Friday, September 07, 2007

Negaraku=Mamula Moon!!!

OH.MY.GOD. What a shock!!!!! Our national anthem was from a Hawaiian song!!!!!!!!

Check this out : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negaraku
Read it. You really should. But bear in mind that Wiki's article might not be 100% correct.

In short, what happened in the history is this (I extract from Wiki) : At the time of independance, the officials wanted a national anthem. They held a competition for it, there were over 500 entries, all of which were rejected. Then they invited famous international composers to compose the songs. All were turned down too. In the end, they chose the state anthem of Perak.

But the thing is, how this state anthem of Perak came about. The then Sultan of Perak was living in exile in Seychelles. There he heard this song "Mamula Moon" that was very popular at the time. Then, when a member of Perak royal family was invited to a reception and was asked what the state anthem was. There wasn't really a state anthem then, but to avoid embarrassment, he then hummed the Mamula Moon. So it became the state anthem of Perak...

SO! That means our national anthem is a Hawaiian song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who could have imagined that???!!!

Oh by the way, listen to the Mamula Moon here .

From Wiki : "In 2005, an antique disc collector found an old song (whose music is identical to the Negaraku) from his collection.[2] It later become a news headline for local newspaper. The song was a Hawaiian Song call 'Mamula Moon' believed the record dated back to the 1940s."

I didn't know this news.....
I tried the link from Wiki http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/8/30/nation/11901369&sec=nation But......... "Access Denied".

Another article about this : http://cmorbutt.multiply.com/journal/item/32.

Why couldn't they just pick any of the entries fromt he competition or any of the anthem which those composers had made???? At least it is original... Geez....

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