Zubir Said

His Excellency Tuan Haji Zubir bin Said زبير بن سيد Sijil Kemuliaan, BBM, JS, SKA, SBA, ACCA, COMPASS; (Lifetime Achievement Award)
Pak Zubir, composer of "Majulah Singapura" (Singapore's National Anthem)
Background information
Birth name	Zubir Said
Born	22 July 1907 Fort De Kock, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia)
Died	16 November 1987(1987-11-16) (aged 80) Singapore
Genres	Film scores and songs
Occupation(s)	Composer
Years active	1928–1987
Labels	Universal Music Group

Zubir Said B.B.M. (22 July 1907 – 16 November 1987) was a Singaporean composer originally from the Minangkabau highlands of Indonesia who composed the national anthem of Singapore, "Majulah Singapura" ("Onward Singapore"). A self-taught musician, Zubir also worked as a score arranger and songwriter for Cathay-Keris Film Productions for 12 years, composing numerous songs for the company's Malay films. He is believed to have written about 1,500 songs, with less than 10% of them ever recorded.

It has been said that Zubir was viewed by many as a composer with a "true Malay soul", as his songs were interwoven with historical messages and Malay truisms, and that he and his Minangkabau contemporaries awoke a wave of national consciousness in the 1950s.

The eldest child in a family of three boys and five girls, Zubir Said was born on 22 July 1907 in Bukittinggi (formerly known as Fort De Kock) in the Minangkabau highlands of West Sumatra, Indonesia. His mother died when he was seven years old. He attended a Dutch school but had no interest in academic studies. His involvement with music started when he was introduced to the Solfa music system by a teacher. A primary-school classmate subsequently taught him how to make and play a flute, and in middle school, he learned to play the guitar and drums from fellow students and the keroncong group he was involved in.

In 1928 at the age of 21, Zubir went to Singapore to make a living as a musician, taking up the suggestion of a sailor friend who had described the island as a place of "glittering lights, kopi susu [coffee with milk] and butter". This was done in the face of objections from his village chieftain father, Mohamad Said bin Sanang, who believed music to be against religion. Zubir's first job was as a musician with City Opera, a bangsawan or Malay opera troupe. He became the troupe's bandleader. Thereafter, in 1936, he joined the recording company His Master's Voice. Zubir went to Java to marry Tarminah Kario Wikromo, a keroncong singer, in 1938; they returned to Zubir's home town of Bukittinggi in 1941 just before the outbreak of World War II. Coming back to Singapore in 1947, Zubir worked as a part-time photographer with the Utusan Melayu newspaper while composing and performing music and songs. In 1949 he took up the post of orchestra conductor at Shaw Brothers' Malay Film Production, and in 1952 he joined Cathay-Keris Film Productions as a score arranger and songwriter for the company's Malay films, including Sumpah Pontianak (Blood of Pontianak, 1958) and Chuchu Datuk Merah (Grandchildren of Datuk Merah, 1963). In 1957, he received his first public recognition when his songs were performed at the Victoria Theatre.