Child singers set their hearts on popular game called fame

By Amorita

JAKARTA (JP): Pint-sized Innez may look like she should be at home arranging her doll collection, but she knows what she wants.

"I wanna be famous, and appear on TV," she belts out in her tune Ingin Ngetop. "I wanna be famous and join a recording studio."

She is not alone -- hundreds of Indonesian child singers, and their parents, want their names in lights.

Call them cute and cuddly or sickening examples of parents living failed dreams vicariously through their children, but they are to be found everywhere on TV.

The phenomenon is also evident from the number of participants in the Indonesian Children Appreciation Festivity, the first ever of its kind organized by the music division of the Indonesian Journalists' Association (PWI) early this month.

Despite the economic crisis, more than 200 participants aged between two and 14 years old registered for the event, said Sari Sofyan Ali, chairperson of the organizing committee.

It is not a contest for amateurs. To be eligible for participation in the event, held at a reported cost of between Rp 600 million and Rp 1 billion, a kid must have at least one recording album released or in the pipeline.

The boom in numbers of kid singers in Indonesia is inseparable from the emergence of private television stations in the first half of this decade. The reappearance of TV commercials -- banned from state TV in the 1980s -- and the presence of regular shows featuring child singers prompted recording producers to bank on child singers, regardless of whether they could sing or not. This followed a vacuum of almost two decades following the heyday of Chicha Koeswoyo and her contemporaries in the 1970s.

After first only promoting kid singers in TV commercials, recording producers have finally decided to establish cooperation with private TV stations to run special programs on children's songs. Unfortunately, such programs contain little of the kind music education introduced by Bina Vokalia, formerly a program in state-owned TV station TVRI, which later developed into a singing course for kids.

Although one or two songs are modeled upon Sesame Street, helping children to gain awareness of their surroundings through music, the dominant impression is of the adult way in which the children perform, which is emphasized by the choreography of background dancers. Like it or not, this is their selling point, and the reason more time is devoted to the shows.

On May 9, for example, Ci Luk Baa, a program of video clips about children's songs run by SCTV every Sunday afternoon, marked its 100th episode. The presenter is singer Maissy Pramaishella, 7, a second grader in elementary school. The program's producer is her mother, Merry Daryono.

Ci Luk Baa once received the highest ratings of all SCTV children's programs, said Haryanto, SCTV public relations manager.

"This success has prompted the emergence of similar programs," he added.

Now, all five of the country's private TV stations run their own programs of video clips of children's songs.

In addition to Ci Luk Baa, SCTV alone runs three more video clip programs for kids; Dunia Anak (Children's World), Bintang Cilik (Kid Stars) and Enno Ceria (Cheerful Enno).

Some of the programs' broadcasting slots are paid for by producers of children cassettes, usually by establishing cooperation with parents of the kid singers to take care of the production and the materials for the shows. The TV station only airs the finished package.

"This is one of SCTV's marketing strategies," Haryanto said.

"Of course, in exchange we allow them some kind of compensation. They are given a commercial spot for their programs during other programs aired by the station."

This is proof their commercial viability. Usually, six minutes of commercials is allotted for a 30-minute time slot.

"A commercial spot of 30 seconds costs Rp 3 million to 5 million," said Haryanto, adding that to secure a 30-minute program a producer had to spend some Rp 100 million.

The initial cost incurred by the producer and the parent of the child singer is proportional to the popularity of the kid singer.

Fame can bring legions of fans.

Chikita Meidy, the presenter of Bintang Cilik, now receives about 1,000 letters daily, up from just 300 daily before she took over the position. Chikita, now almost 8, has been performing since the age of 3..

"Some one million copies of her first album, Kuku Kuku (Nails) have been sold," said Meidy Emde, her father and the producer of her first album.

"At first we forked out of our own pocket to cover the cost. We spent some Rp 20 million to Rp 30 million for the raw materials of the recording master, and some Rp 100 million for promotion," added the foreign exchange businessman and husband of a singer of Minangkabau songs.

"I compose some 90 percent of the songs that Chikita sings."

Now Chikita has to her name eight albums, including her latest Ibu Pertiwi (Mother Earth), all selling quite well, even when the country is feeling the pinch of the economic crisis now. "Only a month after its launching, 20,000 copies of this latest album have been sold," said Meidy, who has intensively promoted the video clips of Chikita's new songs on private TV stations.

"Promotion is very important," said Isac Pudianto, director of Supranada Records, a recording company specializing in producing children's cassettes.

"Owing to the economic crisis, our sales volume is down by 50 percent. Without intensive promotion, things will get even worse."

In its heyday, Supranada Records could sell 500,000 copies of albums by Ria Enes, a ventriloquist who performs with doll Suzanne.

"Children know nothing about the monetary crisis", Isac said, but he added that "previously we produced 10 new albums but now two will do".

He has also cut down on TV promotions.

The proliferation of malls and shopping centers in Jakarta also helped kid singers gain more experience in performing. Theodore KS, a music observer, said in Kompas, that the fees for child singers per performance ranged from Rp 200,000 for a novice to several millions of rupiah for stars like Geofanny (Rp 6 million), Joshua Suherman (Rp 5 million) and Dhea Ananda (Rp 4 million).

But a promoter who preferred to remain anonymous said Ria Enes took home the most with Rp 10 million.

"That was her fee before the onset of the monetary crisis. Today there must be a discount in view of the crisis."

The group receiving the most orders now is Trio Kwek-Kwek, commanding a fee of about Rp 5 million. The average fee for kid singers in the "middle group" for one appearance in malls and shopping centers is Rp 750,000.

Lucky ones travel nationwide, or even abroad. Enno Lerian, now an "old lady" of child singers at 15, often sang at the birthday parties of the children of the royal family of Brunei.

The writer works for Jakarta Jakarta magazine.