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[email protected]December 2007 -
"Best British Muslim Poet of 2007"
July 2008 -
"Youngest Ever Unsigned Artist To Release Album Worldwide"
January 2009 -
Nominated for Awards of Excellence 2009 for "Best Contribution to The Arts"
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Every Soldier - SaB-o-TaGe
Holocaust of Today - SaB-o-TaGe
Look At Me Now - SaB-o-TaGe
SaB-o-TaGe Is An Award Winning Lyricist/Poet from Watford. He Was First Recognized and Respected On A National Scale When He Won the National Poetry Competition 2007 Run By the Muslim Council of Britain and At The Age of 16, Was Awarded The Prestigious Title of "The Best British Muslim Poet of 2007". The Following Year, SaB-o-TaGe Made History (At the age of 17) By Becoming The Youngest Unsigned Artist To Release An Album Worldwide. His Lyrics and Determination Prove That He Has Huge Potential and Has Achieved So Much at Such A Young Age Which Proves He Is Capable of Many Greater Achievements In The Years To Come.
SaB-o-TaGe's Unique Way Of Expressing Music Has Meant That People of All Walks of Life Can Relate To and Contemplate Over. His Lyrics Have Been Described As "Extremely Powerful" and "Simply Thought-Provoking" by Top British Lyricists And Has Also Been Described as having "Huge Potential Should He Choose To Channel It In The Right Way". In April 2008 He Was Interviewed On Television As Being Recognised As One Of The Best Lyricists In The Country and This Was Also Shown When He Was Voted The Winner of Club Asia's Smackdown For The Best Unsigned Asian Artists In May 2008.
With The Support of Legendary Boxer Amir Khan and RnB Sensation Jay Sean; His Aim Is To Release Unique Music Which Has Meaning And Addresses Issues That People Have To Deal With In Society Today. In June 2008, SaB-o-TaGe Donated All Money Made From The "Hell and Pain" Taster CD To Charity (Watford Mencap). This Enables Young Children With Learning Disabilities To Mix With Other Children With The Same Conditions. As Well As Charity Work, SaB-o-TaGe Has Run Youth Workshops Helping Children From Troubled Backgrounds In The Rough Parts of London.
In July 2008, The Release of SaB-o-TaGe's Debut Album ("The Voice of The Oppressed") Generated Mass Media Coverage Including His Story Being On The Front Page of Many Newspapers. Aswell As The Media Coverage, SaB-o-TaGe Made History With His Debut Album By Becoming The First Unsigned Artist To Release An Album All Over The World.
SaB-o-TaGe Has Performed At Many Events Including The Festival of Islam 2007, Nasheed Fest 2007, I-Soc 2008, The Muslim Youth Council (United Kingdom) Launch Evening, Cultural Awareness Event 2008, Celebration 2008, Brunel University and Luton University. His Biggest Performance Was Infront Of Top Government Officials At The Muslim News Awards for Excellance 2008, In The Grosvenor House In Park Lane. As Well As Performing At The Prestigious Grosvenor House, He Has Also Performed At The Famous London Olympia (Kensington).
Due To The Huge Success of His Debut Album, SaB-o-TaGe Was Fortunate Enough To Go On Tour All Over Europe Promoting His Album and Performing In Major European Cities. The Tour Was His First Experience of Performing Internationally and Gave The Oppurtunity For His Fan's To Meet Him and Continue Spreading His Message Across Europe.
"A Year In My Shoes" - *(Article Published In Fullerians Magazine)
On the morning of the 26th December 2007, I received a phone call that would change my life. I had been selected as one of the three finalists in the National Poetry Competition run by the Muslim Council of Britain and had been asked to perform live in London in front of an audience who would decide the winner.
From an early age I remember writing raps and poems to express my thoughts but never took it seriously until I submitted a piece called "Hell and Pain" into this competition. It was whilst speaking to the chairman of the competition that I realised just how impressed he was, simply by the amount of times he repeated "Are you sure you wrote all of this yourself?" To his astonishment, at the age of 16, I was competing against artists who had been signed and were already recording their work professionally. Nevertheless, for me to be in the final was truly humbling and I was just as happy as though I had won the competition. After all three finalists had performed, it was down to the audience to cast their vote and decide, which to my amazement meant that I had won the competition and was awarded the title of "Best British Muslim Poet of 2007".
