Coming of age, Nikita stays true as gospel singer
Pandaya, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After fading from the media glare for quite some time, Nikita made a surprise public appearance last week. The media-shy gospel singer threw a sweet seventeen birthday bash in style at a nightclub inside the Borobudur Hotel in Central Jakarta.
An avid enthusiast of fairy tales, Nikita and hordes of her teen friends -- all dressed as angels in white robes -- turned the clubhouse into a "heaven of angels" with an operetta in which she was the prima donna.
Still sporting her signature long straight hair, Nikita belted out Celine Dion and R. Kelly's You are My Angel with a fellow gospel singer from Bandung named Wawan.
The TV screens in every corner continuously played video highlights of her singing career that began as young as five. And on this night she also launched her glossy biography written by senior journalist Niken Maria Simarmata with an English title, Nikita -- My All, which is essentially a pictorial with 200 of her photos taken over the past 17 years.
"I'm terribly busy with my studies and I have to tighten my schedule for concerts," she said in a press conference, where she was no longer accompanied by her parents as she used to be.
"Nothing is more important than my studies," said the Penabur high school senior.
The teen prodigy had already collected over 100 music-related awards by the age of 10, sweeping practically all of the singing competitions that she took part in. After going pro and signing contract with Maranatha Records for her first album in 1998, Di Doa Ibuku (In my mother's prayers), she was no longer allowed to participate any amateur singing competitions.
"I remember I won a contest but was disqualified when the jury found out I had already released a commercial album... so the number of my trophies stopped at 104," she said.
Di Doa Ibuku remains as popular as ever and the album still sells, retaining her image as a child singer with a brilliant, clear voice. Produced by Maranatha, the album's sales have hit 400,000 copies -- a fantastic number for a gospel album in a country where Christianity is quite a small minority (around 10 percent or less). And the pirated versions are also widely found, of which there is no data on sales. In fact, Di Doa Ibuku, taken from a church song book, is actually now associated with Nikita.
She was a nominee during the 1998 AMI awards (local version of Grammy) and the recipient of the Young High Achievers award from then president Soeharto.
She has released seven albums but Di Doa Ibuku is still the most successful. She released her latest album Kuberikan Syukurku (My gratitude) in 2004 and is currently working on the eighth.
At 17, she remains loyal to gospel and has no intention to go "secular" although offers from the pop industry keeps coming in.
"I just feel perfectly happy being a gospel singer although I also sing pop songs for mixed audiences," said Nikita, a big fan of Canadian diva Celine Dion.
At her height as a child singer in 1998, she also starred in a TV series (sinetron) Bias Kasih ("biased love") aired on ANtv and Kasih (Love) on SCTV in 2001. But she has buried her childhood ambitions to become a sinetron starlet in favor of a singing career.
"Besides, sinetron shooting was exhausting, time-consuming and it badly hurt my studies... I was doing poorly at school because very often had to miss classes," she said.
Raised in a family of businesspeople, Nikita says in her biography, she wants to become a businesswoman and own an international bookstore.
"I imagine a bookstore that has everything to offer. And it has a kids corner, too."
Nikita is one of just a few local child artists, who has actually been able to maintain the luster as she comes of age.