Siti Nurhaliza & Firdhaus Collaborate on Chinese Single, Adjusting Every Word with Dedication

Malaysia’s national diva Datuk Seri Siti Nurhaliza (Siti Nurhaliza) and singer-songwriter Firdhaus joined hands for the first time to release the Mandarin single 'Like Water'. The duet of two Malay singers performing a Mandarin song has attracted much attention. Firdhaus, who is mainly developing in the Chinese music market, was asked if he would use the opportunity to venture into the Malay music scene. He laughed and said everything would 'go with the flow', emphasizing that it would depend on both opportunity and timing.

Firdhaus was appointed as a 'CUCKOO Charity Ambassador', and together with CUCKOO brand ambassador Siti Nurhaliza, performed CUCKOO Malaysia’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) theme song 'Like Water'. The song was fully written and composed by Firdhaus, and is also Siti’s first-ever full Mandarin single in over 30 years of her career. She admitted that it was a brand-new attempt and revealed that she herself initiated the invitation to Firdhaus for the collaboration: “I really admire his songwriting, so I asked him to write the song and duet with me.”

She also laughed saying that she could hardly speak Mandarin, and could only rely on “listening and memorizing” to remember the lyrics. “Mandarin songs are really not easy to sing, it was a huge challenge for me.” She revealed that the recording process took about three hours to complete, and Firdhaus helped her adjust her pronunciation sentence by sentence. “He was really very patient, correcting and polishing my pronunciation word by word.”

During recording, Firdhaus acted as ‘temporary’ Mandarin teacher, helping with pronunciation throughout. Unexpectedly, when it was his turn to introduce the concept of “Like Water” in his “mother tongue”—Malay—at the press conference, he repeatedly got stuck, momentarily forgetting how to say “river”, “hurt”, “difficulty”, and “media”, and had to ask host Baki for help, which drew laughter from the audience.

Baki eased the atmosphere, joking: “Just speak in Mandarin, I’ll translate for you.” Firdhaus immediately refused: “No, no, I want to try myself, or else I’ll get scolded later!” He explained that he grew up in a Chinese school environment, with almost 100% of his friends being Chinese, using Mandarin in daily conversation and only speaking Malay with his mother, so he uses Malay much less and got stuck for a moment. He quickly added: “Maafkan saya (please forgive me)!”

Speaking of whether he would use this opportunity to enter the Malay music scene, Firdhaus said everything is still “up to fate.” He admitted that he’s often asked whether he would release Malay songs or enter the Malay music industry, but he always takes things as they come. “If this work gets a good response, and if there is the right timing and affinity, it would be an honor.” He also revealed that he had written some Malay songs before, but everything depends on the right time and opportunity to release them.