More than just the voice of the moment, Sean Ghazi is also an accomplished actor and dancer. This year, he captivated Malaysians as the all-round performer who brought a part of history to life.
AS the final curtain descends on 2007, one local entertainer can truly look back on a year of accomplishments.
 |
Performing at the 14th Anugerah Industri Muzik in Kuala Lumpur in April. – AZHAR MAHFOF / The Star |
But his portrayal of the legendary Malaysian actor-musician in the major stage production P. Ramlee the Musical ... The Life, The Loves & The Inspiration – played to packed houses in Kuala Lumpur between Oct 18 and Nov 3 – is not the only significant point in Sean’s career this year.
Another fact worth celebrating is of course his being bestowed the Best New Artiste award at the premier Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) in April.
This followed the release of his debut solo album Semalam in November 2006. It also clinched another AIM award – Best Musical Arrangement in a Song for Semalam.
 |
Sean was in the spotlight with Datuk Siti Nurhaliza in the recent P. Ramlee the Musical. – Photo courtesy of Enfiniti Productions |
While he is yet to be the king of Malaysian entertainment (like P. Ramlee was in his heyday), the 38-year-old is one singer the Malaysian king will not forget.
This year, Sean has performed numerous times before Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin and other members of royalty including Britain’s Prince Andrew, who was in the country for the 50th Merdeka celebrations in August.
At an interview with The Star about a week ago, Sean admits: “Yes, a lot of things happened this year. In fact, I performed so many times in front of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong this year that I’m sure the King must be thinking, ‘What, you again?’”
Nevertheless, it’s hard not to “think P. Ramlee, think Sean Ghazi” now.
His album Semalam features a collection of songs that ranges from P. Ramlee, Anneke Gronloh and Pink Martini to Sudirman, Jimmy Boyle, and Broadway.
“I’m very proud of the album. We had a plan and stuck with it despite the difficulties, and the response has been very thrilling,” Sean says.
 |
Semalam won two awards at the 14th Anugerah Industri Muzik, one of them the Best New Artiste award for Sean. |
The success of Semalam is a vindication of Sean’s vision.
“I’m a big fan of classic songs – there’s a purity and truth in the older songs – and I think we have done something important by preserving a bit of the past,” he says.
His love for timeless classics had in 2004 led him to put up a series of beguiling performances in I Have Dreamed – An Evening with Sean Ghazi. A critical and box-office success, the revue ran twice in Kuala Lumpur that year.
Sandy Monteiro, Universal Music Malaysia managing director as well as the group’s senior vice-president for the Asean region, labels Semalam a groundbreaking album.
“For the longest time, Malay recordings here have been for Malay listeners and didn’t really cater to non-Malays,” he explains.
“What Sean did with Semalam was to make an album that catered to all Malaysians.”
Monteiro also praises Sean’s boldness in working with a foreign orchestra and a non-Malaysian arranger to come up with an international interpretation of Malay music. (The album was recorded in Australia and Malaysia.)
 |
There are plans for a new album but Sean is reluctant to reveal more.
“We’re in pre-production now. It’ll be different – you’ve always got to be different – but not to the extent of alienating those who’ve enjoyed Semalam.”
The focus of P. Ramlee in Semalam dovetailed nicely for Sean when he took on the lead role in P. Ramlee the Musical. The project, staged by Enfiniti Productions, the team behind last year’s stunning Puteri Gunung Ledang: The Musical, notably featured pop queen Datuk Siti Nurhaliza in her theatre debut.
Sean acted opposite Siti in her special appearance as P. Ramlee’s first love Azizah. He also starred alongside Atilia, Melissa Saila and Liza Hanim who respectively played the legend’s three wives, Junaidah, Norizan and Saloma.
“Yes, it all worked out quite well but it was a challenging role,” Sean notes.
“P. Ramlee is such an icon that people have a very clear image of what he was like. My job was to live up to that expectation and, yet, put my own interpretation into the role.”
Sean took extra care for the part, including learning to play the violin, but he did so conscious of the fact that he was portraying one of his favourite performers.
“I listen to lots of different music and musicians but if I had to choose, I’d pick P. Ramlee and Frank Sinatra,” he reveals.
It is, perhaps, instructive that he would choose two artistes who were more than just musicians – both, for example, were just as successful on screen.
