Anggun Gets Real
Ade Mardiyati | November 24, 2011
Anggun Cipta Sasmi has a long list of things to do this week, including interviews, costume-fittings and rehearsing.
With
her concert on Sunday at the Jakarta Convention Center just around the
corner, the 37-year-old Indonesian-born songstress flew in from her home
in Paris and arrived here on Monday night.
Anggun left behind
her professional career as a lady rocker in Indonesia and moved to the
United Kingdom at the end of 1994, before settling down in France.
She
has since enjoyed great success as a singer-songwriter in Indonesia and
Europe. Her latest album, “Echoes,” was released in March and has been
certified quadruple platinum.
Today, she is a goodwill
ambassador for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and
is committed to other causes such as the Pantene Healthy Hair for
Healthy Water campaign, which provides clean water to children in
developing countries.
In an interview with the Jakarta Globe on
Tuesday, Anggun talked about her achievements, her humanitarian work and
what fame means to her.
How do you feel about the upcoming concert? I’m
very excited but also anxious. I just arrived last night and I haven’t
rehearsed and there are 44 musicians waiting for me. This is a first for
me, a concert with a rock orchestra concept. I’m not used to that. The
last time I sang with a philharmonic orchestra was four years ago.
What did it take for you to be who you are right now?
Not
much sleep [laughs]. But then you know, I have a daughter, so sleep
deprivation is OK, it’s part of my day. I guess you have to know your
priorities and then go for it. And I think the most important thing is
to surround yourself with a great team — and then a lot of luck.
So luck plays a role here? Of
course! I mean there are a lot of people who have many talents and they
work really hard, but luck hasn’t come to them for some reason and they
remain unknown. And I am still unknown to a lot of people. There are
international performers I admire but the world doesn’t know anything
about them.
But being famous is now becoming more and more
vulgar. Anyone can be famous. What does Kim Kardashian do? She doesn’t
really do anything but she’s famous. It sends the wrong message to a lot
of young people. Being famous to a lot of people is a burden, to some
it is a good thing and to me it is something that I use for my
humanitarian work.
Has it ever become a burden for you? No,
not really. Actually, if I didn’t do anything with it that was actually
useful, then it would become a burden. Because sometimes you don’t want
to sign autographs 200 times a day. Sometimes you just want to be left
alone by people, but they don’t know that. They don’t know how tired you
are, if you’ve only slept for three hours. But you still have to be
nice to people.
There are a number of Indonesian
performers who have become household names here and have been trying to
break into the international market, but haven’t made it. Why do you
think that is? Well, it is really difficult to try to
maintain something here and then try to do something abroad.
Geographically, you are far away.
Is that part of the reasons why you left? Yeah,
back then it was much more complicated because the Internet was not as
big as it is today. Everything was like really slow.
Now it is
easier, but still I think people don’t look for you. You have to make
yourself visible and make yourself heard by people.
Have there been failures in your life, career-wise? Of
course. Many of them. There are things I wouldn’t do the same way if I
had to do it again. But failures have to happen, otherwise you will
never learn. And I did learn from them. That’s part of the process of
growing up.
But I’m not really career-minded. What I really care about is my music.
I
read an interesting article about Scarlett Johansson, how she can
balance acting in indie movies and in blockbusters. That is very
difficult to do. So it’s almost like you either want to do the
blockbusters, you want to have hit records all the time or you want to
do something that you feel satisfied with.
I am very blessed
that most of my albums sell well and I have a fan base in Indonesia
[called Anggunesia] which is more than just a fan base. They think of me
as an extended member of their family.
What have you done so far as an FAO goodwill ambassador? I haven’t really done that much and that really frustrates me. I’m seriously thinking about doing more humanitarian work.
What do they expect from you as a goodwill ambassador? I
go to any meeting they want me to go to. The last one was in Beijing
where I delivered a speech giving my insight about, among other things,
how to eradicate famine.
Also, I learned a lot about
deforestation and land use. In Indonesia we have deforestation and land
degradation. They use land for palm oil extractions, and it really kills
me to know that the government doesn’t do anything about it. When I
went to China for this summit, I learned that the Chinese government is
really serious about their land use. They have a law about deforestation
that requires trees to be replanted.
So what do you want to say to the Indonesian government? Stop
the corruption. I talked to one of Indonesia’s representatives about
the Chinese reforesting plan. I said, ‘Can we do that too?’ And the
answer was, ‘Unfortunately, we need to have a lot of money.’ When I
asked what that was for, the answer was, ‘You know, for bribes.’ ”
It’s
like what happened during the Dutch colonial era, but now it is our own
people making life hard for us. The colonial period is actually not
over, now they have local faces.
If you had to choose between being a famous singer and dedicating your life to humanitarian work, which would you pick? I
need to have both sides for balance, and I want to succeed in
everything. It is possible but you need to be super organized. Helping
others fulfills me and my music satisfies me. But my commitment to both
makes me whole.
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/lifeandtimes/anggun-gets-real/480648
Sujet: interview Jakarta Globe 
Ven 25 Nov 2011 - 13:02
