About Dato' Siti Nurhaliza

(for my foreign friends who have not heard of her...)
Dato' Siti Nurhaliza binti Tarudin DIMP, JSM, SAP, PMP, AAP (born January 11, 1979) is a multiple-award winning Malaysian pop singer-songwriter. To date, she has garnered more than 200 local awards as well as international awards

Biography
Early childhood (1979 – 1995)
Siti Nurhaliza was born in Kampung Awah (Temerloh), Pahang on January 11, 1979. Siti is the fifth child in the family of eight siblings. She comes from a musically inclined family. Her grandfather was a famous violinist, and her mother was a famous local traditional singer.

From the age of 5, she followed her uncle to invitational shows like wedding ceremonies and dinner parties to give her exposure performing live, where she was well received by the local community. During her childhood she was involved in various school activities, including sports and class speeches.

Siti Nurhaliza attended pre-school at the Sekolah Tabika Perkep, Balai Polis Kampung Awah, Temerloh. Here she showed her early singing talent at the age of six when she sang "Sirih Pinang", a Malay traditional song, at her kindergarten's end of year event. She attended primary school at Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Clifford and followed up her secondary education at Sekolah Menengah Clifford, Kuala Lipis, Pahang.

She was an athlete in school and this showed when at the opening ceremony of the Fiesta Media Idola 2006 in Kuantan she was a torch bearer to light the games of the Fiesta, together with actress Fasha Sanda. Siti had also won a singing contest when she was twelve years old. She sang the patriotic song "Bahtera Merdeka" at a Kuala Lipis Carnival in conjunction with the "Nyanyian Bulan Kemerdekaan" (Independence Month Singing Contest).

Early commercial success (1995 – 1996)
Siti Nurhaliza's family performed at many local ceremonies in their hometown, such as weddings. At the age of twelve, Siti began to learn traditional songs from her mother and went on performing that genre of music during special occasions and events.

Later, as she continued to work on her singing, she participated in numerous local singing competitions. At 16, she competed in the 1995 RTM Juara Bintang competition. While there, she met Adnan Abu Hassan, a famous Malaysian music composer. He tutored her and helped her with her vocal performance, and ultimately she won the contest. She was granted a contract with Suria Records and in 1996 released her first self-titled album, Siti Nurhaliza. Completing her first album was a challenge because she had to balance working on the album with her preparations for the SPM examination. Despite this, her first album was a great success, and paved the way for successful subsequent albums.

Career development (1996 – 2006)
After the release of her first album, Siti became a well-known figure in Malay pop culture. She continued to have numerous hits, her songs spanning a broad range of genres, such as pop, R&B, and traditional Malay. Her voice and lyrics proved to be popular among teenagers as well as adults throughout Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia.

Siti was the first non-Chinese artiste to be invited to perform at the 15th Golden Melody Awards, Taiwan in 2004. Apart from performing solo, she also sang a duet with Lee-Hom Wang in a song called 月亮代表我的心 (The Moon Represents My Heart).

Throughout her career, Siti Nurhaliza's songs have been covered by other artistes, including the famous song Cindai which was re-recorded in Chinese version by Chien Bai Hui. Also, her first hit song, Aku Cinta Padamu was covered by North, an Australian boy band. Siti held a successful solo concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London in April 1, 2005, although the majority of the audience were Malaysians living in the United Kingdom and Malaysians who had travelled just to see the concert. British press called her 'Asia's Celine Dion' due to her powerful vocal and outstanding performances.To date, she has the most number one singles than any other artiste in Malaysia.

Wealth
Siti was bestowed the 'Darjah Indera Mahkota Pahang' award by the Sultan of Pahang which carries the title 'Datuk' in October 24, 2006.



Siti is known to be a formidable and successful and well-known businesswoman in Malaysia. She currently tops the list of the 'Richest Artistes' in Malaysia. She is also worth more than RM65 million and was named one of the millionaires in entertainment in South East Asia.

Transkripsi (2006 – 2007)
Siti's eleventh studio album, Transkripsi, was released in 2006 and contained contributions from producers such as Aubrey Suwito, Jenny Chin, Mac Chew, Yasin, Cat Farish, Firdaus Mahmud and Damian VE. Transkripsi became the year's best album after winning the Best Album award in the Anugerah Industri Muzik, equivalent to the Grammy Award. It was the first album released under her own production company.

She made her first appearance at the Grammy Awards for the red carpet session on February 11, 2007. She was the first Malaysian to walk the red carpet.

On April 20 and April 21, 2007, Siti performed at the successful Konsert Istana Cinta Nostalgia, which was a tribute concert for the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee & Puan Sri Saloma at Istana Budaya, Kuala Lumpur. The concert featured popular songs composed by Tan Sri P. Ramlee himself, performed by Siti and other invited artistes. Before this, Siti was also invited to perform a tribute concert for the late Sudirman Hj Arshad, also at Istana Budaya, Kuala Lumpur in 2002.

