M'sian group De Fam have millions of people going 'Alamak!'
From Malaysia to India, Korea, Japan and China, the Malay song Alamak Raya Lagi! by De Fam has taken social media by storm.
Hari Raya songs rarely get airtime outside of the festive period but this 2024 release by De Fam has started a trend that has got even members of the Japanese group Avantgardey dancing to the single.
Social media platforms have been flooded with videos of Muslims in their Hari Raya fineries dancing to the song with friends and family.
De Fam members – Sophia Liana (Fya), Azira Shafinaz (Azira) and Cik Manggis (Manggis) – started out in showbiz as back-up dancers.
They then created a YouTube channel and did covers as a group before creating original songs.
"Viewers loved our content, watching the three of us together in videos, so from lip-syncing, we moved on to creating our own sounds," De Fam told TNP.
The trio took just two weeks to create Alamak Raya Lagi!, which loosely translates to Oh no, it's Hari Raya again.
It is easy to see why the catchy song and its music video became viral.
Accompanied by modern beats, the fun lyrics resonate with the young. The song paints a picture of what typically happens each Ramadan, leading up to Idulfitri – from the day-before announcement of the start of the fasting month to the scramble in preparation for the festival.
As at April 21, Alamak Raya Lagi! sat at No. 61 on YouTube's global daily top music videos.
"We are only halfway through Hari Raya but we already have almost 20 million views for our music video on YouTube and 2.5 million streams on Spotify," said De Fam.
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However, it is not just the Malay-speaking community that went ga-ga over the song, but also those who do not understand a single word of the Malay language.
There have been videos of a group in India dancing Bollywood-style, Japanese trio Avantgardey dancing and even a man in China dancing solo to the song.
According to De Fam, there are no plans to adapt the song into other languages "but we love all that our fans have done, singing our song in their languages and dialects".
And the hip trio are thinking of doing a cover for other festivals, such as Alamak Deepavali Lagi!.
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