Follow the Eastern Music Trend, Van Oo Debuts Solo with the Single 'Nona Setimba'

Kapanlagi.com - The music industry in the homeland welcomes talented individuals ready to enliven the competition in the vocal arena. This time, a singer with extensive experience behind the scenes named Van Oo has officially proclaimed himself as a soloist.

The man, who was previously known through a group format, has finally dared to stand alone with his debut single titled Nona Setimba. Van Oo is not a new name in the music world. Behind this stage name is Vanna Leonardo Nainggolan, who has considerable experience.

Born in Pematang Siantar on February 16, 1991, Van Oo began his musical journey back in 2009 as a band member and briefly joined the Batak trio, Gapana Voice. Now in 2025, Van Oo feels it is time to continue his musical journey independently.

The song Nona Setimba, created by Iyan Barus, was chosen as a marker for this significant step. This song carries the vibe of Eastern Indonesian music, which is currently popular among the public.

"Nona Setimba means Half Eastern Batak. The song itself follows the current hype trend that highlights songs from Eastern Indonesia, which is why we released this song as our effort to create in the Indonesian music industry," said Van Oo in the Kemang area, South Jakarta, on Tuesday (16/12/2025).

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1. No Difficulty Performing Eastern Songs

Although having a Batak cultural background, Van Oo claims he did not encounter significant obstacles when performing songs with Eastern nuances or styles. His years of singing experience have accustomed him to various regional songs.

"If there are difficulties in singing Eastern songs, it’s not really a problem because we Bataks often sing songs in Eastern languages, so there’s no difficulty at all," he said.

However, the biggest challenge actually comes from the psychological side. Van Oo candidly admits that singing alone on stage brings a different mental pressure compared to when he performed with his trio partners. He has to fight his nervousness for a maximum performance.

"Actually, the difficulty of singing alone is more about the mental aspect, because we are used to performing as a trio, but now we are forced to sing solo. Maybe that’s something I need to keep honing to gain confidence in singing alone," he said.

2. Hope

Van Oo Follows Eastern Music Trends - © KapanLagi.com/Fikri Alfi Rosyadi

Van Oo's bold step is fully supported by the label Jalur Bintang Musik. John Boy, or JB as the producer, has a vision to combine local identity with a modern production approach. He hopes Van Oo's presence can add a variety of musical colors in Indonesia.

"Jalur Bintang Musik as a new record label is indeed continuously striving to provide opportunities for talented singers in Indonesia who may have fewer chances to perform at the national level," said JB.

"Therefore, we bring Van Oo as our effort to present new talents in the music world so that music in Indonesia can be varied, and in the future, we will also present talented and characterful singers to have the opportunity to spread their wings and their work in the music industry of the homeland," concluded JB.

(kpl/jje)