Taufik Batisah reinvents himself — and is going into F&B

Judging others now comes easily for Taufik Batisah. After all, he returns as resident judge in the second season of MediaCorp TV Channel 5’s reality singing competition The Final 1. Last year, he was also a judge at the Malaysian comedy competition Maharaja Lawak Mega.

But actually, this Mr Nice Guy admitted to being far more critical of himself than of others.

“I am my worst critic,” he said. At the end of a performance that isn’t up to his standards, for instance, he would catch his manger’s eye. “We’ll look at each other and she will know. I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, sucks, man.’ ‘But they enjoyed it.’ ‘I know, but I didn’t enjoy it.’”

Even during his days as a Singapore Idol contestant in 2004, he recalled: “Even if the judges said it was good — cool, the audience would vote for me or whatever — if I knew in my head it wasn’t good, I would try to figure out how to be better.”

He also recalled a duet with Shila Amzah at Anugerah Planet Musik in 2012. “She was 22 back then and I was thinking, ‘Dude, you are in trouble.’ Because I was 32 and here’s a girl who’s 22. I told myself, ‘If you don’t figure things out, you’re just going to be irrelevant because you’re getting old.’”

Happily, not long after that, this old man played knick knack on his drum and churned out the hit song #AwakKatMane, which has since chalked up five-and-a-half million views on YouTube and counting. Last year, he released his fifth studio album, Fique, and this year, he put a ring on it and married his girlfriend, 31-year-old Sheena Akbal.

So when Taufik says he’s constantly pushing himself, he means it.

RETAINING RELEVANCE

As someone who is celebrating his 11th year in showbiz, there’s one big keyword on Taufik’s mind: Reinvention.

It does not escape the 34-year-old that being a key player in the regional music scene 11 years after being crowned the first Singapore Idol is no small feat. “Sometimes, I realise I’m actually pretty lucky to be doing this still’,” he mused.

But with that comes an increasing struggle to stay inspired and relevant, especially in the age of digital and social media, in which “anybody can do music”.

“There are new singers coming up every other day. Whether their careers last is a whole different question — but that is the challenge. It’s not so much about being at the top — it’s staying there. How long can you stay relevant? You’ve got to keep challenging and reinventing yourself,” he said.

With The Final 1, not only is Taufik diversifying his portfolio, which already includes television, film and stage acting, he’s also helping to shape the local music scene, in which he has a lot of faith.

“I think it’s in a great place right now,” he said, citing Gentle Bones as his current favourite local musician (“He has that whole Ed Sheeran flavour”). “With the evolution of the entertainment industry all over the world, and with social media, there are so many different avenues for local musicians to showcase themselves. Plus, in Singapore, I think the industry is being a lot more supportive. I dare say singing competitions play a part in that — they gather locals together to support a local singer in a competition,” he said. “I don’t understand (it) when people say, ‘Is there any talent left?’ There’s a child born every other day. How can there be a lack of talent?”

For Taufik, there’s really no excuse, especially when aspiring musicians have social media as a marketing tool at their disposal. “If I had social media back then, it would have been a lot easier for me to market myself in Malaysia,” he said. “I think I would have way, way more followers, should they have chosen to follow me from then.”

Acting projects such as last year’s Suria telemovie Demi Adriana and the 2010 musical Fried Rice Paradise, as well as Malaysian comedy movie Dukun Doktor Dani, which will be released next year, are all part of building the Taufik brand, as is maintaining his Instagram account with its 302,000 followers.

“The brand is not going to help itself. Over time, there’s always somebody new or fresher or younger. So you have to figure out means and ways to grab people’s attention,” he said, citing the example of #AwakKatMane, which started as a hashtag born of his own parody of the character he had played in Demi Adriana. Social media has obviously played a huge part in the song’s success. “The song is promoting itself because people are sharing it,” he said. “I didn’t even do anything, I just created the song and the dance. That is the power of social media — you can’t contain it once it catches fire. People are making parodies of the parody (and) what they don’t realise is that it’s actually helping.”

MARRIAGE WITH CHEESECAKE

Part of the process of reinventing himself was the personal paradigm shift Taufik underwent last April: His marriage to Sheena Akbal.

“It’s great,” said the newlywed, adding that the best part is “waking up to your best friend every day”. In fact, being married has made life even sweeter for the couple who are both “not clingy at all”.

“We were never the ‘I have to call you before I go to sleep’ or ‘I have to tell you where I am’ type. We don’t do anything on Valentine’s Day,” Taufik said.

But recently, just after their wedding, when he had to travel to Pahang and Kuala Lumpur to film Dukun Doktor Dani, she surprised him by offering to pack his suitcase — and hiding in his clothes a love note for each day he was away. “It was uncharacteristic, but I thought it was cute,” he said with a laugh. “She wouldn’t have done that before we got married — it would have been weird for her to come over to pack my suitcase.”

Taufik also revealed that one of their pastimes is watching Gordon Ramsay shows together. And that not only is he interested in looking at and eating food, he also makes it, too. In his culinary repertoire are red velvet chocolate cheesecake and triple layer chocolate cake, which he made for his wife’s birthday.

Not surprisingly, he’s just as critical of his baking skills as he is of his music. “They said (the chocolate cake) was nice, but I didn’t like it. The sponge was too heavy. But the saving grace was that in between the layers was Nutella. Because Nutella just saves everything, right? It saves the world.”

In a few months, he’ll also be serving up food. “I have a business project coming up at the end of the year. It’s food. I love food. We have (found a space) and are negotiating with the owners. I’ve been waiting a long time with my partner to do it. I’m really excited about it,” he revealed.

Restaurant Chez Taufik? Now that’s really a new one. We can’t wait.

Catch The Final 1 on Sundays at 9.30pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 5.