After I came off the stage, I was surrounded by people who showed their appreciation, including some renowned British lyricists that who advised me to ensure that my talent is not wasted. This day was also significant as it was the creation of my alias, SaB-o-TaGe. If I was given a pound for every time someone has asked me why I chose SaB-o-TaGe, I think I would be on my way to becoming a millionaire. Whilst deciding on a pseudonym, I wanted to keep it as close to my real name, (Mohammed Sbahuddin Rafiuddin), but obviously something much shorter and easier to pronounce. I decided to use Sabotage because it was the closest word in the dictionary to my nickname (Sab-Uddin) and this is how the alias was created.
Most people came to know of me from my contribution to the Zoe and Moses campaign, in which I wrote and recorded the official soundtrack within 48 hours. This was an enormous personal achievement for me as it resulted in the song getting continuous airtime on radio. As well as being interviewed live on BBC Radio, I was interviewed by a journalist from the Watford Observer who featured my story in the local newspaper. I could not believe that all of this was happening only 3 months after I had won the award. To see my name and picture in the newspaper was something I could only have dreamt of and as time progressed it seemed as though my dreams were coming true right before my eyes.
Since I received the award, I have performed at numerous events, both nationally as well as internationally. My biggest performance was in front of a crowd of thousands of dignitaries at the famous Grosvenor House in Park Lane, where senior government officials, including Mayor of London - Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary - David Miliband, were all present. The support for my music has been expressed by a number of people namely; the R'n'B sensation Jay Sean and the legendary boxer Amir Khan. In addition to this, I was surprised when I received a phone call in April, asking if I would mind being interviewed on television for being recognized as one of the best up and coming lyricists in the country, I took no hesitation and agreed. Thankfully, the interview was not live and so I went in calm and relaxed. Yet, to begin with it was slightly menacing having so many lights blinding my eyes and around 5 different cameras pointing right at me but as the interview progressed I began to enjoy it and felt more comfortable.
Prior to the release of my debut album, I released a Taster CD to see what the response would be like from fans and hence use this to help with the marketing of my debut album. I was thrilled with the response and the amount of money that I had made from this. However, after continuously counting the money I was unsure what to do with it and I was getting extremely agitated about this. Coincidently, during the same week I was asked by my aunty to pick up my cousin up (who suffers from a rare genetic condition known as "Fragile X Syndrome") from an after-school club for disabled children. It was on this day when I went to pick him up, that I saw how happy he was when he ran out of the hall saying to me "I scored 2 goals today and my team won". Seeing the smile on his face, as well as the smile on the faces of all the other children suffering with similar conditions, made me realise that the best thing to do would be to give the money to charity to help continue running clubs like these for children suffering with disabilities. I decided to donate 100% of the profit to a local charity called "Watford Mencap" whose primary purpose is to run activities for disabled children.
Inevitably, this caused a great amount of frustration amongst people who I considered as brothers, who showed their true colours of greed and selfishness, as they felt this would be a waste of so much money. Consequently, I have not heard from some of them even till this day. However, as a Muslim I believe that whatever you give to charity to help others, God replaces that and rewards you manifold. Having donated all the profit to charity, I am now witnessing the reward with my own eyes when the sales figures for my album come through each month.
Another day that I will never forget is Friday 18th July 2008. At the age of 17, I made history by becoming the first ever unsigned artist to release an album all over the world. Over the last year, whenever I have thought that things could not get any better, I have always been proven wrong and something far greater than I could expect happens. The release of my album generated mass media coverage including my story being print on the front page of many newspapers. In particular, my story was covered on the front page of my local newspaper with the headline "Taking on the World". After the release of my album, my inbox became flooded with messages from fans all over the world showing their appreciation. I remember reading a message from a fan that lived in Malaysia asking me how he and his friends could purchase the album. The thought of someone in a different country wanting to buy my album was one that took me aback and I was extremely grateful with the support that I received. All of the messages that I read, had one similar question; "What is your favourite song on your album?" Even till this day I have not been able to answer that question, simply because every piece that I write is an expression of my thoughts and opinions and therefore it is difficult for me to select one. However, the track that will always remain close to me is the first ever one that I wrote, "Hell and Pain", which ultimately resulted in me receiving the award and my recognition on a national scale. Due to the huge success of this album, I have been fortunate enough to go on tour and perform and promote my album in major international cities, the climax being at Turkey's 85th Independence Day Celebration event in Istanbul.
This year has been extremely successful for me and I am optimistic that this will continue into the New Year and many years to come. I am hoping to release another album, possibly towards the end of 2009. However, my debut album "The Voice of The Oppressed" is still available to buy from iTunes or by using the links on my MySpace page. For those of you that would like to listen to any of my tracks, feel free to visit my MySpace, Facebook or Youtube page, where not only can you listen to my songs, but also watch video's of all my performances. Finally I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the readers, Eid Mubarak, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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