Asmawi bin Ani, better known as Mawi, is a Malaysian singer and a Third Season winner of Malaysia's popular reality show, Akademi Fantasia. Mawi has created a new phenomenon in the Malaysian music industry by becoming one of the best-selling and influential singers of the last few years. His debut album sold more than 200,000 copies in Malaysia and he has won numerous industry awards since winning the competition.
There has been criticism that Mawi is overrated and hypocritical, given his "religious" background, but is fiercely denied by his fan base who go to the extent of actually flooding blogs critical of him with hate comments [1]. It has been said that this reflects the sad sore need of the Malays for a role model, and the general mindset of that ethnic community, revering artists only a degree short of a deity.
