Anggun (born Anggun Cipta Sasmi on April 29, 1974 in Jakarta) is an Indonesian singer-songwriter.
She started singing in 1986. Her father, Darto Singo, was a famous singer and producer in Indonesia and Anggun decided to follow in her father's footsteps. At the tender age of 7 years she recorded her first album with children's song.
At 12, after becoming interested in rock music, she recorded her second heavily rock influenced album, "Dunia Aku Punya", that in the indonesian language mean "World of mine". This album became very popular and she became a megastar in East Asia. Having already had tremendous success in her homeland Indonesia, she decided to pursue an international career and left Indonesia in 1995, when she was only 19.
She settled in Paris, France and met producer Erick Benzi, who later helped her sign a record deal with Sony Music France and recorded her first French album, Au Nom de la Lune, in 1996. The album was released in 1997 and spawned a hit single, "La neige au Sahara". She re-recorded the album in English and it produced her biggest worldwide hit single to date, "Snow on the Sahara." The album has been released in 33 countries across the world, including the US.
To date, Anggun has sold approximately 3 million copies of records worldwide and has become the most successful Asian artist outside Asia. Her success has spread throughout Europe, particularly in France and Italy.
What if you could tell the world who you really are in 12 songs? That’s a bit what it feels like when you listen to Echoes, Anggun’s much-awaited new album.
A lot has been written about the Indonesian singer. Some people have mentioned a fairytale to explain the rise of a young music-loving girl who became a superstar in the country of her birth before striking out to conquer France and Europe when she was only about 20. Following a stream of hits in French, English and Indonesian (and her massive international hit Snow On The Sahara), she has now sold over 2 million records in just a few years. Her albums have been released in 35 countries and she has made the Top 5 in the European charts and the Top 20 of the US Billboard charts. Add to this a wide-ranging list of prizes and honours including a World Music Awards performance, giving the Christmas concert at the Vatican in the presence of Pope John Paul II, an interview with CNN in New York and her extremely prestigious nomination as a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France. Quite simply, Anggun is the Asian artist who has sold the most records outside Asia, without doubt one of the most famous Asian stars internationally.
People have also often listed the duets the woman has been involved in. Her eclectic musical tastes make her feel just as comfortable singing with Peter Gabriel, Michael Bolton, Julio Iglesias, Bryan Adams and Zucchero as with DJ Cam, Laurent Wolf and Pras from The Fugees. Her eclectic taste in movies have seen her perform the theme tune for American blockbusters (The #1 US box office movie The Transporter II) ; arthouse films (Open Hearts directed by Academy Awards winner Susanne Bier) and even the soundtrack to the latest feature film by legendary French director Claude Lelouch (Ces Amours-là).
With each passing year and album, she has kept surprising us and kept reinventing herself through new artistic projects and her own personal development. Echoes, in a sense, sums up this transformation, returning to the pop sound that made her name, but this time with new collaborators. The origins of this album are to be found in the coming together of two teams familiar with success: Gioacchino and Pierre Jaconelli on the one hand, and the duo of Jean-Pierre Pilot and William Rousseau on the other. Anggun has been involved in every step of the making of Echoes. She has written the lyrics of every song, making this album probably her most personal to date.
“I love her timbre. I’d been wanting to work with her for a while,” explains Giacchino, who has already collaborated with the biggest French stars, and who is currently working on Celine Dion’s upcoming new album. “I found in her the very same depth of personality that I liked about her voice.” This profoundness is felt in the Irish-influenced smash hit single Only Love, which deals with the quest for true and unconditional love. A Stranger timidly speaks of the loneliness and fear of the unknown that were often a feature of the singer’s constant moving around. Whereas a few years ago Anggun still sang of exile as a painful experience, now she knows where she is headed, as she has accepted that her destiny will always be bound up with travelling. Year of the Snake is a restrained song that gives the thoughts of a woman remembering painful momentsof her life. And yet, without any excess exoticism or pointless clichés, you find subtle traces of the singer’s Indonesian roots via the various subjects she tackles. Eternal talks of accepting the death of a loved one, without seeking to squ
