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ULLY SIGAR RUSADY
Attributes: Singer, guitarist, songwriter, teacher, environmental conservationist
Original Name: Rulany Indra Gartika Wirahaditenaya
Place of Birth: Garut, West Java
Date of Birth: January 4, 1952
Current Residence: Jakarta
Ully Sigar Rusady is a female musician who expresses herself through ballad-style music. The lyrics of her songs are about nature and the environment. What she sings is followed by concrete steps. “If the song is about planting trees, then you really plant trees,” Ully Sigar said as published in Koran Sulindo July 12, 2016. She has established the Rumah Balada Indonesia (RBI) organization as a forum for communities, musicians, and ballad music lovers. The goal is to create a movement to care for the environment and endeavor to prevent damage to the earth.
For the concrete activities that she has consistently carried out, Ully has received many awards from various domestic and foreign institutions. It is not an exaggeration if the public then gives her the title of Indonesian Woman Environmental Activist.
The world music industry has grown rapidly since the emergence of The Beatles from Liverpool UK in 1960. Their physical recordings in the form of vinyl circulated to all corners of the world. Entering 1970, its development increased further with the discovery of recording media in the form of cassette tapes. The price of cassettes, which is much cheaper than vinyl, has increased the production of music recording albums. In 1990, a recording medium in the form of Compact Disc (CD) shifted the popularization of cassette tapes. Times continue to develop followed by technological advances, especially Information Technology (IT). Slowly, physical recordings in the form of vinyl, cassette tapes and CDs are in decline. Now it is easier for people to enjoy music through their gadget devices and have many choices to enjoy the type of music they like.
During the 1960-2020 period when physical releases prevailed, pop music was the music genre that dominated the world market. It is a type of music that is favored by most of the world’s population because it is easy to enjoy and relatively simple. The number of music artists, songwriters, singers or bands, mostly made a career in this popular music path. Just name The Beatles from the UK, Michael Jackson from the USA, David Foster from Canada, ABBA from Sweden, Bee Gees from Australia and many others.
The next largest segment could be the jazz family followed by rock and its derivatives. Then there is the disco or dance music group with all its variations. The market segment data above is an overview of the collection of music recording albums stored at Museum Musik Indonesia. There are around 30,000 albums. Most of the museum’s collection is donated or given by the public, so it can be said that the museum’s collection is a representation of public tastes in the types of music on the market.
There are many other types of music in smaller segments. There is classical music, blues, folksong, gospel, tango, rap, rumba, cha cha, swing, waltz, music for children and many others. When grouped by region or territory there are types of country music from the USA, Latin music from South America, Middle Eastern music, oriental Chinese music or more specifically for example Hawaiian music from the Hawaiian region and reggae from Jamaica.
One type of music that has a limited segment is ballad music. This type of music has narrative power in its lyrics. The series of words are artistic like poetry. In the beginning, ballad music had a theme of love. But in its development, it became broader, covering the values of human life according to the times. The lyrics are in the form of stories or messages concerning social criticism, war, the environment, natural disasters, justice and so on, There is ballad music performed by bands or by solo singers or vocal groups. The slow melody is one of the characteristics of songs performed by solo singers and is usually accompanied by an acoustic guitar.
In Indonesia, there are not many music artists who consistently play this type of ballad music. There are at least two names of female ballad musicians whose works are on MMI, namely Ully Sigar Russady and Ritta Rubby Hartland. For male singers there is Ebiet G Ade, Duo Franky & Jane and Iwan Fals. The latter started his career as a street singer with acoustic guitar accompaniment, but later developed by using the band format.
Ully Sigar Rusady is a singer, guitarist, composer, and teacher of environmental conservation figures. Her songs are full of messages that contain important values of human life, especially those concerning concern for nature and the environment.
CAREER JOURNEY
After being born in Garut, Ully spent her childhood in Bandung. She learned guitar from her parents. Her mother was Raden Ayu Marry Zumarya and her father, Raden Mas Yus Rusady Wirahaditenaya. The title or designation carried by her parents shows that Ully has a lineage from the kingdom in Pasundan. As it turns out, Ully still has the Sumedang Larang Palace lineage. When she was a teenager, she moved to Makassar, South Sulawesi, following her father who was a soldier. In Makassar, she formed a female band called Puspa Nita (1964-1967). Her position was that of lead guitarist. She played bass in her next band, Shinta Eka Paksi (1967-1975).
In 1975, he moved to Jakarta. He studied music at LPKJ (Jakarta Arts Education Institute) and at Yayasan Musik Indonesia (YMI). She also studied with Surabayabased Indonesian contemporary composer Slamet Abdul Sjukur. Due to her expertise, Ully was appointed as a teacher at YMI. Her songs began to be recognized by the public after she participated in a number of festivals in the country such as the National Popular Song Festival (1978 and 1981), and appeared in the ASEAN Popular Song Festival Song Creation Competition (1982 and 1983).
Ully Sigar is probably one of the few Indonesian musicians who has a high learning spirit. When she was 8 years old, she learned guitar from her father. In 1970, while in Menado, she learned kolintang music. His expertise in playing guitar earned him a diploma from the Indonesian Music Foundation in Jakarta in 1977. Many names of famous music artists became Ully Sigar’s teachers. Although his career was growing, in 1981-1982 he still studied with Slamet Abdul Syukur, a Surabaya-born musician who graduated from a music college in Paris, France.
