This chapter explores the common and complex Nusantara relationship through an ethnography of events that commemorated one of Singapore’s most prominent icons in popular music and the arts. It argues that Zubir Said as a Singaporean arts icon is mobilised by the minority Malay community to claim a stake in a majority Chinese nation despite efforts by the Singaporean government to promote him as an icon of the island-state’s multicultural and merit-driven society. Moreover, Zubir Said is positioned as “the pioneer Singapore artist” who contributed not just to the Malay minority community but more so to the establishment of Singaporean national-cultural identity as a whole. The chapter provides an overview of Singapore’s contentious geopolitical position in the Nusantara, discussed Malay nationalist ideas related to music, and provided an ethnography of events dedicated to remembering the musician, film composer, and arts icon Zubir Said.

This chapter explores the common and complex Nusantara relationship through an ethnography of events that commemorated one of Singapore's most prominent icons in popular music and the arts. It argues that Zubir Said as a Singaporean arts icon is mobilised by the minority Malay community to claim a stake in a majority Chinese nation despite efforts by the Singaporean government to promote him as an icon of the island-state's multicultural and merit-driven society. Moreover, Zubir Said is positioned as “the pioneer Singapore artist” who contributed not just to the Malay minority community but more so to the establishment of Singaporean national–cultural identity as a whole. The chapter provides an overview of Singapore’s contentious geopolitical position in the Nusantara, discussed Malay nationalist ideas related to music, and provided an ethnography of events dedicated to remembering the musician, film composer, and arts icon Zubir Said.