“I don’t believe in limiting myself to just doing one single thing,” Sean says. “I enjoy what I do – every day is different, exciting and dynamic.
“You need to have the right ego and courage to go in front of an audience, but it’s good to never feel entirely safe, and that is what keeps me growing as a performer.”
For Sean, the desire to perform was sparked when he was three years old. That moment of epiphany arrived with a single, simple gesture.
“I was in a kindergarten play, performing as Jack in Jack and Jill at the Petaling Jaya Civic Centre,” says the singer-actor-dancer. “I don’t remember exactly what I did – took off my hat or something like that – but it was something unexpected and what I recall most vividly was the audience’s reaction and I knew then that I wanted to perform.”
It was an ambition that he would stick to for the next 35 years, working and developing himself into the public performer he is today.
Looking through his list of accomplishments on stage, it is interesting to note the many fields Sean has dabbled in.
“I wouldn’t call it dabbling. As a performer, I think it’s important to have as many tricks up your sleeve as possible,” he explains.
“What I’m interested in is telling the truth, seeking the purity in what I have to share with the audience – that’s what drives me as an entertainer.”
“Truth” and “purity” constantly crop up in his conversation. They form his ethos in performance and inform the choices he makes as a stage persona.
“It’s what the audience expects – all performance is a two-way thing. You share something true and pure with the audience and the audience responds.”
For Sean, however, performance is more than just being on stage. While that experience is, undoubtedly, thrilling – “Nothing beats a live performance,” he declares – he is just as involved in the background aspects offstage.
A story that Deborah Michael, his business partner and executive producer of Baby Grand Productions (which produced Semalam), shares is telling.
“I met Sean a few years ago when he was doing some shows at No Black Tie (in KL). I found him arranging tables and hanging up the backdrop and this was just a couple of hours before he was going onstage to perform,” she remembers.
“So I said, ‘Sean, I’ll help you with all this. Just go home and get ready.’”
While he no longer has to worry about table arrangements and backdrops, Sean is still committed to the more mundane aspects of showbusiness.
“There are lots of things to work on – financing and sponsorship, for instance. Equally, I’m involved in pre-production work and the rehearsals, which are essential if you want to deliver a good show,” he says.
“I think that it’s ridiculous if I, as a performer, fly in my private jet, say hi to my fellow performers whose names I don’t even know, and just go on stage.
“People forget that when the audience pay for their tickets, this becomes a business transaction and you are duty-bound to give them what they expect.”
Born in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, in 1969, Sean – the eldest of three boys – went to school in Singapore (his mother is Singaporean) before leaving to study at Laine Theatre Arts in Britain in 1988. He received training in acting, singing and dancing.
In the later part of the 1990s, Sean was back in Malaysia and active in the local performing art scene, including a role in the local TV show Idaman in 1997, before taking up positions in foreign productions.
He returned to Malaysia in 2001 with an impressive CV that included his film debut in the 1999 Hollywood production Anna and the King starring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat (Sean played the doomed lover of the concubine Tuptim portrayed by Bai Ling). He reprised that role in the London West End revival of the musical The King and I, which starred Elaine Paige and Jason Scott Lee, in 2000.
Sean’s other West End stints included Miss Saigon (1992-94) and Rent (1999). He reprised his roles, of Thuy and Angel, respectively, in Miss Saigon and Rent in productions staged in Germany, performing in German.
“It was a very interesting experience – we had strict vocal classes in the morning – and, by having to learn a different language, I learned something new about humanity,” Sean says.
“It (learning a different language) pushes you out of your comfort zone and makes you concentrate on the purity and truth of what you are going to deliver. I’d definitely do it again if I get the chance.”
Sean is keeping his options open for the coming year. Apart from working on the new album, there is the possibility of reviving P. Ramlee the Musical as well as staging it in Singapore.
“I think I’m really blessed to be a performer. Yes, showbusiness is a business at its core and you really have to work hard to maintain your integrity as a product.
“Yet, you never have to sit behind the same desk every day. If you keep pushing and developing yourself, you get to enjoy a bit of everything. And, if the audience appreciates what you’re doing, well, that just makes it so much more worthwhile.”
And fulfilling, like 2007 has been for him. Now Sean Ghazi has every reason to look forward to a new year that may continue to be different, exciting and dynamic.
Source : The Star
