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Taufik collects another award: the SYA
By Nisha
YOUTH.SG
5 July 2008

Guess who is receiving the highest national honour conferred on youth a.k.a. the Singapore Youth Awards (SYA) this year: Taufik Batisah, our nation’s first Singapore Idol (just when you think he is not ‘in the scene’ anymore).

Why wouldn’t we be surprised? The recipient for the Arts and Culture category deserves the award for his contribution to the local and regional music scene. We’ll skip rambling off these astronomic figures from his album sales and long string of awards he has won since emerging as the first Singapore Idol. Never mind that – what’s really impressive is how he has been using his fame to reach out to youths and inspire them in various ways. Encouragingly, he has led his fans on a volunteering visit to Jamiyah Children’s Home and used his voice to do good, such as raise funds for the President Star Charity 2007.

Suitably impressed, Youth.SG took the occasion to play the catch up game with Taufik at the SYA press conference on Tuesday. So, this is what we hear:

He’s got a new album out, and it will be him all the way. As Taufik puts it, 80 per cent of the upcoming new album is the maaaaaan himself: “I believe it will be the best album so far.”

Taufik has been tied down recently with the production of his upcoming Malay album, which the production crew is targeting to release by Oct.

This must be really hotly anticipated (we think even more so than his debut album, Blessings) because this time round, Taufik is not only the singer; he is also the song writer, composer, producer and arranger for most of the songs.

Of his experience so far of producing his own album, Taufik said: “It is really a tedious project, but I am happy about the whole thing because I get to learn a lot of things. What I come to realise is, it is even more beautiful and pleasing if people can relate to your songs; the lyrics depict what happened to them and affects them in a certain way. That’s the beauty of art.”

More than a singer: “I have always envisioned myself to be a musician rather than an artiste with an ‘e’.”

Though he is currently labelled as an artiste, Taufik targets to be more than that.

With his interest eventually being more in producing and writing songs (not only for himself, but for others too), his upcoming album will allow him to learn new stuff and relish his dream of being “an artist (without ‘e’) and musician”.

But what’s the man behind the music like? Youth.SG also dug up some trivia about Taufik: he loves biking, and he dreams of girls.

Now that UEFA Euro 2008 is over, Taufik has taken to something else. “Extreme Mountain biking! I have been obsessed with that lately.”

Taufik is planning a huge biking trip to Pulau Ubin with his friends once he finds some time: a mountain bike ride at night followed by an overnight camp.

He is not new to mountain biking, but he looked excited about the trip: “This time it is not the normal track, but it is like a dump trail. And we are going to do that at night!”

Now whoever said, a celebrity can’t get dirty?

As we went on chatting with Taufik, he opened up to us more and more.

At this point in time, it occurred to us that Taufik was just an ordinary boy next door. So, like, any other mortal, he experiences joy and fear. He may be a star who makes thousands of fan girls dream of him, but recently, there’s just one dream, a dream of a girl.. that he can’t quite shake off

“I had a dream; I dreamt of a pontianak.”

And that was after he watched an Indonesian horror movie 40 Hari Bangkitnya Pocong which according to him showed ghosts like pontianak, pocong and a “half body thing chasing people”.

He might be a biking daredevil, but Taufik has one secret confession: “I am actually quite a scaredy cat.”

Taufik recalled his dream – no, strike that – nightmare: “I was in my room, and bloody hell, there was the thing (pontianak) in the corner staring down at me. It was damn scary. The movie was freaky, like one part, you were lying on the bed and there’s something breathing behind you. You turn and the pontianak was there. So scary.”

Yes, even a superstar can be scared sometimes.