100 Malaysians, 100 Milestones – LSA100 this year celebrates the comeback of DeFam in the music scene and beyond with one song that has resonated with people from all over the world. Three words – ‘Alamak Raya Lagi!’ will get you dancing to its viral tunes, and that is no easy feat. But it is in both the individuality and the synchrony of the group that contribute to this major success.
We are all made different but one thing that makes us equal is the love we share in the room. DeFam arrives on set, with so much energy. It’s like a reunion since our last shoot together some years back – and it’s a great feeling to be reconnected again. Glazed in a flawless eye makeup in glittery blue-pink ombre, the girls show nothing but chemistry – complementing each other with so much grace and an attitude that says “Girl, I got your back!”
Before DeFam, there were Feminin and Elite which took off with the rise of international girl groups like Spice Girls and Destiny’s Child in the 90s. Two decades later, DeFam emerged as a breath of fresh air – like a quasi-revival of girl power for the Malaysian music scene. And the first single that was released resonated with that notion.
#SUPERGIRLS became the number one song on Malaysian radio that year – a song that encourages women to work hard, play harder, and never give up on their goals and dreams. Collectively, DeFam, comprising Cik Manggis, Azira Shafinaz and Sophia Liana, wants to be the beacon for young girls to be empowered, to feel confident, and to speak up for what is right.
DeFam represents a sorority of independent women. Starting with #SUPERGIRLS close to a decade ago, up to the more recent Berubah, their songs are always about the independent women. “Us in DeFam, we are independent strong women,” echo the girls in unison.
In the past decade, the girls have crafted a name for themselves respectively. Azira continues to pursue her passion for acting with best actress awards to boot. Sophia has released several singles and also establishes herself as one of the top female rappers in the country. And Manggis has gone to do a diverse list of things from acting and hosting to sports (she has just competed in her first pickleball competition).
And then, the quest to remain relevant in the industry becomes the main challenge. For DeFam, it is about making music for their fans and not just for themselves. Manggis quips: “It’s challenging but it made us realise how we feel as singers versus how the listeners feel (when consuming our music). We want to sing for people – not just for us.”
It is also the aspect of relatability and how authentic storytelling can be through music. In the context of being relatable, DeFam has made a huge wave with ‘Alamak Raya Lagi!’ – a song that has gone viral beyond the borders and across multiple platforms. And it is not just about the catchy tunes, but the choreography that has even caught the attention of netizens and has made it one of the trends of the year on TikTok and beyond – some might call it the sort of comeback, a moment that many of us and fans of DeFam have been waiting for!
What do you think is the secret to the success of ‘Alamak Raya Lagi’?
Azira (A): Surprisingly, this is considered our first Raya song because we’ve always been doing covers previously. When we first heard of the demo, the song really caught our attention. And we also released it earlier, a few days before Ramadan.
Usually, Raya songs will be out during Ramadan and the radio stations will pick them up two weeks after Ramadan. So it’s okay, we keluarkan cepat-cepat. And probably that’s one of the reason why people keep on listening to it.
And with TikTok now, it went viral so fast! The trend of doing Alamak Raya Lagi! With the phone was actually Manggis’ idea. And by the time it was Raya, on the first day itself, we already hit 11 million within a month.
And once it started as a trend, everyone just jumped on it. And it as you Manggis who came out with the whole thing?
Manggis (M): Laughs. Yes. Funnily enough, the process of getting the music video for Alamak Raya Lagi!… we had so many problems during the shoot. Banyak ‘alamaks’ from the beginning.
A: Yes, first ‘alamak’ was our baju tak sampai. The person who was supposed to pick up the baju didn’t pick up the phone and then we had to change the scene. When we dah changed the scene, the car wouldn’t start. And then the baju for Sophia arrived, and we had to change back to the previous scene.
M: Laughs. Yes, we know when something bad happens, there’s always a silver lining. Dia bagi susah-susah dahulu… but in the end, we were so happy with how it turned out.
ALL: It was fun to shoot. We finished shooting at 2.00A, but it was something nice for us to do together.
A: And we want the music video to be relatable to what we were going through as well – the music video memang relatable, cos there’s an authentic story-telling. So that contributes to its success as well.
DeFam also won an award for best artist in 2024. What does that recognition mean to you guys personally and as a trio?
A: In fact, this year is the 10th year that we’ve been in the industry. We started in 2014 together, started to do cover videos and in 2015, we released #SUPERGIRLS. The recognition indicates that we shouldn’t stop lah. Even though there are other groups out there, I believe people still want us to still come out with new and good songs. With us, we take our time to release new songs because each of us have a certain type of songs that we like. Some of the tunes also didn’t sit well with DeFam.
