There’s no denying that Hallyu (Korean wave) – be it K-Dramas or K-pop – is all over our media.
Malaysian songstress Shila Amzah (茜拉) has also jumped on the Korean bandwagon and her amazing K-pop covers are currently trending on social media. Her home-recorded videos were also noticed by Korean entertainment website, Koreaboo, who praised the singer for beautiful vocals.
Shila is well known for being a multilingual singer Malay, English, and Mandarin. The Malaysian national treasure first rose to fame in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan when she won the Chinese reality singing competition, “Asian Wave”. She also took part and made it all the way to the end in “I Am a Singer Season 2”, a popular talent show in China that draws in 500 million viewership every week.
The talented musician has always been a K-pop fan and had previously expressed her desire to break into the Korean market. “First, I have to work really hard on my pronunciation. Then maybe I’ll record a video of me singing in Korean and hope that it will go viral. (Breaking into the Korean music industry) is not going to be easy, but I will do my best,” Shila told The New Paper back in 2014.
Since breaking into the Chinese music industry, the 26-year-old pop star now has her sights set on South Korea. Based on her various covers of Korean hits, Koreaboo notes that Shila tends to favour YG Entertainment artistes by covering Big Bang’s “Last Dance”,2NE1’s “Come Back Home”, and Blackpink’s “Whistle”. Her latest cover is none other than Crush’s emotional ballad, “Beautiful”, taken from the K-Drama hit “Goblin” (도깨비).
Fans can also check out more covers such as GUMMY’s “You Are My Everything”, the original soundtrack of famous Korean drama “Descendant of the Sun” on her YouTube channel. Regardless whether you’re a fan of Shila, you have to admit that she’s one heck of a singer.
To date, Shila is the only Malay artiste with the highest number of Mandarin single sales in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan. She is also the first Malay singer to enjoy success in Chinese-speaking countries. Hopefully she’ll be able to expand towards Korea soon.
Her latest album, which is also her debut Chinese album, “My Journey” (心旅), is currently available on Spotify.
