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| Growing up feeling like any other kid Same hopes, same dreams, same will to live.. Ma Ma, I'm Callin' you Ga Ga, Welcome to Myanmar |
Move over Ms. Minogue.
Make way Lana del Ray. Stop callin’, stop callin’ Gaga, cause this fickle “flamboyant”
dance man has a new pop infatuation: The Me N Ma Girls.
These savvy, sexy,
political chicks are the former Burma’s first all-girl band. And they’re about
to take the world by storm.
They were founded by
the fabulous Nicole May, a professional dancer, singer and talent coach from
Australia who decided to up stakes and
spend a stint teaching singing and
dancing to children in orphanages across Southeast Asia.
"Burma (Myanmar) was my
last stop and it blew me away, it really was Asia on steroids because it had
been isolated for so long,” Nicole tells me via email.
“I was shocked by the
‘copy track’ culture and wondered where the original voices were in the
country’s music industry. I investigated further and found some great hip
hop….but I couldn’t find any strong females singing original songs, so when I
returned to the country to
live 9 months later, starting an original girl band
seemed an obvious thing to do.”
Obvious for Nicole,
maybe, but she’s a cool, gorgeous, talented Aussie chick who thinks outside of
the box, at least that was my rather alcohol-induced first impression when we
met in a Yangon boozer a few months ago. After which, I lost her card, details,
everything.
Thankfully my drunken impression
was correct.
Okay Burma heads, before
you start hurling accusations that I’m only embracing new pop culture, that I’m
being superficial in my outlook, that I don’t know as much as y'all about
Myanmar’s rich literary, artistic and musical culture, let me just say “you’re
right, I agree.”
So slap me.
In my feeble defense,
I’ve listened to friends in exile play earnest acoustic political protest songs
for years. I’ve even sort of sung along.
I have enormous respect
for them.
Way more respect, in fact, than I do for those awful white bands
who ‘take up the cause’ and write stupid self-serving lyrics in the “name of
freedom”.
And let’s not even delve into the myriad ‘performance artists’ who
I have tried to be nice to, refrained from pointing out that dressing as a
hill-tribe woman and standing on one leg isn’t really benefiting
anyone “on
the inside”. NEVER once criticizing new young, fresh NGO worker’s lack of make
up, personal grooming, woodwind inadequacies or unfortunate ensembles.
Never, never, never, at least
not to their faces.
But Nicole May says the
Me N Ma girls typify the so-called ‘New Myanmar,” and I reckon she’s right.
They’ve done it
tough. Nicole and the initial funder parted ways in the early days after he
wanted a demure group with pale skin. She didn’t, so they built up from
scratch, writing their own songs, making their own videos, devising their own
moves.
Here’s an edited version
of my Q and A with Nicole:
How did people initially react to the Girls?
Initially people didn’t
really understand why five girls would be on stage at once, let alone singing
AND dancing, not to mention doing original tracks in a mix of Burmese and
English .. it really shocked a lot of people.
The Spice Girls they 'aint - how would you define them?
Sassy, gutsy and passionate. They really don’t take no for an answer and have never been afraid to dream large. Even the prospect of going to L.A. to record is like “yeah, great, when do we leave?" They burn with eagerness to speak to the world about Myanmar. About its culture and its history .. and to let the world know that Myanmar people aren’t dumb, powerless, victimized. They want to push forward and be part of the world that they see alive and kicking on the other side of the Facebook screen.
Do they represent a so-called New Myanmar?
I think the Me N Ma
Girls have grown n parallel to the “New Myanmar...They have done the
unexpected and refused the old system even though there have been warnings by
powerful forces against breaking the old rules.
It’s a powerful thing,
especially for young women who have lived their entire lives under a regime
that insists on ultra-conservative female etiquette. These days fans write
about how they get strength for the girls’ lyrics and videos.
They're becoming really big. Are you surprised at their success?
They’ve traveled to
Thailand and Singapore and have tours booked in Malaysia and Japan. Fourteen
months ago, a couple of the girls had never been on a plane. They are booked
for two to three shows a week which means they can actually live off their
music, a great accomplishment for a performer in any country. Yet the most
astounding theing for me is to see their work ethic. The five girls now run
both the creative and practical side of the group. They are totally united and
motivated. After struggling in the early days to get them to turn up to
rehearsal on time, I now sit back and realize I don’t even have to be there.
Renowned producer Daniel
Hubbert – who has headed promotions for Columbia, Capital and Sony record
companies -- has signed the Me N Ma Girls to an international recording deal. They
will head to L.A. in the next few months to begin laying down songs for a new
international album. This is an all-time first for artists from a country whose
voices have long been silenced … it’s a massive step for the Girls and a big
challenge, but they’re up for it!
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| NICOLE MAY AND THE ME N MA GIRLS |
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