His Face Replaced by a Monkey, Vadel Badjideh Reveals Feeling Trampled by Radja - Ian Kasela Reluctant to Take Down MV 'Apa Sih'

Vadel emphasized that this violation is not just about the monkey image, but also about the initial agreement that he feels was not adhered to by the band. He feels that his efforts and dedication to this project were not appreciated.  

A similar statement was made by Martin Badjideh, the brother and representative of Vadel and Bintang Badjideh's management. Martin stated that the initial contract with Radja never included the use of monkey images or the removal of Vadel's voice.

"Initially, there was an agreement that there would be sound, and no monkey faces or anything like that. If they say this is to resemble Bruno Mars, that’s just their excuse. In fact, there was no discussion like that at the beginning," asserted Martin.

Meanwhile, the Radja party provided clarification regarding this controversy. Ian Kasela, the vocalist of Radja, stated that the monkey image used was merely part of a creative gimmick. The concept, Ian said, was inspired by the music video for The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars.  

"Vadel's physique is similar to Bruno Mars, so we created a concept like that. In Bruno Mars' video, there are also monkey elements," explained Ian Kasela at a press conference in the Warung Jati area, South Jakarta.  

Ian also denied that his side directed Vadel to sing in the music video.

According to him, Apa Sih was originally designed as a lipsync video, not a music video involving Vadel's original voice. "The music video is lipsync. There was no direction to sing along," Ian emphasized.

Despite protests from Vadel, Ian assured that Radja would not take down or revise the music video. According to him, works that have been released do not need to be changed. "It's already released, so it's released. It won't be taken down," he said.

Despite the disappointment, Vadel has not yet decided to take this matter to legal channels. Martin emphasized that they are still open to discussions with Radja to resolve this issue amicably.  

"Actually, we don't want to prolong this issue. We'll just see how it goes in the future," Martin concluded.

For your information, the music video Apa Sih was released on Sunday (22/12/2024) and involved Vadel and Bintang as models. However, the final result, which was far from the initial agreement, turned this project into a controversy.