The Busker Meor Yusuf Aziddin

 Have you ever heard of "busking"? Busking is actually the practice of performing in public for tips and gratuities. People engaging in this practice are called "buskers". There are many types of busking. Some do acrobatics, dance, fire eating, magic and many more, but what I want to focus here is about buskers who are involved in musical performances. One of the buskers in Malaysia is Meor Yusuf Aziddin. Want to know more about him? Then check this out.



He started his career at pubs and has been a professional recording artist since 1993. In 1996, he started working with Yamaha Company. He started busking as his part time job since 2000. Only then in 2004, he does busking full-time. Although since 2006, after landing a job in Perak in a telecommunications engineering company, he had to put his busking activities on hold. Some time after the contract had expired, he continued to pursue busking. Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad offered him the opportunity to perform there and he got the pass to busk in Central Market Kuala Lumpur. Other than busking, Meor Yusuf Azidin also teaches guitar classes.

According to him, nobody really pushed him into pursuing busking. To him, the buskers community and busking itself had hold an interest and respect in him. In the early 80’s, there was a busker named Wahid. Ever since he first saw him performed on the streets, he started to pick up the idea of busking, and as they say, the rest was history. For him, busking was real. To sing without microphones and amplifiers in front of people is what makes busking interesting for him.

When he was asked about financial issues, he said that is just more or less like the salary of a rubber taper. It cannot be estimated. But he said it was satisfying because he has the opportunity to sell his own album. Overall, he has seven albums until now. When people bought his album, he got supports and that give him more spirit. To put it in a simple way, he said income was subjective.

As far as experience goes, he says that he's learned a lot. Some years ago, he was caught by a policeman while he was busking because he was suspected as a drug addict. But nowadays, perception from authorities and community has become more positive. In other countries, their governments provide permit to buskers but in a developing country like Malaysia, Philippines and India, social acceptance of busking had a hard time. Some think that busking is similar to begging, but some see it as a free natural platform of art and self expression, and deserves respect. He hopes that the younger generations like us would not have bad impression towards busker and try to really understand what a busker does exactly.



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