For The Force Issue, homegrown boy group ALPHA is turning up the heat. Revelling in their newfound fame post-Big Stage Alpha, the OT7 — Daniel, Izat, Rizal, Ariel, Ray-D, Araff, and Afiq ‘Sky’ — are all geared up for what’s to come, and are more than eager to introduce themselves to the world.
In the brightly lit studio space on Jalan Ipoh, a lot of singing is taking place, by a number of different voices at once. It’s disorderly. It’s chaotic. But if you listen closely enough, each voice is pitch-perfect. The voices belong to members of ALPHA, the local boy group that debuted only a little over a month ago. There’s already a flurry of activity happening at the set of our cover shoot — a changing of clothes, lighting equipment being moved around, snacks making their rounds — but the singing stays consistent.
When girl group DOLLA debuted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and still achieved nationwide success, it became clear that our entertainment industry was ready for a kind of change. The audience yearns for a hot vocal group, the kind that has shaken up the world in the same way that K-pop has. Back in the ‘90s we had KRU and Innuendo (local counterparts of American boy bands like Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC) and more recently 3P, who garnered their fame through the ‘YouTube to pop artists’ pipeline. But we haven’t yet experienced anything that comes close to the true K-pop boy group phenomenon.
That’s where Big Stage Alpha came in, a spin-off of Big Stage but this time with the sole mission to put together the ultimate boy group. We’ve seen it done countless times across the world, from The X Factor in the UK to Boys Planet in South Korea and Chuang Asia in Thailand, all of which eventually produced some of the biggest boy groups known today. Big Stage Alpha ran between April and June 2025, and 18 young men competed for a spot in the boy group ALPHA.
“At the end of the show, you know, there was a part where Araff, like, kena tinggal, (left behind)” Daniel, the leader of the group, reveals. “And then [Afiq] Sky was like, ‘Alamak, Araff isn’t gonna be with us?!’ They were announcing that it was gonna be the ‘OT6’ and then, bam! It was a prank.”
Across the space, Araff lets out a laugh at that. “Yeah, saya kena prank.”
The concept of OT7, or ‘One True Seven’, is not new. It was popularised by (and later, mostly associated with) the K-pop group BTS. What it essentially means is that the fans support all the seven members equally. No member gets left behind.
“We wanted the OT7 so badly,” Izat, the main vocal of ALPHA, adds. “Our fans, they liked the idea of OT7 lah. So, we tried to spam the hashtag #OT7 for our fans, because ALPHA is really OT7. And we also recorded our first single together before our finals. We recorded the song, and we did all of our promotional [stuff] together as OT7, you know? So, I think the hopes were very high for us. And on the 15th of June, we got our OT7.”
ALPHA’s first single, “Mona Lisa (Bang Bang)” was released to streaming that very same day, and the official music video premiered last month with 50,000 views garnered in under 24 hours. And only three weeks ago, their latest single, “P Ramlee Saloma” was released. Serving as the opening theme for the drama Thariq Ridzuwan: His Treasure, the slow ballad is a complete one-eighty from ALPHA’s debut track, showcasing a more emotional side of the boys.
The road to becoming ALPHA
ALPHA as a group is made up of multitudes. Each of the boys brings something different to the table, yet their chemistry as a whole feels natural. Over the course of eight weeks spent on Big Stage Alpha, there’s no doubt that a strong bond was forged there — and it shows itself even now on the set of our cover shoot.
“I think one of the challenges that we had was that we needed to dance every week,” Daniel shares.
Izat also adds, “Because most of us are not dancers. We didn’t come from a dancer’s background, so we kena belajar lah every single week, for our performances.”
“Except for Ray-D,” Daniel says, grinning proudly at his teammate, who’s known as the main dancer of ALPHA.
“The grand audition [of Big Stage Alpha] was where we formed a group as well,” Daniel explains. “We got to sing solo and also as groups so we got to, you know, perform and show ourselves. After the first week, we reshuffled our groups and that was a big challenge for us because we already got used to the previous people. So, as the weeks went on there were two ‘groups’, Alpha Prime and Alpha Ultra, but we were not actually battling each other. We were trying to show how we worked together, to show what we could do as a team and also of course as solo artists as well.”
Much like popular K-pop groups with five or more members, there are ‘sub-units’ that fans might have already identified within ALPHA. It’s easy to pinpoint them within just a few hours on set. When the group breaks off in between shoots, Araff and Afiq, whom the group fondly dubs ‘Sky’, typically stick together with Ray-D. (In a typical K-pop group, as the youngest three, they would be known as the maknae line.) As the loudest ones, they’re also the ‘mood makers’ of the group.
Daniel, as the eldest one, is also a natural-born leader, able to pull his teammates back in whenever they get distracted or carried away. Izat, being only a few months younger than Daniel, watches closely for cues to support him whenever needed. Rizal and Ariel, who sit exactly in the middle, seem to be the biggest social butterflies and naturally charismatic — they were the first to introduce themselves when we entered the studio.
