The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

GE13: Getting the people to vote with a Bieber touch

Posted: 04 Apr 2013 05:22 PM PDT

PETALING JAYA: Are you ready to vote?

A parody of Justin Bieber's chart-topping single Baby has dominated the airwaves to remind the Malaysian electorate to step out and cast their votes.

Red FM 104.9 released the catchy tune with the GE13 in mind and it has turned into an instant hit, becoming the second most downloaded song on the iTunes charts on the day of its release.

The song featured talents from the Red FM crew and Malaysian hip-hop artist, Sayla.

Celebrity deejay Lil' Kev said the song, aptly called Undi, was produced to encourage its young listeners to exercise their voting rights.

"We wanted to do something for the elections and to do our part.

"When we released it on Tuesday, the timing was just right as the announcement on the dissolution of Parliament came the very next day," said Lil' Kev, whose real name is Kevin Arokiasamy.

His co-host on The Red Breakfast WTF! show, JJ Fernandez, said the original song by Bieber was among the songs recently removed from the radio station's playlist.

However, the song made a comeback in the form of the parody as it was a familiar tune that "everyone could sing along to", JJ said.

"We banned the song (Baby) because listeners have suggested that we were playing a little too much of Bieber on air.

"Putting the parody together was a fun way to perform our duty as Malaysians as it (voting) shouldn't be seen as a boring thing to do.

"I won't say that the Beliebers (a popular name given to Bieber fans) will think our version of the song is better, but they have accepted the song and enjoy it as much as our other listeners do," said JJ.

Red FM is owned and operated by The Star.

For more information, log on to www.red.fm, join its fan page (www.facebook.com/redfm.my) or follow it on Twitter (@iloveredfm).

For more election stories, please visit The Star's GE13 site

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Khamis, 4 April 2013