Film and music icon P. Ramlee remembered through new concerts and mural in Singapore
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Musician and composer Julian Wong (left) re-composed P. Ramlee’s music into three movements, while artist Boon Bakes painted a mural of Ramlee.
PHOTOS: WILD RICE, NG SOR LUAN
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SINGAPORE – More than 50 years after his death, the works of Malay film and music icon P. Ramlee are still celebrated in Singapore.
There will be a musical tribute, Tunggu Sekejap: The P. Ramlee Suite, at Wild Rice @ Funan from May 15 to 31. Legasi Layar Perak, a concert at Capitol Theatre on April 30, will feature songs from his films, while a mural at Somerset Youth Park based on his life and works is part of Somerset Threads, an exhibition organised by *Scape that runs until November.
Feted for his significant contributions to the film and music industry in Malaysia and Singapore from the late 1940s to his death at the age of 44 in 1973, the Penang-born multi-hyphenate was an actor, film-maker, singer, musician and composer.
P. Ramlee’s time with then Singapore-based Malay Film Productions between 1955 and 1964 resulted in some of his most memorable works. They include films such as the Bujang Lapok series (Over-age Bachelors, 1957 to 1961) and Anak-ku Sazali (My Son, Sazali, 1956), which won him Best Actor at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival in 1957.
An orchestral interpretation of P. Ramlee’s songs
Singaporean musician and composer Julian Wong re-composed P. Ramlee’s music into three movements.
PHOTO: WILD RICE
P. Ramlee’s films and music possess a universal appeal that cuts across communities and generations, says Singaporean musician, composer and music director Julian Wong, 37.
For Tunggu Sekejap: The P. Ramlee Suite, Wong re-composed some of P. Ramlee’s most beloved songs such as Azizah (written in 1945), Getaran Jiwa (Soul Vibration, 1960) and Tunggu Sekejap (Wait A Moment, 1958) into three movements.
Directed by Wild Rice founding artistic director Ivan Heng, the music will be performed by the 30-member chamber orchestra re: mix, led by maestro Foo Say Ming.
Wong tells The Straits Times he was first introduced to P. Ramlee’s music while he was in secondary school through a Penang-born schoolmate, who constantly sang Getaran Jiwa. The music educator, who teaches at ITE’s Centre for Music and the Arts, later got into P. Ramlee’s films after watching them on YouTube with his former students.
“Something about the melodies just made me respond to them. I found them very beautiful and from another time,” says Wong, who received the Young Artist Award in 2023. He is also known for writing Don’t Call Him Mr Mari Kita (2021), the acclaimed musical show about the late local composer Zubir Said.
“P. Ramlee’s music and films moved me to go and find out more about the man who created them. It didn’t matter to me that I couldn’t speak Malay very well. As musicians, we just react to music very viscerally,” Wong adds.
“There is something very timeless about P. Ramlee’s works. He uses films to say something very important about the society and the world in which he lived, the very same issues that we still talk about today.”
P. Ramlee, born in Penang, made significant contributions to the Malay film and music industry from the late 1940s to his death in the early 1970s.
PHOTO: WILD RICE
In 2018, Wong and re: mix staged Re: Composed, a concert at the Esplanade that featured a similar classical reworking of P. Ramlee’s songs, together with their reinterpretation of German-born British composer and pianist Max Richter’s Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons.
Like in the previous staging, Wong will discuss P. Ramlee’s works, as well as his own process in coming up with the classical piece. There is a new element in the upcoming shows though – Wong will have a dialogue with “P. Ramlee”, played by home-grown actor and musician Fadhli Ramlee.
Says Heng, 61: “As we mark SG60, Tunggu Sekejap invites us to remember the golden age of Malayan cinema and reflect on what we lost, and the artistic potential of Singapore and our region.
“For those who grew up with P. Ramlee, Tunggu Sekejap will be more than just a walk down memory lane. It’s a chance to hear his music in a fresh and unexpected way, reinterpreted by Julian Wong. For everyone else, including classical music lovers, it’s an invitation to discover his genius through a soul-stirring, cinematic soundscape. ”
What: Tunggu Sekejap: The P. Ramlee Suite str.sg/HkCs
Where: Wild Rice @ Funan, 107 North Bridge Road
When: May 15 to 31, 7.30pm (Wednesdays to Fridays), 2.30 and 7.30pm (Saturdays) and 2.30pm (Sundays)
Admission: From $35 to $85. Go to
Celebrating the golden age of Malay cinema
Malaysian singer P. Radhi made his name by singing in the style of late Malay film and music icon P. Ramlee.
PHOTO: WADAH SENI ENTERTAINMENT
P. Ramlee’s music comes to the fore at Legasi Layar Perak, a concert that celebrates the golden age of Malay cinema from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. The show will also feature the works of his contemporaries such as Normadiah and Norsiah Yem.
P. Ramlee’s tunes will be sung by Malaysian crooner P. Radhi. The 34-year-old is the winner of Bintang P. Ramlee 2016, a Malaysian singing competition in which contestants sing the late entertainer’s songs and style themselves and their performances after him.
In 2022, P. Radhi’s music career got another boost when a video of him singing Tiara, a 1991 song by Malaysian rock band Kris, in the style of P. Ramlee went viral on social media.
“I grew up with the music and movies of P. Ramlee,” the Melaka-born singer tells ST. “His music has its own distinctive style and substance, and there is a lot of sincerity in his work.”
The concert also features veteran Malaysian singer Azlina Aziz, daughter of Normadiah and fellow singer-actor Aziz Jaafar; and Singaporean stalwarts such as Eddy Ali.
Veteran Malaysian singer Azlina Aziz is one of the artistes performing at the Legasi Layar Perak concert at Capitol Theatre on April 30.
PHOTO: WADAH SENI ENTERTAINMENT
Azlina, 62, says of younger singers like P. Radhi: “The music of P. Ramlee is enchanting and, at the same time, soul-stirring. I am delighted and proud that young singers know and also enjoy performing his songs.”
What: Legasi Layar Perak sistic.com.sg
Where: Capitol Theatre, 17 Stamford Road
When: April 30, 8pm
Admission: $88 to $198 from Sistic (go to
P. Ramlee’s connection with the Somerset area
Singapore artist Boon Bakes and his P. Ramlee mural at *Scape.
ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
The P. Ramlee mural at event venue Somerset Youth Park – titled Tan Sri P Ramlee, The Multi-Talented – is the work of Singaporean visual artist Boon Bakes.
The 37-year-old, whose real name is Muhammad Taufiq Rosle, chose to focus on P. Ramlee as the mural sits on the location of one of his films. A scene from Bujang Lapok, a favourite of Boon Bakes, was filmed in Somerset.
He spent a week working out the concept for the art, and five days painting it in January with his 27-year-old mentee KidKaijin, whose real name is Mohammed Salihan Wahid.
Boon Bakes says: “Like many people of my generation, I am very familiar with P. Ramlee films from the 1950s and 1960s, as I watched them with my family. But I find that a lot of the younger kids these days might not be so exposed to his works, so I hope this mural can be a way to educate them on his legacy.”
The artwork is part of youth organisation *Scape’s arts festival, comma 2025, which follows the theme Past x Present = Future. Through music, dance, visual arts and cross-disciplinary works, the interplay of heritage and modern culture is showcased. The mural will be on display until November.
Besides a portrait of P. Ramlee, the mural also includes a line from Getaran Jiwa, which Boon Bakes included because he liked the way Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam sang the song at an event in 2023.
“One of the characters was marking doors with an ‘X’ and I thought to myself, wow, this is just like tagging, like graffiti.”
