30 Days of Fasting, GIGI Once Toured 34 Locations in Ramadan

Kapanlagi.com - It cannot be denied that GIGI is one of the busiest bands every Ramadan. This year, the band consisting of Armand Maulana, Thomas Ramdhan, Dewa Budjana, and Gusti Hendy will perform at five pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) in various regions of Indonesia under the title "Pissantren."

"Alhamdulillah, GIGI is going, Arana Project as well, there are so many. We recently had a press conference at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, where we visited five locations called Pissantren. So we went to five pesantren in Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, and East Java," said Armand Maulana when met at the Istiqlal Mosque, not long ago.

"This is the first project from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Pissantren. Hopefully, there will be a Pissantren every year. And more pesantren will be visited. This time, GIGI will visit 5 pesantren," added Armand.

1. Tour of 34 Cities During Ramadan

Gigi Band © KapanLagi.com/Adrian Utama Putra

Armand realizes that GIGI is one of the busiest bands during the month of Ramadan. In fact, they once went on a month-long tour around Indonesia after releasing a religious album.

"Alhamdulillah, when GIGI released their religious album 20 years ago, which had songs like 'Perdamaian' (Peace), 'Tuhan' (God), and 'Pintu Sorga' (Heaven's Door), it was their second-year tour," he said.

Not only that, due to their packed schedule, GIGI also went on a tour to 34 cities during Ramadan.

"In the first-year tour, since fasting lasts for 30 days, we went to 30 locations, 30 cities. Now, for the second-year tour, when we released 'Perdamaian,' it was so explosive that we played at 34 locations within 30 days. So, there were days when we played at a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) at 10 AM and another one at 4 PM," explained Armand.

2. Grateful

Armand is grateful that his religious album titled "Raihlah Kemenangan" has been widely accepted by the community. What makes Armand even more grateful is that after GIGI released a religious album, other bands also produced works with similar themes.

"Thank God, when GIGI released the religious album Raihlah Kemenangan 20 years ago, it was accepted by the Indonesian community," he said.

"Finally, from there, other pop bands came out to work on religious songs. So at that time, religious albums or religious music became an alternative music for young people. At that time, finally Ungu came out, Wali, and so on," he concluded.

(kpl/far/phi)