Indonesian singer and songwriter Ari Lasso was born January 17, 1973 in Madiun, East Java. Encouraged by his mother to pursue a career as a singer because of his notable voice, he founded a band as a teenager, and eventually became the lead singer of Dewa 19 and held that position throughout the 1990s. He was forced to step away from the band due to drug dependency issues, and launched his solo career with 2001’s Sendiri Dulu. It established him away from his identity with the band and led to an even bigger hit with 2003’s Keseimbangan which included the hit single “Hampa”. The 2004 album Kulihat Kudengar dan Kurasakan got a boost when a pair of its tracks were used in the popular movie Mengejar Matahari. For his 2007 retrospective The Best of, he recorded a new duet with fellow Indonesian star Bunga Citra Lestari. He tried a novel approach to distribution for 2012’s Yang Terbek, a mix of greatest hits and new duets that was made available only at KFC franchises in Indonesia. Ari Lasso expanded his career into television when he became a judge on the second season of The Voice Indonesia in 2016.
