You’ve seen the video, now here’s some perspective.
Over the weekend, rumours were rife that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s youngest son Norashman “forced” a guest DJ at Zouk Singapore out so that he can play a set. This guest DJ was none other than Egyptian DJ/producer Fila of trance duo Aly & Fila.
What ensued was a social media shitstorm when a partygoer shared a video from the “scene”, that showed Fila (real name Fadi Wassef aka Fadi) addressing the crowd saying, “I will see you somewhere in the future, not in Zouk anymore, because I won’t play in Zouk any f***ing more. They insulted me, but I love you guys.”
The video, originally captioned, “Najib’s son force Fadi to stop his set & this is what Fadi #AlyandFila says to New Zouk’s management…” has since gone viral, racking up 1,400 shares.
Fadi’s message was met with loud jeers from the crowd (in the video), followed by an influx of nasty comments from netizens, with many calling Najib’s son out to be the “culprit” of this entire fiasco and slamming Zouk Singapore for “bringing politics into music”. In not so many words, people were not happy.
Later that day, Zouk Singapore released a statement to say that the incident happened due to “a misunderstanding”, stressing that they “respect all their artistes and make it a point to ensure that all artistes are able to complete their sets without interference”. A follow-up statement further clarified that Fadi was not at any point in time asked to end his set prematurely. But Zouk Singapore did not deny that Norashman played a set on its premises.
Naturally, it would be pretty easy for a person to immediately have his/her crosshair on Norashman. Simply because the video of Fadi speaking to the crowd and Zouk Singapore’s vague statements barely covered the entire story.
Now, from what has been reported, Fadi’s contract with Zouk Singapore stated that he was supposed to play from 1:30am to 3:30am on 6th March (Sunday). But according to Fadi’s statement on Aly & Fila’s Facebook page, prior to his set, he was told by Zouk Singapore’s management that he’s allowed to play until 4:15am and then play an extra 15 minutes more. Fadi then went to the DJ console, where he was introduced to Zouk Singapore’s new owner and a “VIP guest”, who happened to be Najib Razak’s youngest son, Norashman.
Note: Guest DJs are known to play past their contracted set times at Zouk Singapore. Nothing strange about that.
However, at 3:30am, Zouk Singapore’s management approached Fadi and asked if he was willing to play a back-to-back set with Norashman. To which Fadi said no, of course. After all, he’s a professional artiste who takes great pride in his work. 15 minutes later (at 3:45am), Zouk Singapore’s management spoke to Fadi again and told him that he will have to stop as “the new owner wants the VIP guest to play”.
Keywords here being “the new owner wants the VIP guest to play”.
This was echoed by Rizal Mansor (the aide to Norashman’s mother, Rosmah Mansor) who said that Norashman never asked to play at the club and that he only did so because he was invited to. By whom, you ask? Zouk Singapore’s new owner.
Let’s rewind. Was Fadi wrong for grabbing the mic at the DJ console and addressing the crowd in such a manner before storming out of the club? Fadi said, “I did what I did to defend my right as a human being not as a famous DJ or whatever. I was insulted and I reacted. I didn’t expect that it would go viral like that, but this is what I call Karma. I just wanted to let our fans who payed money to see me know the reason why I stopped my set and I didn’t play the 3 hours like every time I have been there.”
Did Norashman really force Fadi to end his set prematurely so that he could take over the decks? Fadi’s statement made no mention whatsoever about being forced out of the DJ console by Norashman. So what’s the truth then? You’ve seen the video, you’ve read the story, you’ve noted the keywords.
You decide.
Sources: Zouk Singapore’s Facebook page, Straits Times, malaysiakini, Aly & Fila’s Facebook page, Rizal Mansor’s Facebook page / Featured image from Zouk Singapore’s Instagram.