I was initially taken aback by how mature and confident Ariel seemed in himself. He’s the one who kicked off the interview, and it’s very telling that the group is comfortable enough to let him carry much of it, only chipping in here and there when they need to. As a matter of fact, the rest of ALPHA also shared that same surprise when they all first met him.
“My first impression of Ariel, I thought at first Ariel ni someone yang kekwat [arrogant] lah,” Ray-D admits. “But rupanya… ya Allah, baiknya!”
“Handsome tak semestinya sombong,” Sky chimes in. “Love you, Ariel.”
“Kesimpulannya, don’t judge a book by its cover,” Ariel says, laughing.
The age range in the group was what first stood out to me about ALPHA. Daniel and Izat were born in 1990, while Araff and Sky are both not yet 20 years old. “Chaos,” Daniel simply says when I ask what it was like to bond as a group in the beginning.
“For us, age is just a number,” Ariel adds, and then with another laugh, “Sebenarnya, kami semua muda.”
Here, Araff promptly breaks into yet another song: “Forever young / I want to be forever young…”
“For us, tak pernah ‘kau muda, kau tua,’” Izat says. “As long as we respect each other, and we know the boundaries.”
“The respect comes with brotherhood, you know,” Daniel agrees, “because ALPHA is all about the love of brothers, and the way we mix and mingle with each other. In the end also, we just want to work together and we want to do the best for everyone, and also for ourselves.”
Living the ALPHA life
It’s surprising, even to the boys themselves, how quickly their daily lives have changed in just the span of two months. Suddenly they’ve gained a fandom (if you love ALPHA, then you’re officially an Alphanite) and two hit singles to their name. Their schedules are all filled up till the end of the year: by the time this article comes out, they would have already performed at the Hael Husaini & Repertoire concert, and this November they’ll be heading to South Korea in November for intensive training.
“I love all of it, every minute of it,” Araff says of his time with ALPHA thus far. Here, Sky breaks into the classic Aerosmith song, making everyone laugh: “So, that means you don’t want to close your eyes? You don’t wanna fall asleep?” When he recollects himself, Sky adds in agreement, “For me, saya suka. Just that in the beginning, ada lah we’re worried. Before this, masa keluar we didn’t worry so much kan. But now that people dah kenal, we have to jaga perangai [watch our behaviour].”
That earns an even bigger laugh from everyone — one of disbelief, and cries of, “Are you sure?!” and “Ye lah tu!” can be heard in the chaos.
“For me, the pro is attention,” Izat says honestly. “And we get a lot of cute edits from our fans. And they are so nice to us, they support us from day one. The cons? Too much attention also. I mean, I find it difficult to give each fan attention. If I lepak here more, or say hi there for just a quick 10 seconds, then [the fans] will be like, ‘Huh?’ And give us all the sad faces. But also at the same time, you know, we always take the good over the bad of course.”
The instant fame took some getting used to at first. Ariel recounts their first ever fan showcase after their debut, held at Pavilion KL — where ALPHA’s poster was displayed in full on the big screen.
“Before we went to Pavilion, we were scared, actually,” Daniel shares. “We had that self-doubt, like, ‘Who even watched Big Stage Alpha?”
“Then at that exact moment, that was when we knew that Alphanites existed,” Rizal chimes in. “That was when we actually got to meet them for the very first time, you know, and interact with all of them.”
“We didn’t know that the crowd would be about 6,000-7,000,” Izat elaborates. “And I think that’s a good number of pax, especially for a band that hasn’t even debuted yet. Watching them cheer for our names, cheer for the OT7, in a big crowd in front of Pavilion… you know, the feeling was tak boleh lupakan lah. The butterflies I got, the bulu roma all naik [my hairs all stood up]. Our first walkthrough just say hi was crazy. People keep screaming left and right. We were just smiling our butts off. Yeah, it was a very memorable moment lah for all of us.”
While most of ALPHA have had some experience in the entertainment industry, recording “Mona Lisa (Bang Bang)” had been a first experience for Araff. The song was recorded while Big Stage Alpha was still airing, and the process had been a hectic whirlwind.
“It was actually during our semi-finals week, and that was crazy,” Izat shares. “So we had a concert on Sunday and then Monday morning, we had to record. We only had, like, a few hours to memorise the whole thing. We recorded from malam all the way to 5 AM in the morning. I had to go for class at about 10 AM; luckily it got pushed to the afternoon. And there was, you know, the stress of memorising a Korean song for the semi-finals, the solo song arrangement.” (Rizal was set to perform “Sudden Shower” from the K-drama Lovely Runner for his solo. And on top of everything, Sky had had a fever.)
