Malaysia has the music. Zamaera wants the world to hear it at SXSW

2026-03-01 - 06:05

When Malaysian rapper Zamaera hit send on an email to South by Southwest’s (SXSW) music team in mid-December, she had already been told she was returning to Austin as a showcasing artist. What she wanted was bigger: a stage for Malaysia, the kind Japan, Taiwan and Britain already had at the US music festival. “They have a stage ... for Japan. Taiwan already has a stage ... even the UK and Germany,” the 31-year-old rapper, born Sharifah Zamaera, told This Week in Asia in an exclusive interview. She...