Photo: Reuters via Yahoo
Neo-soul singer Erykah Badu, whose concert in Kuala Lumpur on Feb 29 was banned, mesmerised the audience last night on the opening night of the Jakarta Jazz Festival.
Coming on stage an hour later than scheduled as the closing act for the night, Erykah was the centre of attention two days after Malaysia banned her concert because of a controversial photograph showing body art containing the Arabic word “Allah”.
Concert coordinator Eki Puradiredja dismissed the Malaysian controversy. He told VivaNews:
“Mungkin memang pihak Malaysia yang kurang teliti. Sudah tahu masyarakatnya seperti itu. Kita sudah antisipasi jauh-jauh hari, terutama soal fotonya, kita akali agar tatonya tidak terlalu kelihatan.”
The concert report from Republika:
Penonton yang awalnya duduk-duduk santai sontak bangun ketika layar putih yang menutupi hampir seluruh panggung terbuka. Dua orang wanita muncul seraya mengajak penonton berdiri menyanyikan lagu ‘Indonesia Raya’. Setelah itu, tibalah saat yang dinantikan.
Gebukan drum mengantarkan penonton menemui idola mereka yang tampil mengenakan jubah hitam serta penutup kepala yang menutupi seluruh rambutnya.
Penyanyi yang terkenal lewat album Baduizm di tahun 1997 ini berjalan perlahan mengisi panggung, penampilan Erykah yang terkesan cuek membuat penonton terkesima, senyumnya mengantarkan penonton untuk menikmati lagu pertamanya ‘Happy to see you again’.
Walau sempat terganggu sound yang terdengar sengau, wanita yang dijuluki sebagai ‘First Lady of Neo-Soul’ atau ‘Queen of Neo-Soul’ itu tetap bisa menguasai panggung. Sejumlah lagu hitsnya seperti ‘Hip-hop’, ‘Other Side of The Game’, ‘Me’ dibawakan dengan apik.
Tak berhenti disitu, wanita kelahiran 26 Februari 1971 ini menyanyikan beberapa lagu andalan dengan suara tingginya yakni ‘Kiss Me’, ‘Love of My Life’ dan ‘Your Mind’.
Erykah juga menyempatkan diri turun kebawah panggung dan berdiri diatas pagar pembatas untuk mengajak penonton bersalaman dan bernyanyi bersama. Penonton yang berada dekat dengan pembatas sontak tak menyia-nyiakan kesempatan tersebut untuk mengabadikan moment.
VivaNews reported that Erykah’s show mesmerised her audience
» Erykah Badu Jadi Pusat Perhatian di Java Jazz
Erykah down with the fans
About a hundred International bands and local musicians are performing in Jakarta at the weekend-long event. Now in its eighth year, the Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival is the biggest annual music event in Indonesia, with international headliners taking part. Stevie Wonder closes the festival on Sunday, but the opening night began with a bang with special shows by Herbie Hancock, and Al Jarreau & the George Duke Trio.
uppercaise 
makes me want to go and live in indonesia…sigh.
Or maybe the federated malay states plus two can confederate with indonesia, and the federated dayak states can go it alone or confederate with the philippines — real heresy in some people’s views no doubt.
Indonesia too is a muslim country just like Malaysia how come Malaysia is practicing a different kind if Islam ? Or is it Islam in Malaysia is Sunni muslim country and Indonesia is practicing Shiitle muslim country ? Can I please have someone out there to answer that question ?
Also I recently went on a holiday to South Africa or to be exact, Johannesburg and to my surprise I learnt that the ancestors of Malay community there came as slave. Brought into that part of the world as slaves from Malaya and Indonesia by the Dutch and the area they used to live in was the direst part of Johannesburg. Why isn’t the Malaysian government doing anything about it or better still why isn’t the grand son of the pariah from Kerala, the shenanigan Mahathir doing out it ? He is always claiming to be a Malay, surely he is not going to allow a part of the Malay race to be living as descendants of the slaves in the country very well known for slaves ? Come on all the very proud Malays out there, do make an effort to bring the descendants of the slaves instead of enriching yourself in everything you do.
@najib m: Of course Indonesia is mostly Sunni. If most Malaysians say they have ancestry from Aceh, Minangkabau, Java, Bugis and other Indonesian islands, if we were Shiite you would be too 🙂 We do have extremists, but most of us are just not that conservative and we don’t like our government preaching about religion or ethnicity. The government cannot tell us how to practice our religion (this is protected by the Constitution), except in Aceh where they whip people too.
@uppercaise: By the way, interesting choice of article about Erykah’s concert. In case you don’t know, Republika is an Islamic mainstream newspaper and considered quite conservative. But obviously their article is not hostile to Erykah.
Thanks. Indonesia’s solid adherence to pancasila, secular constitution and official recognition of minority faiths, though often tested, is quite admirable. We seem to adhere to shifting sands.
Cape Malays in South Africa are not descendants of slavery. The Dutch send dissidents to Dutch rule in Indonesia as prisoners to South Africa then. Most of the prisoners were from Acheh . Some of the rulers or royalty who resisted Dutch colonial rule were also outlawed there to remote islands such as Cocos Islands, Somoa, Fiji , Madagaskar ..etc by the Dutch.
On the other hand, in peninsular Malaya , the Malay rulers did not put much armed resistance to British rule. They accepted the British protection from having to pay annual ‘Bunga Emas” to the King of Siam as tribute. The British taught them to drink wine, whisky and play golf and polo while their princes were attending school in Malay college Kuala Kangsar and later to pursue more education in England. A few Malay royalties were also outlawed by British for not co-operating. ( Buang Daerah to remote islands after stripping of royal titles.
The Sultanate of Sulu is another case of one which never retained its official Kingdom. The descendants ran away to Southern Philipines during the spainish rule in Philipines.
Mahathir was never a saviour of lost malay kingdoms or royalty.If he had his way, he would have installed his cronies as sultans everywhere in town !