Success in Making the 'Gempita 2024' Stage Shake, Noah Reveals the Difficulty of Changing Rhoma Irama's Song from Dangdut to Pop

Kapanlagi.com - The Gempita 2024 concert was successfully held at Carnaval Beach, North Jakarta. A series of musicians, Noah, The Changcuters, Anna Zanet, and the king of Indonesian dangdut, Rhoma Irama, also enlivened the concert which was also broadcast live on SCTV.

The concert also marked Noah's last performance. Ariel and his bandmates decided to take a break for an indefinite period of time.

Ariel expressed his gratitude that the concert could be held outdoors, after the previous year's event was held in the Emtek studio in West Jakarta. Therefore, Noah tried their best to deliver their best performance.

"In my opinion, outdoor events in Ancol are exciting, we have been doing it here every year, so holding Gempita here adds value, it provides entertainment," said Ariel on Sunday (31/12/2023).

Furthermore, Noah admitted that the Gempita 2024 concert was the most memorable compared to previous ones. This is because they had to work hard to reinterpret the songs, as they collaborated with many other musicians.

1. Satisfied with the Results

Gempita Concert 2024 successfully held at Carnaval Beach Ancol, North Jakarta © KapanLagi.com/Bayu Herdianto

"The most memorable thing now is the last minute change in arrangement to make this song by Rhoma even better," said David, the keyboardist.

Ariel also admitted that dissecting dangdut songs is much more difficult than rearranging pop songs. There are many differences and challenges that need to be overcome, so the members of Noah had to put their heads together to create arrangements that the audience would enjoy listening to.

"It's unique, honestly difficult, even just singing it is surrendering, because almost anyone who can sing dangdut can sing pop, but rarely can someone who can sing pop sing dangdut, that's the challenge. The song is nice like that, it makes the pop music go in, but if you straighten the singing, it becomes less enjoyable, if I sing it in a dangdut style, I can't surrender tonight, it's difficult," explained Ariel.

Nevertheless, with the hard work done by Noah, they are satisfied with the results and the audience likes the arrangement they created to transform the dangdut song into pop.

2. Capture Fireworks Moments

"When we were arranging it, it turns out that it can be done, the song we performed is very iconic in dangdut, it's a bit eccentric, not the original dangdut style, the song 'Santai' in dangdut has a different direction, not really dangdut, it has its funkiness, so when we managed to incorporate the song into pop, we were happy, but the singing part is difficult," said Ariel.

Because it was done in a public area, it wouldn't feel complete if fireworks were not lit during the New Year's Eve. At exactly 00:00 AM, fireworks were launched and became an interesting sight for concert-goers.

Furthermore, Ariel and his friends also captured the fireworks moment, which they believed lasted longer than before. Yes, the fireworks lasted for about 10 minutes.

"It's the longest, I think, compared to previous years, maybe it was 9 minutes and 30 seconds, isn't it? hahaha, this one is the longest, we even prepared to record it because if it becomes a record, we will have a memento," Ariel concluded.

(kpl/aal/tdr)