On Friday evening, the band CHOY! paid tribute to musician, comedian, and writer Siva Choy at the Esplanade Concourse.
This veteran blues musician and one half of the band Cyclones was honoured with some of his very own hit songs such as ‘The 5C’s’, ‘The Dew’, ‘Politician’ and of course, ‘Why U So Like Dat?’.
The song ‘Why U So Like Dat?’ was one of Siva’s more prominent songs, a 1991 hit tune that by was written by himself and comedy group Kopi Kat Klan. Featured in a Singlish comedy album, it sold more than 50,000 copies.
Before one of the more satirical songs, ‘Politician’, was played, the band invited Siva Choy’s wife, Ilsa Sharp on stage to say a few words.
She said, “Siva was a rebellious soul. Don’t any of you young people forget that rebelling is good. That was Siva’s spirit”.
With reference to ‘Politician’, she said, “[Siva] wrote this song”. Commenting on the satirical nature of the song, she said that at the time the song was written, the lyrics featured the name of the minister, but was changed later on to ‘Mr Politician’.
CHOY! the band, was made up of Siraj Aziz, Rajiv Singh, Don Aaron, Nathanael Nilesh and Akshara Thiru. They also featured guest guitarist Farid Long.
When asked about how they came about the name ‘CHOY!’, vocalist Siraj said, “It reeked of irony, presenting both joy and bad luck and that seemed like what Siva was. A man full of colour and life and complexities.”