On April 30, 2007, she garnered 4 nominations in the Anugerah Industri Muzik including Best Pop Album (Transkripsi), Best Vocal Female Performance In An Album (Transkripsi), Best Music Video ("Bisakah") and Best Cover for an Album (Transkripsi). Out of these, she won two: Best Pop Album and Best Album for Transkripsi.

She also bagged 2 fan-based-vote nominations for Most Popular Female Artist and Most Popular Song ("Biarlah Rahsia") and 3 nominations for Best Female Artist, Best Song and Best Album at 2006 Anugerah Planet Muzik, a regional award ceremony for artistes in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. She won Most Popular Female Artist, Best Female Artist and Best Song ("Biarlah Rahsia").



Hadiah Daripada Hati & other work (2007 – 2008)
2007 showed Siti's participation on soundtracks for the films Kayangan and 1957: Hati Malaya. For Kayangan, Siti recorded a song Menanti Pasti. It's the first single to be released to the Indonesian market. For 1957: Hati Malaya, Siti recorded a song called "Hati", which was released in September 2007.

Siti performed as Azizah, P. Ramlee's mysterious lover, in the musical 'Remy ... Kisah P. Ramlee (Remy ... The Story of P. Ramlee), which is a tribute to the late P. Ramlee, staged at Istana Budaya from October 17, 2007, to November 3, 2007.

Siti's twelfth studio album Hadiah Daripada Hati was released on December 10, 2007. Siti released the Latin-influenced pop song Ku Mahu as the first single of this album and it was featured as the opening theme song for a drama called Spa-Q. Thanks to the popularity of Spa-Q, the single was well received and topped most of the Malay charts for weeks. Melawan Kesepian was her second single and was the first track of this album to have a video clip. The song was a remake of a hit that was once popularized by an Indonesian band called Jikustik. Her acting debut in the musical 'Remy... The Story of P. Ramlee' also saw the debut of her third single Mulanya Cinta, which was created by Dick Lee, a Singaporean composer. Siti said that it was her first collaboration with the renowned musician although she had known him for years.

The new album was previously claimed to be a traditional album but due to lack of materials, she moved on with producing another pop album. The traditional album is now slated for a 2008 release, as stated by Siti herself.

Siti has also recently became the most frequently searched person on Google by Malaysian Google users, according to Google's 2007 Malaysia Year-End Zeitgeist, beating celebrities like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

On March 21, 2008, Siti held a successful solo acoustic concert at the prestigious Esplanade Theatre in Singapore. The concert was called Diari Hati or 'A Diary of Her Heart'. She performed numbers of hits from her latest album, Hadiah Daripada Hati and previous albums. The concert has received good reviews from the local press saying that 'she rules hearts in Singapore as well as in Malaysia' and 'her reign as the queen of Malay pop songs is still going strong'



Hadiah Daripada Hati came under criticism from the press when it was released. Critics said it was a moderate performance from Siti Nurhaliza and was not on the same par as her previous album Transkripsi, which was touted as the best album she had ever made. But these criticisms were rebutted when Hadiah Daripada Hati received five nominations in the 15th edition of AIM including Best Pop Album and Song of The Year, making Siti the second nominee with the most nominations after newcomer Faizal Tahir.Out of five categories including three multiple nominations, the album earned her three awards for Best Pop Album, Best Musical Arrangement in a Song (Malay) for the song Cintamu as well as her ninth Best Vocal Performance in an Album (Female) in which she had lost to Jaclyn Victor the previous year.

Lentera Timur (2008 – present)
On 26 December 2008, is the 13th released album of Siti Nurhaliza Lentera Timur, her recent traditional comtemporary album, Irama Malaysia (Fourth Ethnik Creative Album) since her third one Sanggar Mustika in 2002. The album will have modern and contemporary songs unlike her usual traditional genre. Siti also worked with renowned composers like M. Nasir and Indonesia's Katon Bagaskara. It was said the initial development of her album was in 2006, due to lack of materials she had to postpone for the next 2 years (which is in 2008). Subsequently, in order to not disappointing any party including her fans, Siti produced her previous album, Hadiah Daripada Hati in 2007.

Siti has also recorded 2 songs for the soundtrack to Perempuan Berkalong Sorban film. The songs recorded are Opick's Ketika Cinta and Batasku Asaku which was written by Siti herself.

Siti also sang a new song called as 'Suara Sepi', which was written by Johari Teh and Habsah Habsan during her performance at Palestinian charity concert.

Despite of the poor sale due to the lack of promotions, the quality of the album has never been denied. As in Anugerah Industri Muzik 16, Siti Nurhaliza proved that she is still at the top notch. Lentera Timur grabbed top awards, Best Pop Ethnic and later on honoured Album Of The Year in AIM 16. She also took home Best Female Vocal trophy for the song ' Di Taman Teman '. She was not present at the award ceremony as she went to Mecca to perform Umrah with her family.

For more of Dato' Siti Nurhalia, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siti_Nurhaliza where I source the above info from.