Kekasih Awal Dan Akhir was written in 2007 and is a Malaysian pop song written and performed by Jamal Abdillah. I recently met someone from Malaysia, and I’m not very familiar with the culture in Malaysia, so for this assignment I thought it would be interesting to choose a song from Malaysia so that I can learn more. I chose a more contemporary piece in contrast to the more traditional pieces we study in class so that I could gain a larger picture of the music of Southeast Asia.

          Kekasih Awal Dan Akhir incorporates instruments not as commonly found in pop music around the world, especially in the United States. The introduction includes trumpets, violins, and a harp-like instrument. This is an interesting contrast to pop music we are used to in the United States.

          Upon study of the English translation of the lyrics, Kekasih Awal Dan Akhir appears to be some sort of love song, however the translations are not completely clear.