Goodies spread out at AIM

Ning Baizura, who back in 1994 won the Best New Female Artiste award at the Anugerah Industri Muzik, has risen once again – winning four awards this year – underlining her staying power in the local music scene. 

Siti Nurhaliza closed the 12th AIM awards show with a medley of songs which she had performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Host Afdlin Shauki commented: “If you didn’t get a chance to go to London, then London has now come to you.”

IT was set to be a battle between local divas – Siti Nurhaliza and Ning Baizura – at the 12th Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) awards, with the former leading with eight nominations and followed closely by Ning with seven. But as the awards night held at the Putra World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur on April 30, drew to a close, it was clear that Ning had triumphed over Siti by grabbing four awards – Song of the Year, Best Pop Album, Best Album Cover and Best Music Video. 

Siti on the other hand, won two awards – Best Female Vocal Performance in an Album and Best Musical Arrangement in a Song – and was the recipient for the special award, Anugerah Kembara, which recognised her international achievements as an artiste. 

Although Ning clearly walked away with the most awards, the most-sought after award for the night – Album of the Year – went to local rock outfit Spider instead, who also won the Best Pop Rock award for the album, Nazraku.  

Obviously there was no “big sweep” by any artiste that evening as the 12th AIM spread its awards out.  

Interestingly, both divas rose to success after winning the Best New Female Artiste at the AIM awards – Ning was the first female artiste to win it during the inception of AIM in 1994 while Siti went on to win the same award in 1997.  

They have both earned the Album of the Year and Song of the Year awards previously but there is one category, which Siti has dominated for the last seven years in a row – Best Female Vocal Performance in an Album – and Ning, so far, has yet to win that award.  

It makes one wonder why the AIM has never presented that award to Ning.  

As for Siti, the AIM committee should think about elevating her to a Hall of Fame status for that category. Only time will tell if there will be another female artiste who can win that category as many times as Siti. 

Zainal accepting his award for Best Male Vocal Performance in an Album.

When accepting the award for Best Female Vocal Performance, Siti said it was not an easy task to keep winning that category year after year and that it took hard work to do it. 

Ning, in an interview after the awards ceremony, was in a state of disbelief over the four wins.  

“I'm still trying to digest it as I never thought I could win in several categories. Seriously!” 

When asked why she was pessimistic about her win, she said: “I'm not pessimistic. I'm just being humble. It's better to be humble than over-confident. Furthermore before I left for AIM, my parents told me to leave it all to God (when it comes to winning or losing) and just accept it gracefully, no matter what.” 

Winning has made Ning think about the future and how much harder she has to work if she wants to continue her success.  

“With these awards, I have to work harder for my next album. I've been in the music industry for 13 years and I always believe that you have to work hard to gain what you're aiming for,” she said. 

The other winners for the evening included popular nasyid group Raihan, Zainal Abidin (who won for Best Vocal Male Performance in an Album and Best Engineered Album). 

The 12th AIM proved to be a very entertaining evening with solid performances all round by Ning, Siti, newcomers Waheeda, Farahdhiya, and D-Va. Indonesian rock band, Peterpan performed a song as well and, although they were not nominated, it was easy to see (and hear) why they are one of the best selling artistes in Indonesia.  

In addition, there was a blast from the past with Orkes Nirwana, lead by Datuk A. Rahman Hassan and wife Datin Azizah Mohamad, who proved that they could stand along side any other artiste that night as musicians and performers. 

If there were any complaints, then it would have to be the stage set up for the bands, which was all arranged at an angle and not, at the centre, which is usually the tried and tested way. The prominence of the performing artistes – especially the bands – was obscured because of this.  

Other than that, it was interesting and entertaining night, more so for those who watched it at PWTC because the commercial breaks were filled with enough activity and laughter, provided by funny-man Salih Yaacob. 

Here's looking forward to the 13th AIM awards next year. 

The winners for the 12th AIM awards 2005:    Best Album Cover: Ning Baizura (Erti Pertemuan)  Best Engineered Album: Zainal Abidin (Puteri)  Best Musical Arrangement in a Song: Siti Nurhaliza (Seindah Biasa)  Best Vocal Group Performance in an Album: Raihan (Allahu)  Best Vocal Female Performance in an Album: Siti Nurhaliza (Prasasti Seni)  Best Ethnic Pop Album: Noraniza Idris (Sawo' Matang)  Best New Artiste: Vince  Best Nasyid Album: Raihan (Allahu)  Best Vocal Male Performance in an Album: Zainal Abidin (Puteri)  Best New Local English Album: Disagree  Best Music Video: Ning Baizura (Awan Yang Terpilu)  Most Promising Artiste: Farah  Best Indonesian Album: Sheila On 7 (30 Hari Mencari Cinta)  Best Hard Rock Album: May (Otai Jamm!)  Best Local English Album: Juwita Suwito (Brand New World)  Best Pop Rock Album: Spider (Nazraku)  Best Pop Album: Ning Baizura (Erti Pertemuan)  Song of the Year: Ning Baizura (Awan Yang Terpilu)  Album of the Year: Spider (Nazraku)  Special Awards (Out of Competition)  Anugerah Kembara: Siti Nurhaliza  Anugerah Sri Wirama: Frankie Cheah