FAMILY Affair

Get up close and personal with these mother-daughter duos whose lives and careers are intertwined into inspiring and uplifting composites.

- NIKITA NAWAWI

DATUK SHEILA MAJID & KAYDA

It’s not easy to gain a foothold in the music business, but apparently it’s even harder to get the green light from the patriarch of the Abdul Majid family—even when that figurative foothold is within one’s reach. Datuk Sheila Majid herself had to wheedle her father, an academic man with a coveted diploma from England’s University of Oxford who expected nothing less from his offspring, into letting her pursue a career in music. Decades later, she was faced with the same conundrum as her own young Kayda decided to follow in her footsteps.

Did the experience with your father give you empathy for Kayda’s career choice?

S: Being a parent, I still wanted her to finish her education and she did. She has a degree in psychology, she has finished her Quran recital and completed her piano studies right up to grade six. So how could I say no to her? Sometimes you just need to let your children pursue their passion because that’s when they are going to excel.

What was the first piece of advice you gave her at the beginning of her career?

S: That you have to have a good attitude because no matter how talented you are, if you have a bad attitude, it’s not going to take you anywhere. You have to have a little bit of empathy for people, especially those who work around you.

What about you, Kayda? What have you learned from your mother about the music industry? Not only the creative side of it but also the business side.