In the past few weeks, I have been strangely intrigued by Agnes Monica's career as a singer. The first time I heard about her releasing a single, which was 'Indah', I was very skeptical. I think it was 1999, and when I finally managed to get a hold of the song. I was mildly surprised that although the song was the regular insta-pop, it did stuck in my head and I found myself transferring the file to my MD player.
For some reason, I hate "smart" kids, hahaha, or I guess you can call them talented. For example, Shirley Temple or in the Indonesian entertainment industry there's a plethora of them from the ones whose career is hinged on their cuteness (read: Joshua) to the ones that can actually sing like Sherina. But anyway, I never like them. Maybe it's jealousy that they are obviously more successful than I am, maybe I just hate kids, I don't know.
Agnes Monica started her career as a child star, which then graduated to become the host of children show called "Tralala, Trilili" in which she kept grinning and saying "tralala..... trilili...." in a high-pitched voice over and over and over again. So I wasn't very interested when I heard about her plan to enter the music industry.
Then my friend came back from Indonesia with her debut album (as an adult, because she had a few children records already). The title? '... and the story goes...' Huh? Why in the world the title had to be in English? While the photography in the album are very cute street : wire fences, punk hairdo, torn fabrics.... yet perfect makeup and flawless complexion. Basically I felt she was trying too hard to be cool. Then I listened to the album. I wasn't a fan. Her voice is not what I would have expect from looking at her and I suppose I was guilty of pre-judging her even before listening to her music. So the first album didn't do it for me, although... the star power behind the production did impress me. It has pretty much the who's who in the Indonesian music industry, from hitmakers such as Melly and Dewiq to popstar stalwarts like Titi DJ and Dhani (Yes! Dhani from Dewa... arguably the most obnoxious yet talented musician in Indonesia).
I might not be impressed with her, but my 200 million fellow countrymen and women sure did, judging from the album sales and her ever-presence in the media. Videos after videos were made for songs from the album. We don't have singles in Indonesia, so radios and TV stations are actually free to choose whatever song they deemed "single-material" but nowadays the rule of thumb is "new video = new single."
Second Album: "Agnes all muscular in a tank top with pink-tipped punk hairdo and dark skin looking down on you." The caption says, "Whaddup A'.....?!" OK, if the first album got me questioning the linguistic value of the title, this one just made me sick. I was in Indonesia when I first saw the album. I was like, what is she trying to do? I mean, she should just accept it that there's no way someone like her could get street cred... though I guess the same thing could be said of Justin Timberlake when he hadn't brought sexy back. Did I buy the CD? Are you kidding me? If i remember correctly, i think I summoned up a tirade against Indonesian celebrities and snobs who desperately peppered their speech with as much English vocabulary as possible.
Again, the album was a smash. They sold loads of them and videos after videos were made for the songs. During this time, YouTube came along and so I took out a few hours a week just to scour it for Indonesian music videos. What I found out was that AgMon fans has a very good internet presence, thus pretty much all her videos are online. This is when I started to get somewhat interested in her. One thing for sure though, all her videos are done by Indonesia's small but amazing pool of directors. From pioneer Rizal Mantovani to the up and coming Abimael Gandy. Sure enough, all her videos are great and they offer such a range of her style, music and looks.
I'm such a sucker for good music videos. I think the one that started this all was 'Tanpa Kekasihku' because the copy on YouTube had her commenting about the production of the video. Of course she spoke in Indonesian with English words all over the place and that just annoyed me like crazy. So in my negative drive to find more evidence about her anglicizing her speech, I watched all the other interviews she had... and some concerts too. I actually then found out that yes, she does use a lot of English... but I somehow notice she does that less. In the more recent interviews she spoke in Indonesian the whole time except for certain terms... which I suppose the Indonesian word would just be a loanword. Maybe she really has become more comfortable speaking in her mother tongue or I'm just a hypocrite - now that I like her, I tolerate her more. ^_^ Who knows!
But after watching her interviews, I actually became in awe of her. The drive she has to be successful and it seems that on every interview either she or the interviewer would say something about her plans to go international. Well, true that nowadays among Indonesian musicians it is such trend to "go international," but then nothing was ever heard about it anymore. Reza made a record with Masaki Ueda (a well-known Japanese artist but not current... it would be the equivalent of say... Lily Allen did a record with Garth Brooks, I don't think that would do much good for either of them). Nevertheless, she doesn't look like she "wants" to go international, it looks more like she "will" go international no matter how. Judging from her efforts to do so, I definitely applaud her. A small yet pivotal role in a Taiwanese drama, fluency in English, a total involvement in her album arts, videos... she has all the signs of an up-and-coming star.
And then, just yesterday, I was browsing around at Anggun's forum, reading articles about her on Indonesian newspapers and apparently, she approves of AgMon. Hahaha... I'm such a loser, now that she said AgMon is good, I got a sense of validation for becoming a fan. ^_^ Isn't it crazy how people does this? Hmm maybe not people, just people with no life, hahaha. Well but then I notice that all this time, my reservations about Agnes Monica has never been her voice... I think it's more of her packaging. Man, I'm so bad... I'm guilty of the same fault that plagued the American music industry.
Then this video show up. The video before this was 'Tak Ada Logika' which was rumored to be the most expensive video ever made in Indonesia. It was amazing, but this, 'Cinta di Ujung Jalan' is just 'Wow!' You can say all the Memoirs of a Geisha reference you want, but I think the similarities only goes as far as they both features the Japanese Entertainers because the storyline is different. I think this is the video that really made me think of her to be of 'Export Quality."
Cinta di Ujung Jalan
Love at the End of the Road
setiap tetes air mataku
every drop of my tears
telah kuberikan untuk kisahku
i've given for my story
mengerti tapi tak dimengerti
[i] understand but [i'm] not understood
cintaku tlah diujung jalan
my love is at the end of the road
setiap kata dari bibirku
every word from my lips
kadang tak sama dalam hatiku
doesn't always match that in my heart
tersenyum dalam hati menangis
[i'm] smiling [but] crying inside
cintaku tlah diujung jalan
my love is at the end of the road
aku sangat mengenalmu
i know you so well
aku juga cintaimu..
i also love you
tapi kau tak pernah ada pengertian
but you never understand [me]
ku senang, ku sedih
[whether] i'm happy [or] sad
kau tak mau tahu
you don't want to know
aku sangat mengenalmu
i knew you so well
dulu kau tak begitu
you weren't like that before
kau bintang di hatiku
you're the star in my heart
jadilah yang kumau
please be the one i wish for
ku senang, ku sedih
[when] i'm happy [or] sad
kau ada denganku
you're here with me
ku mengerti kau apa adanya
i understand you the way you are
begitupun yang kumau darimu
that is what i expect from you too
kau tahu rasanya diabaikan
you know how it feels to be ignored
cintaku telah diujung jalan
my love is at the end of the road
Check out the live performance of the song.
Labels: people
