They’re each other’s biggest fans, admiring and respecting the other’s beliefs and singing prowess. They’d both jump at the chance to meet Stevie Wonder and they’ve both chose to play really groovy roles in a movie. And just last month, the 2 good friends who met on the 1st season of Singapore Idol (SI), released their solo albums to fans hungry for their fix of Taufik and Olinda.

The Pals and Their Albums

Taufik Batisah, winner of the first season, has cut his third album in as many years – Teman Istimewa [Special Friend]. The new album, with 2 English and 8 Malay songs, was written and produced by him.

The earnest winner of Idol reveals that even though he’s written and produced some of the songs on his previous albums, “Blessings” and “All Because of You”, he’s never gotten so much say before and he’s mightily pleased and thankful for the opportunity.

While Taufik’s brimming with experience, this is only Olinda’s debut album. Rewind is a mix of acoustic ballads and catchy musical covers that are more mellow than the jazzy numbers that we’ve heard her belt out during SI.

No one thinks that she’s grown tremendously more than Taufik who says so proudly of his good friend, “When I heard “Sailing”, I thought, ‘Man! Is this Olinda?’”

Recording Rewind has been Oli’s dream since she was 8 (it’s even written in a book she doodled in then) and cutting the tracks were “incredibly emotional” since she was “drawing a lot” on her past experiences. Indeed, Rewind means so much to Olinda that she “couldn’t stop crying” when her manager showed her the album.

Taufik also drew from personal experience when he wrote “Usah Lepaskan” (Don’t Let Go), his favourite slow song on his album. He says, “It’s bittersweet, writing and singing that song.”

But he’s got “Teman Istimewa” (Special Friend) to listen to, to cheer him up. He says “Teman Istimewa” is an excellent song when he’s driving home because it “has a fast, catchy melody and rhythm”.

Olinda can’t decide which she loves more- “Karma Chameleon” because “it was just so fun to do” or “Hopelessly Devoted to You”, which she loves because she “grew up with that song” from the musical Grease.

Growing Pains: The Idol Days

If you’ll ask the 2 Idols what was the weirdest thing that happened to them during the SI, Olinda’ll answer quickly, “The Dress!”

Who could forget when Olinda came on-stage in a dress cut almost too low for her liking? She laments her ill fate and discloses that she actually promised her fans that if they voted her into the next round, she would don a dress.

Then, “They really did vote and I really went into the next round but I put off putting on a dress until people started bugging me and asking me when I’ll wear the dress, so I didn’t have a choice,” she explains with a grimace, while miming the low neckline in mock horror.

Taufik will feign ignorance about the incident because his “game plan” for the show was “to keep quiet, maintain a low profile and only take the constructive criticism”. He says that he formulated his plan after the first round of auditions when the judges told him off for being a little too arrogant with his comeback comments.

That aside, they both admit to having faced much competition, even though it wasn’t blatant.

“You know it was there. You knew that these people all wanted to win,” Taufik shares. Olinda wasn’t far behind with her hearty agreement, “We were friends off-stage but during the show, we won’t pang chance (go easy on some one). There was no such thing as giving you a chance and not singing our best just because someone we’re close to didn’t perform too well.”

Olinda wasn’t alone in keeping her performance constant since it’s clear that Taufik never let his performance slip because even after Idol he’s still going strong, producing and writing songs for his friend, Mark Bonafide.

Are You For Reel?

Imagine Taufik as the psycho killer (he’s too cool for the stereotypical, run-of-the-mill killers, he says) and Olinda as Mr Smith in Mr and Mrs Smith. The zany friends have given much thought to what roles they’d like to play in a movie and have settled on these even though Olinda would also like to be Austin Powers or James Bond “because they’ve got such cool gadgets”!

It’s obvious that Taufik and Olinda are ready to horse about but they quickly sober up when asked about what motivates them.

Olinda gives a small smile and says that she’s depending on love since she’s “a big sucker for love” and Taufik wipes his wide grin off his face and puts on a rather serious mien when he answers that he’s “doing all that I am for my mother” and that he wants her to be able to “buy anything that she wants when she goes out”.

Christmas: For Everyone

The release of Teman Istimewa and Rewind effectively fulfills the Christmas wishes that the 2 have, so Olinda, putting her other wish for a Mandarin album on hold, generously wishes that everyone can just be happy and Taufik doesn’t hesitate to wish for “awareness for people who are not as lucky”.

They’ve got kind souls, a vivacious personality and an uncanny knack of knowing how to please the fans with their new albums. How can UrbanWire do less than wish that both their albums will be a hit?

Can’t wait to get your hands on autographed Teman Istimewa and Rewind CDs or posters of Olinda and Taufik?

Email your name and contact number to urbanwire.contests@gmail.com, title your email “Taufik and Olinda” by Dec 22 and stand a chance to win the autographed CDs and posters!