By ROSHINEE MOOKAIAH
Photos by MELISSA ONG and CHRISTOPHER CHAN
brats@thestar.com.my
BACKSTAGE access. It’s like the holy grail for star-chasing teenagers. For us BRATs, it’s all in a day’s (or night’s) work.

Okay, we’re gonna stop playing it cool here and just let it all out now – we were backstage at the Shout! Awards hanging out with some of Malaysia’s biggest stars.

On top of that, we also got to watch Shane Filan perform live. The former Westlife singer performed two songs from his debut solo album You And Me.

Sure, it was all pretty fun (okay, it was TOTALLY fun), but for aspiring journalists like ourselves, getting to mix around with personalities like Joe Flizzow, Bunkface, Jay Walia, Mizz Nina and even Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin was quite the learning experience too – especially with all the chaos that goes on backstage.

Mizz Nina backstage with the BRATs at Shout! Awards.

Aside from the big names in the music industry (and Khairy), the BRATs also got to hang out with the creative forces behind the movie KIL, who were beyond ecstatic after winning the Breakthrough Local Feature Award.

Director Nik Amir Mustapha said, “We did not do this to make money, we wanted to touch the hearts of our viewers. And it was well received on social media – the movie was trending for four days!”

We also spoke to the guys from Bunkface, who had just won their fourth consecutive Rockstar Award.

Local rockers Bunkface posing up for the BRATs’ cameras.

“We have been a band now for eight years, and we owe our success to our true, die hard fans,” said lead vocalist Sam. “It is all about the fans because they’re the ones who voted for us. If they wanted to come over and take a look at the award, or take it home, I’d say ‘go ahead!’”

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin with his Wired Star award