“Whenever people ask if there will be an ‘OT8’ or not, our answer will be, you’ll have to go through what we went through,” Daniel says. “It’s hard. It’s very hard. It’s difficult. There were certain challenges that we had, and they were pretty hard to overcome within that short time. So, that’s just one thing.”
With more time to prepare and a better group chemistry between them, the recording for “P Ramlee Saloma” was much smoother in comparison.
“We were given the song quite early, compared to ‘Mona Lisa (Bang Bang)’,” Daniel says. “Our first listen, we loved it.”
“Most of them cried!” Araff reveals, and Daniel chimes in, “Especially Izat.”
“But there was no proof,” Ariel laments, “because he cried on the plane.”
Izat laughs, making no attempt to deny it. “But also because our second song, we recorded when we already became ALPHA. So, it was fun and also should I say, a breeze? We had ample time. But yeah, it’s a sad song.”
The future of ALPHA
Despite the years and experience between them, it’s clear that ALPHA is connected through a deep love for music. Each of them has grown up being inspired by music in one way or another, so it’s unsurprising that they can get along with each other as well as they do. Ariel, who grew up on classic rock from his dad, is only starting to open himself up to K-pop — the same goes for Sky.
“Growing up, I’ve always been idealising my parents,” Rizal shares. (Back in his hometown in Brunei, he had worked as a cabin crew with Brunei Airlines, before leaving to pursue music. He had been doing covers for almost 10 years before auditioning for Big Stage Alpha.) “My dad, he used to be in a band. And my mom used to join competitions back then. That’s how I grew up with music.”
Izat, who hails from Singapore, had been in the nightclub scene for about a decade, singing with live bands and at festivals before he’d come to know about Big Stage Alpha. “Working in the nightclub scene, I had to sing every genre,” he says, but admits that he’s more of a “pop-ballad person”. “So, I applied everything that I learned for 10 years in Singapore, the singing and of course, performing. I think adapting is quite my strong suit. I’m hoping for ALPHA to have more bangers!”
Similarly, Daniel draws from his childhood — growing up with the church, he was exposed to band music at a young age. “That was when I started to know about the guitar, drums and all,” he says. “Guy Sebastian was one of my inspirations. And when I grew up even more, Bruno Mars, because he performs well mah. So, from there I get the inspiration to do stage performances. And also to write lyrics, compose songs, do arrangements and produce. That’s what I want to do this time, I mean, now lah.” It’s just as well that Daniel is also known as ALPHA’s strategist.
“Ever since I melangkah masuk to this industry, what made me want to be in a boy group… one of them is One Direction,” Araff shares. (As an ex-Directioner, I was surprised to discover that he knew of the band — let alone liked them.) “I swear, they really have that abang-abang vibe. That made me feel like, ‘I want to be in this group.’”
Among them, Ray-D is the one who was exposed to K-pop the earliest. “I learned a lot from my sister and brother,” he tells me. “They taught me a lot about K-pop, so I was really interested in K-pop, I would say, since I was 4 years old. The first K-pop group that I watched was BIGBANG, and until now my favourite idol is G-Dragon.”
It’s going to be an exciting journey to watch ALPHA grow. As it is, they’ve got a lot of potential to be huge, armed with all the makings of a successful boy group. With two singles under their belt and (fingers crossed!) more music planned in the near future, they’re ready to go big.
“Dah lama takda boy band, or a mainstream boy band to get all of this spotlight and platforms,” Izat muses. “I think we want to bring this brand to everywhere possible. You know, I think all seven of us have a very special thing individually. It’s a different blend of voices, and also a different blend of backgrounds. I think vocally, we can bring this group to many places. We want to bring ALPHA wherever we can go lah, honestly. We’re hoping for more opportunities and experiences together. And also we are the first Big Stage punya brand like this. We’re the first boy band [to come out of] Big Stage. You know, Big Stage has always been a solo competition.”
“And we are hoping to make more history together,” Rizal adds.
“If I can also add,” Ariel cuts in, “I think with the existence of ALPHA in the entertainment industry, we want to showcase the best we have. We each have our own strengths and weaknesses. But we never want to ‘compete’ with anyone else. I always say, it’s like kita berniaga. We sell our product. We sell our own food. So, whoever nak makan, datang beli lah.”
“Yeah, in a nice way — you like it, you can come,” Daniel says. “And we want to come up with more things in the coming months or years. I really hope that ALPHA can go on not just in Malaysia. Of course, in Singapore and Brunei, people know us already. But internationally as well. Because in Malaysia, we have a lot of good examples of artists who are well-known all over the world. So, for ALPHA, I really wish that we also can go to that level. It’s something for everyone to enjoy. Of course, for ALPHA, we want an album. And also a concert. Not just for Malaysia. Kita pergi luar dunia [We’re going out of the world].”
That gets a hysterical laugh from the group, and Afiq repeats, “Luar dunia?!”
“First boy group on Mars!” Izat teases. “Let’s go, Jupiter tour!”