Gita Gutawa

For the first time, I was dragged to a bubble gum pop concert. Katie and her Indonesian friend, Tika, have been listening to the self-titled album by Gita Gutawa. Tika found out that Gita would be performing at a nearby mall last night and so the two of them had been conspiring as to how to get there. Tika's parents refused to take her, so the two of them ganged up on me. I resisted as long as possible. I can tolerate one or two songs on the album, but listening for too long makes me want to break something.

Well, as I said, I resisted as long as possible but resistance is futile in the face of two determined pre-teen girls. The crowd was primarily high school aged kids so I stood out as both a foreigner and an old guy. I let the girls go up to the stage while I stayed in the back. The girls had a great time. The set was only five songs so it wasn't that long but it included the girls' favourite songs. When Gita finished, Tika managed to shake her hand and give Gita her cellphone number. In the car, Tika kept looking at her hand in disbelief as well as her cellphone in expectation. Katie just kept shrieking, overwhelmed with excitement. I had a headache.

While the music was terrible, it was an interesting cultural experience. In many ways the concert was what I would expect at a N. American mall. Girls dressed not quite enough and boys in baggy pants that defied gravity. Ironically, many of the girls were wearing jilbabs, suggesting that the covering has more to do with culture than religious conviction. There was also a 'flirt message board' where kids could write messages to their loved ones and it would be posted on a large electronic message board. The messages were typically adolescent but I was surprised at how public it was. This is a country that considers itself Islamic and came very close to having Sharia installed in its constitution. There are parts of the country that have Sharia police who will punish Muslim women wearing clothes that are too revealing. Indonesia is not an easy country to label.

Katie went to Tika's house for a sleepover and no doubt they stayed up late into the night staring at Tika's cellphone hoping Gita would call.

Phil