Before today, I thought that it was Marsha AF3’s effort on primetime TV sometime in 2005, but now I think it’s much earlier than that.

Apparently, Cozzi Chong sang it in way back in 1997 in guess where - Pyongyang, North Korea. Then, she represented Malaysia in the decidedly wordy “International April Spring Friendship Art Festival.”
In that festival, she won 2 “gold medals,” including the “Top Ten Golden Hits Award” for “Jambatan Do Tamporuli” (sic).

Then, in 1998, she released a “VCD album” containing “Deng Ni Xin Teng / Jambatan Do Tamporuli” (sic).

In 2000, she released another Mandarin album with a Kadazandusun title, “Sang Ngawi Ngawi”; the title track became a hit in Taiwan.

The following is of Cozzi singing a medley of 2 songs, “Sang Ngawi Ngawi” and “Jambatan Do Tamporuli”. I am not sure if she sang them like that in her single/album, but if so, the lyrics are in Mandarin and Kadazandusun.

As for the songwriter of “Jambatan Tamparuli”, the legendary Justin Lusah, he said he has lost RM4 million in royalties, due to failure to copyright his compositions. It’s a lesson for all budding songwriters out there.

Here’s Cozzi again singing “Jambatan Tamparuli” starting 1:05

If you have any information on the date/location the videos above were taken, please inform me. Thanks.

Cozzi is a sino-Kadazan from Sandakan, but apparently does not speak any Kadazandusun dialect, which would explain the funny way in which she sang the Kadazandusun parts in the video above.

She first burst into the limelight in 1993 when she won the East Malaysian category for Asia Bagus. Those old enough would surely remember this on-TV singing competition.

Her website is cozzifriends.com, but seems to have suffered from neglect (last News update was July 2006).

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