QADEEM ZIEMAN, A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

BIODATA

Blessed with a classic opulent persona, charming character, and exotic Pan-Asian looks, Qadeem Shaher (better known as Qadeem Zieman) is a Malaysian singer, journalist, author, poet, and producer of Pashtun-Indian and Malay descent who was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2003 to the late prominent journalist, jury, critic, and philanthropist Zieman (Fauziah Mohd Johar), from whom he had inherit the gift of writing.
After the death of Zieman in December of 2021, Qadeem decided to merge his first name together with his mother's pseudonym as a stage name in honour of her career.

His interest in music began at the age of 6 years old when he slowly started singing at karaoke bars and later at a neighbourhood hotel lobby in Petaling Jaya when he was slightly older. However, it was in 2018 when his passion and talent for singing and rhyming tunes to lyrics started to flourish.
In 2019, he recorded a cover version of 'Mengapa', a song which was penned by his mother, along with a few others, including an Indonesian song (Ramadhan) under the permit of Nagaswara label. He was then recognised by a western-educated Malaysian music producer, Rosli Bin Ahmad, who was intrigued by the soothing tones of his voice.
This would lead to his career being produced with the first official debut single titled 'Pada Malam'. In 2020, Rosli assisted him with the production of his first written song named 'Golden Child'. The songs were then put into archives following his mother's passing, and Pada Malam was later redone in an orchestral manner.

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

 

Qadeem Zieman was raised in a home located in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, along with an older sister and brother from a different paternal side. He grew up without a glimpse of his father, but was fortunate enough to have been sent older male figures to look upon as fathers, a few of which were his brother, former actor and pageant model Aryan Farhan Lokman, actors Datuk Aziz Sattar, Zaibo, and scriptwriter A. Wahid Nasir.

His mother frequently dressed glamorously for work and functions. Growing up without a prominent father model at home, Zieman became the ultimate role model for him to hold on to. Thus making him adaptive to a similarly glamorous approach of persona and interest in dressing up. This also applies to having an extensive liking for finer ways of living in life with a balance of humbled upbringing.

 

Qadeem had never really been a fan of the typical academic syllabus, which resulted in him not being a fan of attending schools. However, he did receive early education at a Mandarin speaking kindergarten, SK Petaling Jaya (primary school), SMK Sultan Abdul Samad (High School) taking turns with being home schooled/tutored. Currently, he is furthering his studies at a Management and Science University in English Language Education.

Musical wise, he experimented with playing the piano along his mother, who studied music theory at Yamaha Music in the 80s. His interest in music later became known to his adopted step-father, Dr. Razali who enrolled him for violin lessons at Amcorp Mall when he was 8 years old. He also supported his wishes for new microphones to sing with at family gatherings. This continued until Farhan’s tragic near-death  incident, which forced the family to pay closer attention to that tragedy.

He started off by listening to the classic tunes of Engelbert Humperdinck, Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Broery Marantika, and Sharifah Aini. However, following that unfortunate cutback, Qadeem later diverted his passion with a ukelele and started tuning into country music by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers until he began performing at a hotel following the family’s regular visits there.

At Hotel Singgahsana, he was under a strict judgement of his well-known entertainment jury and critic who watched and criticized his every performance on the small stage facing the coffee house table. His ‘shows’ took place every afternoon as the staff were changing the table setting for hi-tea buffets. The young and innocent act as a child singing romantic love songs was witnessed by the rest of the staff along with the late film director Mamat Khalid.

 

At age 15 in 2018, he finally convinced his mother of his flourishing passion for singing, and was soon enrolled to attend vocal lessons at The Singing Shop where he was trained to sing with his recently grown-up tones. Much to his surprise, he had made his mother approve of his chosen path to be a serious singer after challenging him to sing an ethnic Malay song (Lagu Asli) titled Laksamana Raja Di Laut

 

THE ’DOWNFALL’

 

Throughout 2019-2021, his family faced a major financial downfall, which caused the house to be on the auction list due to a large sum of money stolen, resulting in unpaid mortgage and monthly car instalments.

The pressure on being conflicted with a so-called conman brother, he received countless harassments on social media and was stalked with cameras and the house which caused him to go incognito during peak of his short-lived career as a rising young singer and blogger.

However, in 2021, he managed to charm his mother into telling her perspective of their then current life while writing her a biography. This would become his next experiment to being a writer. After the passing of his mother on his 18^th birthday, his iPad which was used to write to manuscript was taken away by his other step-siblings, while he was brought away to Pulau Pinang under the pretext of a short hiatus of 3 weeks which eventually turned into over 5 months of never-ending torturous ‘jail time’.

The time spent in Penang was not one he favoured, but thankfully, he had found a new outlet to let go of his sorrowful episodes; writing poems.

He wrote secret suicidal notes in disguise as poems by learning foreign languages like French and Italian, which he later placed by his bedside before attempting to cut his life short a night before Ramadhan.

He then decided to publish his first poetry book under a Singaporean publishing house. Ever since that unfortunate situation that took place in Bayan Lepas, he went through a ‘wine making’ process where he faced many other pressures including being slandered, turning homeless, and alone living in poverty, as well as being an outcast of the family while battling with unattended health issues as a young man venturing into adulthood. Not to mention being naive in love with the wrong people. Those predicaments would finally make him wiser and grant him the realisation of needing to leave the biological ties behind and finding a safer place to live in.

 

He is currently working on completing some manuscripts and songs to make into his first album, which would consist of about 8 songs. Most were written and composed by him.