USA: INDONESIAN SINGER ANGUUN STARTS US CONCERT TOUR WITH NATALIE MERCHANT

Record ID: 704252

  • Title: USA: INDONESIAN SINGER ANGUUN STARTS US CONCERT TOUR WITH NATALIE MERCHANT
  • Date: 23rd January 1999
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) ANGGUN SAYING: "When we released the album in Indonesia and then we released the album in Japan and then suddenly a lot of countries called. Finland called. I released an album in Finland! I remember calling my Mom saying hey, I'm in Helsinki. She said where on Earth is that? You know mom, its on the north pole its up north. So far everything is beyond my dream."
  • Embargoed: 7th February 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVA1DQ5VNEL30SWAWCN151Q9S7MU
  • Story Text: Already a multi-platinum selling artist in her home country of Indonesia, Epic Records vocalist Anguun brings her eclectic blend of pop and rock to the United States, touring with former 10,000 Maniacs vocalist Natalie Merchant.
    Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, has a rich and ancient musical tradition as well as a vast audience for Western pop and rock of every kind.Anggun is Indonesia's most popular artist and has already sold millions of records in her native country.
    On her self-titled album, Anggun brings together divergent sounds - traditional and contemporary, Indonesian and Euro-American.Although a new name to American audiences, Anggun Cipta Sasmi has been performing and recording for nearly two decades in her native country, having formed her own record company by the age of nineteen.
    "When you've done so much already a that age, you naturally reach for new challenges, and since the American and English record companies weren't going to come to Indonesia looking for new talent, I had to bring my talent to the West," Anggun explains.
    In 1995 Anggun made a leap of faith and left her native counry without any idea of where she was going to eventually become rooted.She landed in Paris where through mutual friends she met writer/producer Erick Benzi, who has worked with French pop legends like Johnny Hallyday, Jean-jacques Goldman, and Celine Dion.
    Although it may be the comparisons to British pop singer Annie Lennox that won her a recording contract with Sony Records, Anggun's music has been widely perceived as melodic enough for the pop market, mellow enough for the adult contemporary market and exotic enough for the alternative market, which should spell success in today's fragmented market.
    Anggun says her own goals for this recording are being realized with every day of travel, performance, and learning the American side of the music industry.While blazing the trail for fellow Indonesian performers is "far too big a load for me to carry", Anggun does want people to know more about her country than the recent political unrest making headlines worldwide.
    "We have so many rich cultures, history and sound...so many beautiful things.Yeah, my country is in a deep coma right now, but we get rid of the one biggest problem, we just have to be patient and keep going and keep believing.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register