Keeping it real

Multi-hyphenate singer-songwriter Hashy Yusof’s sexy simplicity champions comfort and versatility over everything else.

- ANGELYN KWEK

Google Hashy Yusof’s name and you will immediately find articles of how the home-grown singer-songwriter and content creator had to undergo a major spinal surgery to remove a tumour when she was just 20 years old.

Describing that ordeal as one of her “darkest moments”, she shared how it all started in 2013 after a bad fall onstage during her participation in the local reality singing competition show The Final 1, after which she had to contend with an early exit as her health took priority.

After the fall, Hashy went for an MRI scan, and that was when doctors discovered a tumour growing in her spinal cord. Not only was she suddenly confronted with the possibility of becoming permanently disabled, Hashy was also forced to drop out of the second competition she had joined at the time, The New Paper New Face 2016 modelling contest, to have the operation.

Despite these setbacks, Hashy was determined in pursuing her dream of entering the local entertainment scene. Exactly a year following a successful surgery and post-op recovery, where she had to learn how to walk all over again, she took part in the 2017 edition of The New Paper New Face contest – an achievement that was “so much fun”, she reminisces cheerfully.