Portal:Indonesia/Selected biography/12

Chrismansyah Rahadi (1949-2007; grave pictured), better known as Chrisye, was a Chinese-Indonesian singer and songwriter. Born in Jakarta, he became interested in music as a teenager. After joining a band in the 1960s and playing in New York, in 1976 he and the band worked on a collaboration with Guruh Sukarnoputra. The success of this album led to Chrisye being approached for two projects: the song "Lilin-Lilin Kecil" and the album Badai Pasti Berlalu. Both projects were highly successful, and as a result Chrisye was signed to Musica Studios. With them, he released nineteen studio albums before his death of lung cancer. Chrisye was known as a stiff stage performer but widely-praised for his vocal abilities. Rolling Stone Indonesia listed five of his albums and four of his songs as among the best in Indonesian music history; the magazine selected Chrisye as the third-best Indonesian musical artist of all time. His albums were mostly successful, and almost all were certified silver or higher. (Read more...)