Raymond, a lead singer of the Idiots band, recently passed away at the age of 32 years old on June 23rd. The cause of death has yet to be determined, however, according to the accounts, he died due to cerebral malaria. He has shared his precious memories with numerous fans, friends, and family as well as with Myanmore. Here is how Raymond will be remembered as.
Wai Mon Oo, known professionally as Raymond, is a rock singer and songwriter. He was featured on the 2015 October InDepth Magazine’s cover story, One Original Song at a Time, where he talked passionately about how music became a big part of his life, and how the idiot band got created.
“It took us three or four years before becoming mainstream. We were playing free concerts and sharing our demos. It was very hard for me because producers didn’t accept loud, screaming music. At first, nobody listened to loud music, no loud drums, no loud guitars, just easy music.”
– Raymond, 2015 InDepth Magazine
Raymond also performed at Myanmore Dining & Nightlife Awards 2018.
No one could have predicted his untimely death. Raymond’s fans and celebrity friends have expressed their grief on multiple social media platforms, and his band members have shared condolences as follows:
“We have faced the unexpected bad news. Our Raymond has passed on to another life. My friend, kind-hearted Raymond, I am sure you will be in a better place now. Rest in Power Brother” – The Idiots
According to his friends and colleagues, Raymond is a pure-hearted person who is adored by everyone he meets. Throughout his music career, the self-taught rockstar wrote several songs, and some of which were popular among Burmese youths: Chan Khae (ချန်ခဲ့), Wan Nae Tat Tae Chit Thu (ဝမ်းနည်းတတ်တဲ့ ချစ်သူ), Su Latt (ဆုလာဘ်), Thay Lo Ya Tal (သေလို့ရတယ်), and Tway Ya Tar Wan Thar Del (တွေ့ရတာ ဝမ်းသာတယ်).
His recent song ‘Headshot’ is up there among those popular songs as well. Raymond released it along with Kyar Pauk, Han Nay Tar, and Novem Htoo on Facebook. The song is dedicated to the citizens who are actively involving in the pro-democracy movement, and it also amplifies the messages citizens are striving for.
He is committed to making music passionately simply because he wants to make a difference. As Raymond once said in the interview with InDepth Magazine:
“We’re trying to make it different. We want to give people something new, something better, something creative.”
Raymond has lived a colorful life, and memories will always be fondly remembered.
