Taufik Batisah

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Taufik Batisah
Taufik sings the National Day Parade song "Reach out for the Skies" with Rui En
Taufik sings the National Day Parade song "Reach out for the Skies" with Rui En
Background information
Birth name Muhammad Taufik Bin Batisah
Also known as Fique
Born December 10, 1981 (age 25)
Origin Flag of Singapore Singapore
Genre(s) Pop
Years active 2004–present
Label(s) Hype Records
Website http://www.taufikbatisah.net

Muhammad Taufik Bin Batisah, (born December 10, 1981) is the winner of the first season of Singapore Idol. He is of mixed Bugis and Indian descent, and attended Boon Lay Primary School, Jurong Secondary School and Singapore Polytechnic consecutively.

He first started out as a singer in a local group playing a mixture called Bonafide of hip-hop and R&B with fellow rapper Mark Subra.

Taufik initially joined Singapore Idol with hopes of gaining recognition for his band, Bonafide. He made it past the auditions, for though he had been branded as 'cocky and arrogant' by the judges, there was no denying his talent.

He secured one of the highest numbers of votes in his group in the Piano Show and got into the Top 12 of Singapore Idol. Week after week, he wowed viewers with his voice and consistently good performances. However, it was during R & B week that Taufik really stood out and Singaporeans began taking notice of this young gifted singer. His increasing fan base helped him progress smoothly through the competition, safely avoiding elimination every week.

On 1 December 2004, Taufik was crowned Singapore Idol at the Singapore Indoor Stadium before more than 8,000 screaming fans and 1.8 million viewers across the country. He scored a recording deal with Sony BMG and a management deal under Hype Records' artiste management arm, ArtisteNetworks. It was later revealed that Taufik had won 682,000 of the 1.1 million votes cast that night, while his opponent Sylvester Sim managed 418,000. This meant Taufik garnered an astounding 62% of the votes, a healthy 24% sovereignty over Sylvester.

Soon after his win, endorsements started flowing in and Taufik clinched a string of lucrative endorsements for brands such as Harmuni Rice, Samsung, 7-Eleven and HSC drinks. He even became the first Singapore artiste to endorse for Swiss watch-maker, Swatch.

Taufik swiftly assumed the mantle of role model for the youths in Singapore. He was appointed Bukit Batok Youth Ambassador by the Bukit Batok Youth Task Force, to encourage youths to participate in grassroots activities.

Taufik released his debut album, aptly named Blessings, on 14 January 2005. He continued to create history as Blessings achieved double platinum status just 20 days after its launch and to date, has sold more than 36,000 units in Singapore. The achievement was momentous in Singapore's local music industry as no English album had achieved double platinum status in a decade. During this time, his official fanclub named Fiknatic, was established.

With his album achieving such outstanding success, Taufik gave his first solo showcase at Singapore's Kallang Theatre on 19 April 2005. Backed by a five-piece band, Taufik performed songs from his album in front of the 1,600 lucky fans. The showcase, entitled "An Evening with Taufik" was also released on VCD. In conjunction with his showcase, stamps featuring him went on sale and he became the very first music artiste to be featured on Singapore stamps.

Together with four other Singapore Idol finalists, Taufik worked on his first acting role in the Idol-oriented English TV drama Shooting Stars on Mediacorp's Channel 5 and received largely rave reviews for his acting. The pilot episode debuted on National Day 2005 and a million viewers tuned in to watch, making it the highest English drama since 2001. Shooting Stars also stars other Singapore Idol contestants, namely Sylvester Sim, Olinda Cho, Daphne Khoo and Jeassea K. Thyidor. He also performed an original R & B solo number "First" as well as the theme song with the other cast members for the soundtrack of Shooting Stars.

Taufik, an ex-smoker, was also named Singapore Health Promotion Board's Smoke-Free Ambassador and Healthy Lifestyle Campaign Ambassador 2005. He also contributed to the needy by performing on various charity shows such as Singapore Heart Foundation's Affairs of the Heart as well as Suria Channel's Ikhlas.

Taufik further validated his status as a prominent figure in the local music industry when he was invited to be part of Singapore's grand 40th National Day Celebrations 2005. For the very first time, two solo artistes, Taufik and Rui En, sang the theme song and performed the finale - a duet entitled "Reach Out For The Skies".

2005 ended on a high for Taufik when the Top 10 chart for Best Selling English Albums in Singapore for 2005 was released. His album, Blessings, took its spot at Number 3, being the only local album that managed to make its way onto the chart. He was also appointed as one of the ambassadors for StarHub's mobile internet service - iMode.

Taufik fulfilled his National Service Commitments in October 2005 and his success continued in 2006 with nominations aplenty. He was voted Most Saleable Artiste at Suria Channel's Pesta! Pesta! Pesta! Award show as well as Most Popular Male Artiste at Anugerah Planet Muzik 2006, which is the Malay music industry's equivalent of the Grammy's.

Taufik garnered the award for Favourite Artiste Singapore at the MTV Asia Awards 2006, defeating the likes of Stefanie Sun, JJ Lin, Ado and Huang Yida. He also won cable channel Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Wannabe Award in the Singapore category.

In a special collaboration with StarHub and Hype Records, five exclusive singles by Taufik were released on StarHub mobile, online and cable TV platforms. It was the first time in Singapore that new unreleased digital music content from a record label was exclusively distributed by a single info-communications provider on all its service platforms.

This was followed by the eagerly anticipated release of his sophomore album entitled All Because Of You on 23 November 2006, which saw him make the step up to a singer-songwriter-producer. Taufik produced and wrote eight of the tracks on the album, and collaborated with local music talents such as Ahli Fiqir and Imran Ajmain.


Contents

[edit] List of Taufik's performances on Singapore Idol

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

  • Blessings (14 January 2005)
  • All Because Of You (23 November 2006)

[edit] External links

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