Dangdut is getting ready to take America`s music scene by storm. What is Dangdut? Dangdut is Indonesia`s popular folk music genre that mixes Indian, Arab, Malay and Portuguese rhythms with other influences ranging from Rock, Latin, House, Hip Hop, Jazz, R&B, and even Classical Music. Dangdut revolution started in Indonesia in the 1970s with acts such as Rhoma Irama and Elvy Sukaesih. And soon Dangdut will be reborn as an American music genre!
Arreal Tilghman is an American R&B vocalist who is getting ready to release his first solo Dangdut album. Arreal is 22 and he is the 2008 winner of Dangdut in America auditions. He recently spent two months training and studying Dangdut in Indonesia – learning to sing in the cengkok style typical of Dangdut performers. His journey, from a small city of Cambridge in Maryland in the United States to being recognized by the Indonesia Museum of Records as the first foreign Dangdut singer, is one that reflects the adventurous spirit of Dangdut music itself.
Arreal`s Dangdut in America album was created to bridge the two musical worlds of the United States and Indonesia. For the first time in the history of Dangdut music, it features an American R&B vocalist singing Dangdut music created by Indonesian composers. Arreal has already generated extensive press and television coverage in Indonesia where the public has overwhelmingly embraced the American Dangdut singer (see www.nsrproductions.com/dia_press.html).
The Indonesian embassy in the United States has been so impressed by Arreal`s talent and his press reviews that His Excellency, the ambassador has assented to host the American launch for Dangdut in America album. The launch event for Dangdut in America will be held on November 5th at the Residence of His Excellency Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the United States at 2700 Tilden Street N.W. in Washington, DC. This event is part of the Ambassadors` dinner reception for the cultural delegation from the People`s Representative Council of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR KOMISI X) and it will include a guest speaker from the U.S. State Department.
ABOUT NSR PRODUCTIONS
NSR Productions LLC, is a Delaware-based, woman-owned business, started in 2004 to promote American-Indonesian cultural exchange through entertainment and music. In the past four years, NSR has organized several projects to promote cultural exchange between the United States and Indonesia.
In 2007, NSR became the 1st American organization to hold Dangdut auditions in the United States to find American singers interested in Dangdut. And in 2008, NSR became the 1st American organization to produce a Dangdut album in the United States. For both categories, Rissa Asnan was recognized by the Indonesian Museum of Records and by the Indonesian Dangdut Association (PAMMI).
Dangdut in America is a program for public auditions for American singers interested to learn Dangdut music. In January 2007, we held the 1st round of auditions in Philadelphia. Three finalists were selected, trained in Dangdut, and then performed in a public Dangdut concert. In 2008, we organized a 2nd round of talent auditions in the state of Delaware. The winner was Arreal Tilghman and in the summer of 2008, Dangdut in America project reached its second milestone – when Arreal traveled to Indonesia to learn more about Dangdut, to experience Indonesian people and their culture.
In 2006, NSR and INDOSIAR Television co-produced a popular reality TV series called “Dreams Come True”. This show followed four young Indonesian singers as they traveled throughout the East Coast to experience American life, hospitality and culture. The show was aired on Indonesian television in late summer of 2006 to an audience of nearly two million Indonesian viewers. On November 1st, “Dreams Come True” show aired in the United States on MHZ Networks a non-commercial television broadcaster serving the Washington, D.C. area with international, educational and arts programming.
Source: http://www.prurgent.com (November 02, 2008)
