ANGGUN CIPTA SASMI

Indonesian Artist

By: Hannah Gregor

EARLY CAREER

• Anggun was born in April 1974

• Began singing lessons with her father at the age of seven

• Highly disciplined and occurred on a daily basis

• Anggun’s mother began serving as her manager

• At age nine, Anggun began to write her own songs and recorded her first children’s album

• Her greatest influence was Western rock music

• She released her first official album at the age of twelve

• Dunia Aku Punya (The World is Mine)

• Not very popular

• At age 15, she released a single “Mimpi” (“Dream”) which rocketed her to popularity

• Subsequent singles increased Anggun’s fame and she released two new studio albums in 1991 and 1992

• Her final album, Anggun C. SAsmi…Lah!!!, was released in 1993

1993-1996

• She founded her own record company in 1993 and began considering an international career

• In 1994, Anggun released a greatest hits album of her Indonesian hit songs and subsequently sold her record company in order to fund her move to London

• Anggun began writing songs and recording demos• All the demos were returned with negative replies within months• She began thinking about moving to another country

• She moved to France in 1996 and her international career began advancing

• Erick Benzi offered her a record deal• Signed to Columbia France and Sony Music Entertainment• She began working with Benzi and several others on her debut album

1997-1999

• In 1997, Anggun released her first French album• The album was an experiment with world music and adult

contemporary sounds• Anggun described the album as “a concentration of all the

musical influences of my life.”

• “Snow on the Sahara”, the most popular single from the album, peaked at number one on the French Singles Chart• Became the most played single in France in 1997

• The English version of the album was released internationally in 33 countries between 1997 and 1999

• Anggun toured in the United States for nine months to promote the album and appeared on American television programs

1999-2003

• Anggun’s second French album was released in 1999• This was an experiment with electronic pop and ambient elements, along

with R&B music• Only peaked at number 48 on the French Albums Chart• Only two singles were released off the album

• Neither were very successful

• The English version of the album was more successful• Never released in the United States because of the lack of response to her

last album

• Anggun collaborated with several artists between 2001 and 2003• She worked with DJ Cam on a mixed French-English song in 2001• She also collaborated on an Indonesian-English song with Deep Forest in

2002• Three collaborations in 2003 with Italian rock singers

2004-PRESENT

• Anggun returned to Paris from her tours• She signed a new record deal with a French independent label

• She began work on her next album with several producers, including Jean-Pierre Taieb and Frederic Jaffre

• Anggun writes her songs in English• Hired Jean Fauque, Lionel Florence, and others to adapt her English songs

into French

• She collaborated with several artists and released several more international albums

• New album set to be released in 2015

INFLUENCES AND SIGNATURE STYLE

• Anggun began as a rock singer• Influenced by rock bands, including Guns N’ Roses, Bon

Jovi, and Megadeth

• The album that she said “changed [her] life” was The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails

• She said about her first album in 1986 “I was writing songs all the time, but my specialty was classical piano and singing.”

• Anggun studied traditional Balinese dance and uses the traditional art in her performances

• Anggun was one of the first Asian singers to have a strong presence in the European and American markets and helped pave the way for other Asian singers.

ACTING CAREER

• Rumor has it that Anggun was offered roles in The World Is Not Enough and High Fidelity, but turned them down• Defending why she refused the roles, she

said “I was born a singer. I won’t go into another profession because I think there are still many people out there who were born to be movie stars or models. My calling is in music.”