Royston Sta Maria

Royston Sta Maria (born 24 November 1951, Malacca City, is a Malaysian singer-songwriter. Royston attended the St. Francis Institution where he obtained a Grade 2 in the Overseas School Certificate and the Malaysian Certificate of Education. Roy's interest in music started from a very early age and the only cup he won in school was from a talent-time contest, where we won for Best Group. Upon finishing high school, Sta Maria had the opportunity to develop his musical interests when he was offered to join his father's band as a bass guitarist. At 19, Sta Maria was performing every night in a hotel called the New Straits View in Johor Bahru. After 2 years of playing in the nightclub scene and backing floor-shows, Sta Maria then decided to leave the band and move to greener pastures in Kuala Lumpur. In Kuala Lumpur, Sta Maria decided to study for a management course in the hotel industry. To support himself, Sta Maria would work as a waiter in a coffee-house at the Fitzpatrick's building in Jalan Raja Chulan. Roy, however, did not end up finishing his hotel management course as he was more interested in music.

He subsequently joined a local band called the Electric Organism and started work at the Tomorrow Disco at the Merlin Hotel on a nine month contract, then a top discothèque at that time. The musicians in the band included Fauzi Marzuki, Nasser Abu Kassim, Francis Danker and Radha Krishnan.

After the band broke up, Sta Maria continued working in the Merlin Hotel for 5 years performing in different groups - playing everything from country music to backing international floor-shows. It was also at the Merlin Hotel in early 1980 where Sta Maria met the young singer Francissca Peter.

It was from this first meeting that Sta Maria decided to team up with Fran as a duo. They called themselves "Roy & Fran". One night, while they were performing at the coffee-house, S. Atan, a Malaysian music producer, happened to drop by for supper and saw them singing. EMI offered Sta Maria and Fran a recording contract and they subsequently released their first debut album in 1982 titled "Siapa Dia Sebelum Daku".

This was followed by "Bersama Pertemuan Ini" in 1983. However after the success of the second album, Fran decided to go separate ways and develop a solo career. By this time, Roy's interest in songwriting was developing and decided to write his own songs for his first solo album titled "Berakhir Kemarau Nan Panjang", followed by "Perkenalan Pertama" in 1985. From writing and recording his own songs, Sta Maria then proceeded to produce albums, starting with his own two solo albums and later for other artistes including Fauziah Latiff's first album and Bibiana Peter's debut album.

Sta Maria emigrated to Perth to be with his family and have been here since 1988. He is still active in the music industry in Australia, and performs in hotels and clubs. He also had the opportunity to sing with Erra Fazira who was in Perth several years ago with 100 of her fans on holiday. In 2011, Sta Maria was invited to perform with Fran at her biggest solo concert titled "Konsert Keunggulan 33 Tahun Francissca Peter". His dream for the future is to do another nostalgic album with Fran and to perform all of their classic hits in Malaysia.

Awards

During this time, Sta Maria has also written numerous compositions for several music contests.

• RTM 3rd Pesta Lagu

Second Place for "Berakhir Kemarau Di Hati" performed by Fauziah Ahmad Daud. The song went on to represent Malaysia at the 3rd Asean Song Festival held in Singapore.

• 1st & 2nd Golden Kite Song Festival

Second Place for "Babak Cinta Terakhir" performed by Zainal Abidin.

• World Peace Song Festival
• Asean Song Festival

Second Placing for "Mulanya Di Sini" performed by Freedom. The song also helped propel the Freedom band who performed it to stardom. Not long after, Malaysia Airlines adopted the song as their jingle and theme song in their promotions.

Source : Wikipedia.