Video shows Indonesian singers performing song about addiction, not 'presidential hopeful'
- Published on February 16, 2024 at 07:14
- Updated on February 29, 2024 at 11:07
- 4 min read
- By Tria DIANTI, AFP Indonesia
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The one-minute, 20-second video of Indonesian singers Iwan Fals and Rhoma Irama was posted on TikTok on January 26, 2024.
The clip -- viewed more than 200 times -- shows them performing a song, with overlaid text that reads: "The former supporters of Prabowo in 2014 and 2019 sing a satirical song directed to No. 2 presidential candidate pair," referring to Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the eldest son of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
The text also says: "top musicians are now 01 AMIN" -- the portmanteau of presidential candidate Anies Baswedan and his VP candidate Muhaimin Iskandar.
Meanwhile, the post's caption reads: "Iwan Fals and Rhoma Irama supporting Anies Baswedan as the 2024 President, sarcastic song for Jokowi and Prabowo."
In the video, Rhoma can be seen playing a guitar as Iwan sings: "I liked you before, I really did / I was crazy of you, I was really crazy / Before I knew you could ruin my soul, before I knew you could destroy my life / Now I don't want you."
The post surfaced weeks ahead of Indonesia's general elections on February 14, 2024. By the end of the day, Prabowo declared victory based on preliminary counts by pollsters and the country's election commission.
As of February 15, his election rivals have yet to concede, however. Anies said he would respect the result only when it was finalised, and along with the third candidate, former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo, claimed there was evidence of electoral fraud but have yet to produce proof (archived link).
Prabowo's choice of Gibran as his running mate -- which came after a controversial court decision -- also fuelled criticism that Jokowi was trying to create a political dynasty.
Iwan Fals -- known as "Indonesia's Bob Dylan" -- and Rhoma Irama -- dubbed the King of Dangdut, a genre of Indonesian folk music -- occupy a special spot in local pop music scene as two legendary singers whose songs highlight and criticise social ills and injustices (archived links here, here and here).
The video has been viewed more than 15,700 times after it was shared on TikTok here and here, on Facebook here, and the video-sharing app SnackVideo.
2020 concert video
A reverse image search followed by a keyword search on Google found that the video shows the two musicians performing "Mirasantika", Rhoma's 1997 song about an addict who quits consuming alcohol and drugs (archived link).
It was part of a concert to celebrate local television network Indosiar's 25th anniversary on January 12, 2020.
The performance of Rhoma and Iwan started at the four-hour mark of the live-stream recording, uploaded on Indosiar's official Vidio account here (archived link).
They announced at the beginning of their 40-minute-long duet that they would sing "Mirasantika", which was followed by their other hit songs.
The original Indosiar video shows them singing the full lyrics of Mirasantika, including: "Alcohol, whatever your name, I will never drink you again ... Drugs, whatever your kind, I will never know you again, I will never touch you again."
The Indosiar performance was also published on Rhoma's official YouTube channel two months later, on March 15, 2020 (archived link).
"A special collaboration of two Indonesian legenday musicians that have long been awaited by music lovers in the country," the video's caption reads.
Election endorsement
After endorsing Prabowo in the 2014 and 2019 elections, Rhoma posted a video on his official YouTube channel to officially support Anies for the top job on January 31, 2024 (archived links here, here and here).
Iwan's daughter and personal manager, Annanisa Cikal Rambu Basae, directed AFP to a statement published on the singer's official Instagram account on February 7, 2024, in which he denied he had endorsed any of the presidential candidates (archived link).
"Tiga Rambu -- Iwan Fals's Management firm -- informs that until now Iwan Fals continues to adhere to the principle of neutrality regarding the 2024 General Elections," the statement read.
"Iwan Fals is not associated with any political parties or candidates," it goes on to say. "Iwan Fals' performances always emphasise in writing in the cooperation contract that they are not related to or not used for political needs, including for campaign purposes."
In the previous elections, Iwan did not publicly support any presidential candidate (archived link).
AFP has debunked other misinformation related to Indonesia's 2024 elections here.
This report has been updated to add the writer's byline.February 29, 2024 This report has been updated to add the writer's byline.
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