Inul gets the women dancing and the men panting
Inul gets the women dancing and the men panting
Helmi Yusof, The Straits Times, Asia News Network, Singapore
Life's not fair, it seems, for sexy and controversial Indonesian
singer Inul Daratista.
"People look at Tina Toon and exclaim: 'How adorable! How
cute!' But for me, they say something else," she tells Life! in a
slightly raised voice after her two-hour mini-concert recently at
Marine Parade Community Centre.
Inul, 25, is referring to 10-year-old Tina Toon, who also
performed at the concert. The Chinese-Indonesian girl can sing
and shimmy just like her, and nearly stole the show.
But it was Inul who drew the crowd of 700 to her debut concert
here and went on to prove why she is the biggest entertainment
phenomenon back in Indonesia.
She sang. She danced. She teased.
A perfectly-timed flick of the hips, raised eyebrow or
shoulder shrug was enough to make the audience roar.
From the ends of her henna-dyed hair to the tips of her
toenails, she was sex personified, and she knew it.
Occasionally, she invited people to come on stage to learn how
to swivel their buttocks like her.
"Slower... lower... softer," she commanded an embarrassed
looking French expatriate.
The crowd loved it.
It is no surprise then that, in an interview after the show,
she hits back at her conservative critics back home for labeling
her performances "slutty" and "pornographic".
"It's unfair to compare me to pornographic artists when I
don't do pornography," she says in Bahasa Indonesia.
"There are porn VCDs being sold openly on the streets of my
country, yet I'm the target of these vicious attacks."
Inul has been dogged by controversy since she rose
meteorically from a poor village in east Java to stardom just
over a year ago.
Much has been made of how she was an itinerant singer who
performed dangdut -- a catchy blend of Malay, Indian and Arab
music -- in villages since age 12, for as little as S$1
(US$1.70).
In January last year, she became famous overnight when she was
invited to sing and gyrate in Jakarta on national TV.
The ratings shot through the roof and, by February, she had
grabbed the headlines and graced the covers of every major
magazine.
Publications rated her as the biggest phenomenon of 2003 and a
symbol of its economic recovery and growing confidence since the
1997 fiscal crisis.
The backlash, however, was swift and savage. Some Muslim
clerics denounced her provocative bump-and-grind dancing and
tight costumes as "degenerate" and "pornographic".
Dangdut veterans criticized her voice as weak.
Indonesian politicians, gearing up for the country's elections
this year, have been courting her support by asking her to sing
at their rallies.
She now performs 15 to 25 concerts a month, commanding between
S$60,000 and S$70,000 per show. She also hosts her own weekly TV
program in which she sings and dances, too.
Her success has not gone to her head for she reportedly makes
generous donations to the poor.
Still, people either hate her or love her.
At her Sunday concert, it became obvious to anyone watching
her for the first time why she incites such extreme feelings.
Her vocal range may be limited but her belly-dancing is a
force of nature.
During the fast numbers, she would writhe backward, forward,
left and right repeatedly and rapidly like a human cyclone.
In another signature move, she would hold her hands up as if
she was clutching the handles of a motorcycle, then start to pump
her hips titillatingly at breakneck speed.
Defending her sexy image -- she wore a figure-hugging red
costume on Sunday -- she said: "To me, it's just a performance. I
wanted to put some sizzle back into the dangdut scene, which has
been so boring and monotonous for so long."
She has been married to her manager, Adam Suseno, 30, for five
years. They have no children.
Judging by the turnout in Marine Parade, her appeal crosses
all socio-economic divides.
Occupying the S$100 seats in the front rows were
distinguished-looking men in batik shirts and middle-aged women
with bouffant hair and glittering jewelry.
Standing at the back of the hall were ordinary people as well
as small groups of Indonesian maids who screamed, gushed and sang
the words to every song.
Some even cleared a space at the back and sides of the hall to
do their own bumping and grinding throughout the concert.
Suriani Gunamir, 24, a maid, said: "I've been so homesick ever
since I came here two years ago to work. Watching this concert
has been the happiest day of my life in Singapore."
After the show, as security guards escorted the star off the
stage, some 30 fans surged forward and pushed themselves through
the gaps between the guards, waving scraps of paper for
autographs.
Inul signed them and posed briefly for pictures, before
exiting by a side door.
"I know there will always be critics of my sexy image but as
long as I have supporters like those at the concert, I will be
all right," she told Life! later.