Pop acts gather to celebrate the songs of lyricist Habsah Hassan

If there is one thing that the Dari Sudut Hati, Habsah Hassan concert showed, it is that the Malay pop landscape from the 1980s to the early 2000s would have been far different without the lyrics of Malaysian songwriter Habsah Hassan.

- Eddino Abdul Hadi

CONCERT DARI SUDUT HATI, HABSAH HASSAN (FROM THE HEART OF HABSAH HASSAN) Esplanade Concert Hall May 2

One of the marquee programmes of the Esplanade's Pesta Raya Malay Festival of Arts, the set list featured songs that became staples on Malay radio in Singapore and Malaysia during that period.

The intergenerational line-up of singers included Malay pop veterans who worked closely with Habsah – Salamiah Hassan and Jamal Abdillah from Malaysia, and Singaporean pop doyenne Rahimah Rahim.

Home-grown singers Sufie Rashid, Rahila Rashun and newcomers GTS, as well as Malaysian singer Arish Mikael, sang the familiar pop hits Habsah wrote for other popular acts.

Arish opened the show with songs by late Malay pop icon Sudirman, one of Habsah's earliest and closest collaborators.

He does sound a lot like Sudirman as he took on three of the latter's biggest songs, including Sepetang Di Pinggir Bukit (An Afternoon On The Hilltop, 1980). Arish, after all, first made his name in 2022 after videos of him performing the late singer's songs went viral.