Concert review: Long live pop yeh yeh’s cross-generational pull at Pesta Raya

Pesta Raya – Malay Festival of Arts 2024 Hidup Pop Yeh Yeh! (Long Live Pop Yeh Yeh!)

Esplanade Concert Hall
May 12

Hidup Pop Yeh Yeh! is one of those rare concerts that pulls in two distinct generations of music fans.

The senior crowd was there for performances by Malaysian veterans Dato’ Jeffrydin, 77, Dato’ L. Ramli, 82, and S. Mariam, 74. They are among the surviving progenitors of pop yeh yeh, a genre that fuses 1960s pop with Malay music.

The rest of the audience comprised millennials and Gen Zs who turned up for Malaysian pop yeh yeh revivalists Masdo, whose band members are in their 30s.

One of the major presentations of the Esplanade’s annual Malay arts festival Pesta Raya, the 110-minute concert proved how pop yeh yeh is still a prominent force in the Malay music industry here and in Malaysia.

Nostalgia certainly ruled – the live renditions of 1960s hits by Jeffrydin, L. Ramli and S. Mariam were pretty much faithful to the original recordings.

But as Masdo showed, you can also take the pop yeh yeh blueprint, infuse it with contemporary indie rock undertones and still find favour with fans. They are, after all, the most streamed Malaysian act on Spotify.

The trio made up of singer-guitarist Ali Sariah, bassist Putu Ceri and guitarist Asmawi – backed by a drummer and a keyboardist – were the last act to go onstage.

While frontman Ali spoke several times about how honoured they were to be sharing the stage with the original pop yeh yeh idols, theirs was no deferential performance.

Their set, while featuring only a few songs, was full of energy, and they tackled the shared stage like it was their own headlining show.

They were the only act that got a sizeable number of audience members to stand up and dance, although the veterans had a smattering of fans who did that too.

L. Ramli, looking dapper in a red jacket, maroon fez and dark glasses, had some moves left, prancing around in an exaggerated manner, singing signature tunes such as Dara Pujaanku (Maiden I Idolise). Jeffrydin, while less animated, received some of the loudest cheers when he sang pop yeh yeh staples such as Mas Mona. S. Mariam’s performance was upbeat, and had at least one fan near the stage getting up from their seat and grooving along to Bertemasya (Having Fun).

Notably, their voices still sounded youthful, although L. Ramli occasionally had trouble reaching the high notes.

Earlier in the night, the show kicked off with a brief opening set by home-grown artistes Dalina Jaapar, Izat Ibrahim and Thaqif, while Singaporean host Hafeez Glamour was the emcee.

Hafeez also helmed a talk-show segment in which he got Jeffrydin, L. Ramli and S. Mariam to reminisce what it was like when pop yeh yeh first took hold upon emerging in the 1960s.

The fans were wild, they recalled, and Jeffrydin told the story of a fan who, without warning, snipped off his hair to keep as a souvenir. L. Ramli had fans who sussed out his home address and stalked him, while S. Mariam had to contend with female fans who were jealous that she was singing with popular male bands such as Singapore’s The Rythmn Boys.

Closer to the end of the concert, all the artistes came together for Yale Yale – the pop yeh yeh anthem that has been covered by several acts such as the late Singaporean singer M. Ishak – a rousing finale that summed up the genre’s enduring appeal six decades on.