In this work, a digital portrait of popular 80s singer Sahara Yaacob is appropriated and juxtaposed against representations of mass media and technology to question the male gaze and the portrayal of women in popular culture. Nicknamed Malaysia’s Tina Turner, Sahara Yaacob was largely perceived as a sex symbol due to her bold persona and was a frequent topic of controversy in the public eye. Swaths of horizontal bands in faded retro colours fill the work’s background, while tiny squares cluster around the popstar like flashing lights of the paparazzi to reflect the rise of the celebrity and media during the era. Bintang Pujaan, meaning idol or superstar, was also the name of a local 1981 colourised film about the rise and fall of an aspiring female singer. Repetitive female eyes and a slide of Kodak’s Ektachrome colour film are collaged above at the top of the work, depicting the increasing presence of Western ideologies and new technologies across a modernising world. Like Ismail Zain’s other works across the Digital Collage series, the various elements of Bintang Pujaan come together to explore the penetrating influence of globalisation and popular culture on the Malay psyche and culture.