XONE: Malaysia’s next great pop hope – and a duo who’ve been best friends forever
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Loading... - Guntur Sinaga
- 07 Apr 2023
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Get to know Ellya Keesha and Nelysa Nazrin, whose music video for empowering debut single ‘Lantaklah’ has racked up over a million views and counting
Each week in Breakout, we talk to the emerging stars blowing up right now – whether it be a huge viral moment, killer new track or an eye-popping video – these are the rising artists certain to dominate the near future.
llya Keesha and Nelysa Nazrin have a casual charisma as XONE – it’s like you’ve always known them. In many ways, Malaysians probably have. From a young age, the two have taken refuge in the arts: first as cheerleaders; then as two-fifths of the country’s youngest and now-inactive girl group Pandoras; with appearances on the national reality talent show Ceria Megastar. (Ellya even had a stint as a Mouseketeer on Disney’s Club Mickey Mouse.)
And now, they’re known as XONE (pronounced ‘so-en-ee’), the pop duo whose name is a cutesy acronym of X for love, O for hugs, N for Nelysa, and E for Ellya. They debuted last December (their birthday month) with the release of ‘Lantaklah’, which translates to ‘whatever’ in English, or as the duo put it: “Do what makes you happy. Keep it real.” The Cyber Barbie punk-meets-K-pop song did well upon release, but it’s the music video, which dropped in February, that’s racked up 1.2million views and counting on YouTube.
XONE feel like they’ve been born to do this together. The best friends tell NME, over Zoom, that it’s ‘jodoh’ – fate. They’re soulmates, practically twins who were “born in the same hospital, one day apart.” From the day they met in school as baby-faced seven-year-olds, they’ve been inseparable, bonding over their shared love of dancing, singing and performing. “We thought we were Hannah Montana,” Nelysa laughs. Ellya adds, “Nelysa was the only one, out of all our friends, who matched my energy. We were forever coming up with choreo, making up routines, singing some random song.”
‘Lantaklah’, though, is too good to be random. Its music video, which has commenters gushing over XONE as Malaysia’s next pop hope, impresses with its braggadocio and precise, vigorous dancing, shot against the KLCC Twin Towers. There are beat drops, horns, percolating synths, and confidence-boosting lyrics: “Kutahu semuanya kan OK (I know it’s all going to be OK) / I know I’m gonna play it cool / La-la-la-la-la, lantaklah / ‘Cause I know I’m gonna be, gonna be just fine.” A declaration and a promise of what’s to come. Read More…
