Zubir Said - Later Years

Later Years

In 1962, Zubir's songs for the movie Dang Anom won an award at the Ninth Asian Film Festival in Seoul, South Korea. He continued working for Cathay-Keris Film Productions until he retired in 1964, composing numerous songs for Malay films.

He also gave music lessons, and often had other music artists visiting him to talk about music and asking for advice. His third and youngest daughter Puan Sri Dr. Rohana Zubir, a retired lecturer with the University of Malaya, recalled how the family home in Singapore was always filled with music. He was the heart of the conversation, very enthused and willing to share pearls of wisdom so that others could benefit from his work. This generosity extended to other areas of his life. He helped his own family in Sumatra and families in Singapore he had "adopted", sending them medicine and other items with what little he could afford, even though his own family was not well off at the time.

Zubir said he was never driven by money. He believed that money was essential for his survival and to look after the family, and that the money he earned from giving music lessons and his compositions for the film world sufficed. He valued honesty and sincerity in his work and placed importance on purity and originality, whether in his music, lyrics or style of singing. He stopped composing songs for the film company when he was upset about the management's decision to cut production costs by borrowing existing music to be used for dubbing on to the background music of some films.

Zubir died at the age of 80 on 16 November 1987 at Joo Chiat Place in Singapore, survived by four daughters and a son. Despite his legacy, Zubir left only S$20,000 to his name and the family had no home to call its own. In 1990 Zubir's life and passion as a musician were documented in a book titled Zubir Said: His Songs, and in 2004 a S$20,000 bronze bust of a bespectacled Zubir was installed in Gallery 6 of the Malay Heritage Centre which pays tribute to icons in Malay arts and culture.