I’ve written about the self-styled King of Dangdut (Rhoma Irama) before, now it’s the turn of the Queen. Elvy has been making music continuously since the 70s. You have to wait till three minutes into the clip to hear her singing. Before that there is some plot development and you also get to hear the Indonesian version of the ’Happy Birthday’ song. During Elvy’s song, you can see her trademark wink and her ability to dance (somewhat) in elevated stiletto heels. Don’t bother watching any more of the clip after she stops singing, it’s just dialogue. We at Aboutindo are hoping to start making clips of our own soon, so you will only get the good bits when we’ve figured that out.
Meanwhile, here’s another Elvy song from the good old days (sorry about the pixillated picture quality, but the sound is reasonable, we’re working on finding a better one):
In this clip, the guy (an actor named Kasino) dreams of singing a duet with Elvy. The singing is quite good.
As the decades passed, Elvy’s voice has stood up quite well. She has a huge fan base throughout Asia (including a big following in Japan). These fans have mostly grown up with her and to them she is as attractive as ever. Unfortunately for those who came late to the Elvy phenomenon, she seems to have continued to see herself as the sexy singer/dancer. After 40 years as an entertainer, this is not a good look:
I’m not sure exactly what’s going on in that clip, but this pharoah has strange tastes – consorting with scary middle aged women and getting massaged by dwarves. I guess it shows the depravity of aristocratic tastes.
This next clip has a latin theme and again the guy has strange tastes, choosing the matronly Elvy over the cute little thing in the red dress:
When you think about it, though, 40 years in any business is quite an achievement. There aren’t many in the entertainment industry that can claim that sort of longevity. In fact, I’ve shown you the worst of her recent clips. Even so, her singing is still quite good. So I’ll leave you with one of her better ones from not long ago:
Badai di Awal Bahagia Part 4: Rhoma Breaks Through
A lot has happened since we left the children clapping in part 3. Having established Rhoma’s credentials as a Dangdut Superstar, we need to see him as a family man, personally building a swing after which he sings a duet with second wife Ricca Rachim. The voice actually belongs to the lovely Rita Sugiarto, who’s had a long music career and deserves a post in our “Dangdut” section when I get around to it. Anyhow, the song’s a bit of a filler, watch it at your own risk (saccarine sweetness warning):
Fortunately (for us), the family bliss ends when the ‘very smart’ child allows herself to be kidnapped. You see, since he escaped from prison, Herman has vowed revenge against Rhoma. He tells the teacher that Rhoma’s in hospital and Herman has come to bring her to see him. In fact, Rhoma was busy – perhaps visiting his first wife… or his third? Amazingly, after demanding a ransom, Herman shows up at Rhoma’s house that very night and offers to set things right. But Rita won’t talk to him while her husband’s away. Too bad, because when Rhoma goes to pay the ransom he gets beaten to a pulp and kidnapped himself. Just to show us how really nasty Herman’s gang is, we see them exporting a group of girls to an uncertain fate in Singapore. One of the girls, Diah, misses the boat after one of the gang tries to rape her, so she’s given the responsibility of keeping Rhoma’s brat quiet. This is the occasion for another song from Rita Sugiarto. It a bit ponderous and the lyrics don’t fit the stanzas all the time, but here it is, if you must watch it:
This brings us to the current clip (at the top), where Rhoma punches a hole in his cell to get a good look at what they’re doing to his daughter. I shouldn’t laugh, but seeing him clutching helplessly at Herman cracked me up. The bad guys don’t seem quite so bad when they have so much trouble just catching a child. I really thought for a moment the director would actually suspend the little girl over the well. I believe he would have done it if it had been technically possible. Anyhow, Rhoma is told that he has to rob a bank, and he agrees to it.