We know about Nurana largely through Erlinda’s accounts (1998; 2001), though her name came up during the process of ethnography. She is probably the same person people called “Te Nur.” In an interview with Erlinda, "when asked if there was any female padendang before her, she answered that as far as she knew there was no-one (Erlinda 1998: 45). In other words, Nurana is the first known female padendang, that is someone who was professional and sang in public. We don’t know for sure, but she may have been active as early as the mid-1940s, given her account that she started singing as a teenager. She was active into the 1990s.
In that interview with Erlinda, which I quote at length here because of the important historical account, Nurana related
that she had learned to sing in a non-formal manner, since she was a child, by listening to male padendang. One of them was Mone, a singer who was quite popular at that time. Because of her talent and enjoyment of dendang, and also based on her adequate vocal abilities, over time she could sing some of the dendang. The first time she displayed this singing ability was when Nurana was given the opportunity to participate as a randai player which was led by her mamak (her maternal uncle). In the randai group, she got the role of a female singer. Seeing Nurana's ability to sing in the randai, her mamak, Datuak Mangkuto, wanted to train Nurana to become a female singer. The invitation was not rejected by Nurana, in part because she was interested and had a talent for it. What was even more motivating is her life difficulties or her weak economy. She prepared to become a [professional] singer who at that time could make a decent amount of money for living costs. Nurana further explained that in the saluang dendang performance she often conveyed her condition through her dendang pantun which sounds:
she was always supervised by her mamak, Mone, who followed and accompanied her to all performances...if people or the community asked me to sing, they would ask my mamak, not me. Likewise, if you are going to be paid an honorarium, the money was immediately handed over to the mamak, not to me. This kind of condition lasted a long time, especially when I was a teenager or a gadis (young unmarried woman). (Erlinda 2001: 70-71)
While Nurana says she was the earliest female padendang, she mentioned that she hada female padendang partner, Sarinam, who was blind...I often sang with Sarinam in places of entertainment, in the market, but we often performed in markets outside West Sumatra, like Pekanbaru, Rengat, Pranab, Suranti, Basra, Teluk Kuantan, and so on. Nurana was happy to go to markets rather than wait to be invited by people to events in the community. That’s because performance of dendang in the market at the time was more productive for making or/ earning money. (Elinda 1998:45-6).