Erra Fazira in Singapore Expo

Erra was supposed to perform at this Pameran Pengantin, Fiesta Dagangan Halal & Hari Raya exhibition at the Singapore Expo, Hall 5 on the 4th of November 2002 @ 7.30pm. This show was sponsored by MANJA Magazine. Prior to this event, our local Malay Singaporean station, RIA 89.7FM (Singapore's version of ERA.fm), held a karaoke singing competition on air, with the contestants having to sing an Erra song. Those who won daily would get a chance to sing with Erra (this was the initial catch!!!) on the actual day. So of course, yours truly thought it was a good idea to be Yusry for 2 minutes... I sang Ucapkanlah and I won the daily contest. However, much to my dismay, I learnt that those who won had to impersonate Erra. Well, first of all, I'm a guy and to impersonate her would be simply outrageous. And anyway, I don't quite fancy her. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I hate her, despise, don't like her or anything of that nature, I do respect her as I respect all artistes of all genre... But as individuals, we do have our own favourite artistes, and she didn't quite fall in my category of favourite artistes... Hope there won't be any misunderstandings with what I have to say cos I certainly don't mean any offence. I repeat: I DON'T HATE ERRA FROM THE START... Back to my story...

It was only late afternoon today around 3pm when the DJ who hosted the karaoke contest on air, Hafeez Glamour, called me and asked about my presence. So I told him my "grievances". He then said that my informer gave me the wrong info. The daily winners would pit against each other by singing Erra's songs, in short, a Final round of karaoke competition. The big problem now was I do not own a single minus one or karaoke VCD of Erra. So I had to search high and low and by the time it was 6.35pm, I literally gave up. I met Hafeez around that time as he was getting ready at the MANJA magazine booth (he was the host of the show, you see...). I told him I can't find any backup music so he gave me an attractive option: He will search for a male fan on the floor and he will bring me up on stage just to duet with her... So I said that sounded fair enough so the heat is on... I kinda forget how to sing Yusry's part as I tried to practice on my own... And yes, suddenly I became so flustered and scared cos the only duet I've done with an artiste was on air with Liza Hanim back in August. This was supposed to be in front of 500 odd people watching...

Erra came on stage at around 7.40pm... She wore the same outfit that she wore during Anugerah Era 2002. I kinda forgot what was the first song she sang on stage as I was busy walking around practising my lines... She then called out a guy to come on stage... I was like, "Should I go, shouldn't I go???" cos I was waiting for Hafeez's cue. In the end a guy came up on stage and Erra asked whether he had watched Mr. C or not. He said no, so she said wasted cos she wanted to duet with him "Ucapkanlah". When I heard that, I could have kicked myself for not going up. In the end, she sang Soal Hati and the guy acted like Afdlin Shauki... It was after Soal Hati that Hafeez came out to interview her and walked around the floor to pick up lucky audience to ask Erra some questions. Of course, the first question had to be what's her relationship with Yusry... Duh??? Isn't it obvious??? Diplomatically she said they are in a relationship, but only in Mr. C... Yeah right...

Then Hafeez spotted me and told Erra, there is a "Yusry" in the crowd who would like to duet with her "Ucapkanlah", so I went up on stage, shook hands with her, asked her how is she, the standard courtesy protocols... So she said she'll start off. When she sang the first line, I prompted the crowd to applaud her and they responded... When it was my turn to sing the chorus with her, she sort of like put the mic away from her mouth so my voice could be projected more instead of hearing two voices, so what the audience heard was more of my voice and a little less of hers... Alhamdulillah, I wasn't a nervous wreck and I did sang to my heart's content till I got feedback afterwards from strangers that it was as though they were listening to it on CD... I guess readers out there who watched the show could roughly gauge how good or bad I was... I knew I didn't make a fool of myself, that's for sure... But the part where we sang "Yang kau cari telah kau temui...", Erra sort of forgot her lines (she wanted to sing "Yang kau perlu setiap waktu" again...), smiled, shook her head and stifled to laugh at her own mistake. But yours truly maintained, beb!!! Oh and when we were singing, I didn't quite catch her cue cos it looked as though she wanted to hold hands... Hehehehe...

I was about to sing Yusry's part when Hafeez cut in... For all the practice I did prior to that, my claim to fame was singing the chorus with her. They say beggars can't be choosers so I accepted my glorious opportunity with open arms... At least I would have made Yusry proud if he was there to watch... Hehehehe... Erra sang Jendela Hati after that before I went away to one of the exhibition booths to show my friends the video clip of my "performance"... My night didn't end there though, I was roped in by one of the MANJA staff to help look after Erra before she left for home. I was basically keeping the fans at bay, and when there were less people, I was asked to go in and meet her... You couldn't have asked for a better opportunity than that... So we made small talk, the first thing she asked, "You peminat Yusry ke???" In my mind I said, "Oh my, she made me sound as though I'm gay..." So I said, I support KRU as a group and I told her that I was there last week watching the KRUjaan concert as well as my short meeting from afar with the trio. So she said, "Wah!!! Sanggup you naik all the way..." I said, "Yeah, just to support some old friends..." She looked tired so I didn't want to talk long, so I told her that I'll let her rest while I continue looking after the security outside... Shortly after, the white BMW that chauffeured her arrived to whisk her to the airport. Flanking her, I managed to repel some of the fans who came and pestered us non-stop to get a photograph or autograph of her. She did obliged them though... Before she left, " I just told her, "Take care... Tell Yusry, Ariff kirim salam..." She grinned, said "Insya-Allah... Kita jumpa lagi lain kali..." and went into the car. She sat at the back and in the middle... From inside she looked at me, smiled and waved all the way till the car was out of sight...

So now I'm an Erra convert cos I like her way of approach... Not that diva-ish and certainly no airs whatsoever... But my liking for her is just on a respectful basis and I guess she now falls in my category of "Likeable Artistes"... So there you have it, all the juicy details... I did get to record it on video clip but there's some glitches hence I can't send it to you via Net, yet. If I can send it, I will certainly give it to you guys to watch it and upload it on your respective websites... For now, I live in the memory of having enjoyed one of the best nights in my life... Cheers!!!

Regards,
Ariff...