name, your life is not going to be smooth.
05:12Her actual name is Asya Binti Aman.
05:15So Zubir Syed said, Asya, you need to have a stage name.
05:20Why don't you put, like the Indonesian, Nona?
05:23Nona is a lady.
05:26When she had that name, Nona Asya, it's like, boom!
05:32She's up there.
05:34Suddenly, everybody recognizes her more.
05:38Her star was on an undeniable rise.
05:41Her voice dominated the airwaves and silver screens across Malaya and Singapore.
05:47From what we know, she has recorded something like about 300 songs.
05:52She has this entire career behind her, which lasted for decades.
05:56She was one of the few Malay women I know that had a career back then.
06:01She is this vocal coach, but she was also the first woman producer.
06:08And one fateful day, her musical career led her to meet a man named Ismail Qasim in a recording studio.
06:17One of the songs that they recorded together was Hasan and Hasna.
06:32That shot them up on a different level.
06:36Sparks flew off, probably.
06:41My mum was still carrying me in her tummy, doing recording, and I'm about to come out into this world.
06:49Halfway through recording, they had to stop.
06:52Ahmad Jafar was the one who actually brought my mum to the hospital to deliver me.
06:57All five of us in the family, we studied music.
07:01We are the musical family.
07:04She sent her eldest son for formal music education overseas, to Berkeley,
07:09at a time when people hardly get to university locally.
07:15All that became very inspiring for me.
07:20During a time when women were entering the workplace in droves,
07:23During a time when women were entering the workplace in droves,
07:27Nona Asya was no housewife.
07:31My mum and dad had been blessed on the financial part.
07:36My late father, he gave half of his retirement money to my mum.
07:40And you know what my mum did? She started investing.
07:43She started buying properties.
07:46When my brother Iskandar wanted to go to Berkeley, that cost him about half a million Singapore dollars.
07:51She sold the house to be able to sponsor him.
07:54She has the best thing that any parents could have given their children.
07:58It's not money, it's education.
08:01I probably started playing the bongo when I was four or five years old.
08:05So after that, I started learning playing the xylophone.
08:10I started playing the drums, the saxophone, obviously the piano.
08:15One thing about my mum, she's someone like the late Margaret Thatcher.
08:20She runs things with an iron fist.
08:22And she has her reasons.
08:24She has a very regimented system.
08:27She's very serious in the studio, but her method works.
08:30She believed that music could contribute to something that was more permanent
08:34in terms of making a career for people who are interested.
08:38They supported me together with my late brother to Berkeley in Boston to learn.
08:43My brother had the opportunity for me to work doing big projects like for example, National Day Parade.
08:49She's very unique in a sense that not only did she produce the Cultural Medallion winner,
08:54but she also got the Cultural Medallion.
08:57I don't know of anyone else who has two persons in their family given the Cultural Medallion.
09:03As her career matured, she took on a new role.
09:07Nona was very much a mentor.
09:10She was also my vocal teacher when I was a child.
09:14And in many ways, she's also a mother figure to me.
09:19My yoyo came in the 80s.
09:21You can say that it was the Malay version of Mickey Mouse Club.
09:25We were the Blues Clues and the Barney of the 80s.
09:29My yoyo brought about this massive interest in the Malay language
09:35because non-Malay children were watching my yoyo.
09:38And a lot of my non-Malay friends, until today when they know that I was a part of my yoyo,
09:44the first thing they'll tell me is,
09:45I know how to speak Malay because I learned it from my yoyo.
09:49She actually is the one that leads the whole thing.
09:53Najib came up to be a very good companion.
09:57Rila Melati, Salimah Mahmud, these are all her students before.
10:01She told me that you cannot lie when you are singing.
10:04For example, if you're singing a happy song,
10:07you cannot be sad and pretend that you're singing a happy song.
10:10I want people to remember Nona Asia as this songbird,
10:15as a visionary songbird who gave Singapore so much
10:19in terms of the songs that she produced in the past for children
10:25and for giving us her own sons to continue the music legacy.
10:33Nowadays, whenever she goes to her doctor for her check-up,
10:36and her doctor, my God,
10:38Madam Asia, can you sing for us something today?
10:42It's things like that to me, I feel that my mum is proud of herself.
10:48Just hope that she'll be happy for the remaining years of her life.
11:06.