WORKS
Ully Sigar’s first album containing her songs was released through an album titled 4 Finalist Composers of the 6/78th Indonesian Pop Song Festival. There are 3 songs by Ully Sigar in this album, namely Kau, Telaga Bening, and Sebebas Merpati. In the same year Ully released her solo album titled Rimba Gelapap through the Irama Mas label. Her other albums followed, which carried the theme of ballads in the lyrics of her songs. The color of the music has a touch of pop with a unique medieval classical aroma. This is a special color that is on a non-main stream path that does not just follow market tastes. The lyrics of her songs are full of social and natural content. In 1982 Ully wrote the song Prahara Gunung Galunggung. He also collaborated and wrote a number of songs for other artists. Among others, Anggun C. Sasmi, Arthur Kaunang, Bangkit Sanjaya, Ita Purnamasari, Maya Rumantir, Nicky Astria, Nur Afni Octavia and SAS Group. This is a surprise, Ully’s soft music can be cooked with hard rock music. Collaboration was also done with Elfa Secioria when Ully worked on her third album titled Pengakuan.
With the support of her family and relatives, on February 10, 1979 Ully established Vidi Vici Music School in Jakarta with her siblings, Maike Rusady, Maya Rusady, Ricky Rusady, and Paramitha Rusadhy. The school, located in the Kebayoran Baru area, Jakarta, provides a lot of learning materials that are not available in public schools. It also includes how to earn income from musical talent. A fire disaster occurred at this school in 1982. There is wisdom, the building fire also burned Ully’s spirit to rise. The school grew and within two years the number of students increased rapidly to around 12,000 people spread throughout Indonesia.
Furthermore, in 1985 Ully founded the Garuda Nusantara Foundation (YGN). Through this foundation, nature and environmental groups were established. The first to be formed was Pandu Lingkungan Hidup (PLH) in Balikpapan City, East Kalimantan.
In 2014, Ully again established Rumah Balada Indonesia (RBI) which has now spread to several cities in Indonesia. RBI is intended as a forum for communities, musicians, and ballad music lovers. The goal is to create an environmental awareness movement, especially in protecting springs from extinction in various parts of Indonesia.
As a concrete step, he participated in producing his own movie entitled My Journey; Mencari Mata Air. The trailer of this movie was played in the middle of the Ngalor Ngidul discussion event commemorating National Music Day and National Film Day at the Film Building Auditorium in South Jakarta, in 2016. “This movie is a summary of the songs about nature and the environment that I have created,” Ully Sigar Rusady told Okezone online media.
She feels that through songs alone, it is not enough to give awareness to the public about our increasingly damaged nature. “With the development of media information that is increasingly detailed, my family and I agreed to make a movie so that the message of my songs can be conveyed,” said Ully with her distinctive appearance wearing a headband made from authentic Indonesian weaving.
Planting trees is also one of Ully’s activities. This environmental activist appeared at the peak of the commemoration of “Forester’s Day and International Forest Day 2016”, Saturday (19/03/2016). The event was marked by the ceremonial planting of 300 trees at the Subang Interchange KM 109 Cipali Toll road. This is a collaboration program of Djarum Foundation’s Bakti Lingkungan through Djarum Trees For Life program with Paguyuban Budiasi, BNI, Ministry of Environment and Forestry (LHK), Perhutani, and Cipali Toll road manager PT. Lintas Marga Sedaya (PT. LMS). In addition to her career in music and the environment, Ully has produced 12 episodes of a soap opera titled Anak-Anak Angin (Children of the Wind).
INFLUENCE
Ully Sigar is not a singer of popular songs. Her fans are a certain segment whose portion is not too large in the music industry in Indonesia. Ully’s influence is not in the industry. She has chosen the path of ballad music whose lyrics are full of love for nature, the environment and humanity. These values are what she conveys to her fans through her songs.
She instilled more intensive learning in tens of thousands of her students at Vidi Vici Schools in various cities. Not only music lessons are taught. Important life values that are not taught elsewhere are given by Ully to her students.
Ully’s concern for the values of life is not only through her songs and schools. She established foundations, communities and groups whose activities are loaded with the protection of nature, the environment which in essence prevents the destruction of the earth.
The concrete steps taken by Ully, her family and her group have opened the eyes of national and international institutions. Various awards and recognitions have been received by Ully Sigar Russady.
AWARDS
She has made many achievements in the field of music, including being the second winner of the Indonesian Pop Solo Guitar Festival in Bandung. Her song Harmoni Kehidupan sung by Dhenok Wahyudi became Indonesia’s ambassador to the International Pop Song Festival at Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan (1978). At that time Ully was named The Best Dresser’s for the Dayak costume she wore with a headband tucked into a sprig of yellowing rice. Her collaboration with the Nyanyian Alam group on the song Musim Tanam, won two categories of awards, as The Best Performance and Audience Favorites through audience voting and world television at the World Music Oriental Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Harzegovina (2005).
Source:
Lady in Melody, Museum Musik Indonesia, 2024