Sophia (S): But we are releasing our new single soon – it’s called Anak Raja. We just debuted it on ABPBH and the song isn’t released yet.
M: We are still tweaking and making small changes to the song.
A: Just think about it, we’ve been working on this song for three years. Laughs.
Do you feel the pressure to always do it together?
S: We are independent, so we don’t have a label to push us.
M: When we started DeFam, we know that each of us have different interests – Azira loves to act, and she wants to become an actor. And for me, I was a film student, I love to create content and want to work with brands. We know Sophia love making music… huge passion for music. So we are aware that we have different interests.
A: So starting DeFam, first of all, we decided to do ‘this’ as a stepping stone for people to know who we are. We build it together. And now when we’ve established ourselves, we started to pivot and focus on ourselves as well. That’s why we still remain relevant both as a group and as individuals. Our friendship also makes it even stronger – even after 10 years, we are not going to stop yet. There’s a lot of girl groups now, but for DeFam, we still remain true to our identity through our songs. Everything is about empowering, the songs must have a message… and Anak Raja has a lot of hidden messages. I think like the others, they focus on life or love but for DeFam, we give you something else.
S: Creativity takes time – and I think once it’s released, people will like it. We include fun folklore childhood elements, even though our songs have an urban ear to it, we make it mass in terms of its lyrics. We’ve not shot the music video yet but for the song, we included the whole element of ‘nenek-nenek si bongkok tiga”. We also fantasise to be a princess and marry a prince… that kind of daydreaming. But in the lyrics, instead of dreaming to marry a prince to be a princess, we make the princess say that ‘I am a princess’ – we need to live like how we want to live and we build our own life.
That’s so interesting. Share with us a little bit more about the song… a little teaser perhaps?
S: [singing] “Hidupku mewah macam anak raja” – it tells the tale of everyone living like royalty – another thing is that it’s been three years since wanting to release this song but we couldn’t — it’s because of how certain parts of lyrics or verses relate to the audience.
M: Like me, since I berhijab, I miss out on a lot of opportunities after I changed. In my lyrics, I have lines like “satu hilang, satu lagi kembali” — the message of when one door closes, another will open for you!
S: Azira and Manggis don’t write their own lyrics. So we told them (the songwriters) to write in a way that we are still here, we are not going anywhere… so there’s also an underlying message in there to say that we are here to stay. You’ll love it!
You guys were also in The Hardest Singing Show. You guys decided to pull out at some point – what was the biggest takeaway?
A: Everyone, especially our fans, were asking when we will be performing again, and we decided to join the competition to give back to our fans. But somewhere along the way, we had some challenges – it was not the outcome we wanted – but at least we got to showcase different sides of DeFam through our performances, especially doing the stunts. That was so funny.
S: But the experience made us stronger individuals, knowing what we want as a group and what we want to showcase to our audience. We decided to pull out because we felt overwhelmed week by week. It was very demanding but overall it was such a fun and crazy experience.
I think the way music is being consumed now as compared to 10 years ago. How do you navigate through that change?
A: I think in terms of music, we see the change in the music scene. But one thing that we are really proud of is that #SUPERGIRLS is still relevant up to this day. But then with TikTok, we have to think of catchy and creative ways to catch the attention of the audience – keep the audience close with you and work around the ways of social media.
S: It’s challenging because all three of us are different! And then I feel like it’s so different before #SUPERGIRLS and now – the radio used to help us a lot. But now it’s social media, it’s TikTok and how we can penetrate through the global market… not just in Malaysia. That’s why we wanted to do Anak Raja, because it also has elements of afro pop… that’s so on trend right now and relatable with Malaysia’s mass market.
M: I think the change is quite drastic, but the change made us realise that we are making music not just for ourselves but for the people – it’s challenging but it made us realise that… how we singers feel versus how the listeners feel. We want to sing for people – not just for us. Somehow, we need people to feel and also understand us through our music, you know?
A: Nowadays, every song can be so AI engineered but so relatable – but we are adamant to stick to our guns and appreciate those who can appreciate and understand our songs. When people believe in our tune, and our identity – it’s really something fulfilling.
What’s next for DeFam?
M: In the next year, I’m hoping to at least release an album – a mini album. I feel we should be do that and then it’s pretty much time that we do a showcase. With the songs that we have, it’s still relevant for us to do that.
A: And maybe, we will have another new single but now we will focus on the upcoming single, Anak Raja.
