Malaysian superstar Amy Mastura, born May 10, 1971 in Batu Gajah, Perak, Malaysia, become one of her country’s most successful and respected singers and actresses before her thirtieth birthday. In 1993 she triumphed at Japan’s Asia bagus talent competition, and she released her eponymous debut album one year later. It was a huge seller, and 1996’s Pujaanku and 1997’s Puteri, would maintain her status as a pop star. During that early flush of success, she also began an acting career that quickly brought her as much success as music. In 1997 she won the Best Female Actress award at the Malaysia Film Festival for her work in the romantic comedy Puteri Impian. She signed with Sony in 2000, and released Bintang Hati, which spun off a trio of hit singles, and that same year she made her live theater debut as the title character in Siti Di Alam Fantasi. She showed her range as an actress throughout her career, easily moving between comedies, dramas, thrillers, and musicals, and eventually appearing in numerous television programs. All the while she maintained her status as a music star with albums like 2002’s Akan Datangi and 2009’s Happy, and stretched herself by adding elements of jazz and R&B to her sound. She focused more on acting at the beginning of the 2010s, releasing just three singles in the decade including 2016’s “Kalimah”, which she said was her retirement from the music business.
