Anita Sarawak still enjoys her birthdays

By Lewa Pardomuan and I. Christianto

JAKARTA (JP): Entertainer Anita Sarawak has shown that advancing age need not slow down a career, at least that's the way it looked during her three recent shows here.

"I am ready to conquer the world!" declared the Singapore-born star.

True to her word, in every show, Anita manages to capture her audience's attention with her exuberant and energetic stage act which is always accompanied by lively banter.

Anita may be 42 this year - that time when many women the world over start to worry about the wrinkles around their eyes.

But once she takes to the stage, the image of a dashing and fresh-faced teenage girl appears, creating a frenzied response from her adoring fans.

"I love to be 42 years old!" she announced to the 500 or so who packed the Grand Hyatt hotel in Central Jakarta.

"Believe me, I've never undergone a facelift," she joked while lifting part of her hair to show the audience the back of her ear.

Anita has performed here dozens of times since the early 1980s, and patrons find her as energetic as ever. With her lively music and fresh jokes, she once again proved to be a professional entertainer who manages to always stay young.

"I love to get older," she said.

"When I was 25, I was afraid to be older. I didn't want to be 30. But when I got to be 29, I said 'This is not bad,' and my attitude never changed. I think I am never too old to try anything, even to climb a mountain," Anita recalled.

Career

Born Ithnaini Binte Mohamadtaib on March 23, 1952, Anita came from a family of artists. Her parents, S. Romainor and Siput Sarawak, were noted performers in Malaysia during the 1950s.

She began her career at the age of 13 as a dancer with a jazz dance group in Singapore and started singing two years later. At 17, Anita was performing at various clubs throughout the country. Two years later she cut her first album, with EMI-Singapore.

Anita has so far churned out 30 LPs, CDs and EPs. Soon she will release her latest album, Antara yang Manis, in which saxophonist Dave Koz features in two songs.

"I have been married to my career and I won't divorce it even if I retire, and so far I don't have any plans to get married," she said.

She admitted that she will only stop singing, "when I think I can't sing anymore. I will start a jewelry business in Las Vegas when my career is on the downturn. But I will continue recording."

Anita currently performs six days a week at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"My great achievement was journeying to another country and holding my job at Caesar's Palace for eight years, and they still want me there," she beamed.

"They ask me what is my magic, my formula. I say it's my great attitude and that I do not abuse what I have."

During the two-hour performance last week, she thrilled the audience with hits by other singers such as Free Your Mind, Love will Lead You Back and Black or White, and those taken from her own albums, Tragedi Buah Apel and Bawalah Daku Pergi.

Here and there, she joked with the audience in English, Malay and Indonesian. On one occasion she asked a man to come on stage and had him dancing the joget Malay dance. On another, she approached an uneasy-looking gentleman, and asked him to remove his jacket and tie before leading him up onstage to sing along with her.

Anita's trademark is her ability to communicate with the audience. What made her look different from previous appearances was her style of dressing. In her three performances she wore mainly dress pants and blazers, in marked contrast to the skimpy dresses she favored in the 1980s.

Natural

"For me it's very natural to involve my audience. I love people," she exclaimed. "I love to get everybody involved and I am proud to be able to do it, to penetrate the barrier."

Here are some of the kudos from members of the audience who paid the princely sum of Rp 350,000 (US$163) per seat.

"This is the first time I've seen Anita perform," said Cosmas Batubara, a former manpower minister. "She has proven to be not only a singer, but also a quality entertainer. I think Indonesian singers can follow in her footsteps," he added.

Marianne, a staffer at the German embassy, recalled that she really enjoyed the show. "I saw her perform 10 years ago. And she's still amazing."

Merry Sanger, a television star cum pub-singer, said that Anita's voice is actually not very good, but she is very serious and disciplined in pursuing her career.

"Indonesian artists could follow her professionalism, but sometimes they are ashamed of not being fluent in English," she said, adding that such a career requires a lot of money for rehearsals and practice.

Anita's stage act may impress the audience, but there were some notable shortcomings. The band, The American Dream, often out-muscled the singer's voice.

In Unforgettable, a duet featuring Anita with Joe Warren on keyboards, both singers seemed to blindly copy the original version performed by Natalie Cole and her late father Nat King Cole.

The reggae version of Falling in Love, which boosted British group UB40 to stardom, was probably her best number.

The audience, meanwhile, apparently most enjoyed her closing song, Tina Turner's Proud Mary, and many chose to sing along with the ageless wonder.