Zainal Abidin

Zainalabidin Mohamed or better known as Zainalabidin was born on the 4 November 1959 in the southern state of Malaysia called Johor Bharu. Zainalabidin is an accomplished musical phenomenon bearing The Legend status in Malaysia with his unique and very own trademarked sound. Coming from poor yet humble roots Zainalabidin has always been known for his unique creative style and his undying passion for music from a very young age. Born into a family of 10 and being the 5th child, Zainalabidin was musically inclined since the age of 5 years old with a keen interests in the drums hence his current flair on the percussions. The talent that runs through Zainalabidin is inherited from his beloved parents, wherein his father was a musician and jazz vocalists for the British and Japanese army in his era and his mother was a well known Ghazal performer in the Johor Bharu area. The musical career of Zainalabidin began at the tender age of 15 years old, when he used to play the trombone while accompanying Chinese funeral processions from the funeral parlor to the cemetery with a miniscule salary of only RM5 per funeral. This hobby cum part time job soon became a valued source of income to support his family. Through sheer hard work and sacrifice Zainalabidin'stalent was eventually discovered by a celebrity musician named Mr. Tom, who then convinced him to be part of a rock group named Headwind. Thus begun the musical career and journey for Zainalabidin as he took the first step to move to Kuala Lumpur and be part of Headwind, performing all over Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia. Upon joining Headwind, Zainalabidin started out playing the percussions and trombone,which eventually lead him into being given a chance to sing. From the day the microphone was handed over to Zainalabidin until today, it has never left his hand due to the talent showcased by Zainalabidin and the perseverance to also strive for more. In the end Zainalabidin was at that time named the lead vocalist Headwind which again took him down the road to record 5 albums with the group. Headwind being the hottest band of the 80's produced timeless classical hits such as; Suraya, Hanya Di Radio, Camar Putih, Pelangi, Segalanya Mungkin and Memori Luka. As time went by the 80's soon became the past and the 90's had arrived, he made a decision to leave Headwind in the early 90's. He then went on to join Club Med in Cherating, Malaysia as a Gentle Organizer (GO) and was given the job duties of being the resident musical performer for the resort. Club Med is where he gain further knowledge via continuously being in the company of people from various international cultural and racial back grounds, who were namely the foreign staff and patrons of the resort. It was at Club Med that Zainalabidin had got the idea of taking the World Music genre due to the various influences of the diverse cultures he had experienced. Zainalabidin's hopes and dreams became a reality in 1992 when he made the decision to take the path of becoming a solo artiste under the tutelage of Roslan Aziz Production (RAP) thus releasing his first solo album titled Zainalabidin in that same year, and with this he spread his wings which in turn created and explosive chain reaction creating the timeless musical legend at hand.