"Indonesia Maharddhika" (; ''Independent Indonesia'') is a song by Indonesian

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band Gipsy, consisting of

Chrisye Hajji Chrismansyah Rahadi (; 16 September 1949 – 30 March 2007), born Christian Rahadi (), better known by his stage name Chrisye (), was an Indonesian progressive pop singer and songwriter. In 2011 ''Rolling Stone Indonesia'' declared hi ...

, Keenan Nasution, Oding Nasution, Roni Harahap, and Abadi Soesman, together with

Guruh Sukarnoputra Muhammad Guruh Irianto Sukarnoputra (born 13 January 1953) is a member of Indonesia's People's Representative Council and an artist. He is the youngest son of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno with his third wife, Fatmawati, and the brother t ...

. It was released in 1976 on the album ''

Guruh Gipsy ''Guruh Gipsy'' is a 1976 Indonesian studio album released by Guruh Sukarnoputra in collaboration with the band Gipsy, consisting of Keenan Nasution, Chrisye, Roni Harahap, and Oding Nasution. Mixing modern instruments with traditional Javanese ...

'' with the names of its contributors hidden in the bilingual lyrics. In 2009, ''

Rolling Stone Indonesia ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' selected it as the 59th best Indonesian song of all time.

Recording

The lyrics and melody to "Indonesia Maharddhika" were written in Guruh Sukarnoputra's house in

South Jakarta South Jakarta ( id, Jakarta Selatan; bew, Jakarte Beludik ), colloquially known as ''Jaksel'', is one of the five administrative cities which form the Special Capital Region of Jakarta, Indonesia. South Jakarta is not self-governed and does not h ...

1975 by Guruh Sukarnoputra and Roni Harahap. Seeing Guruh struggling to compose a melody, Roni played the introduction to

KC and the Sunshine Band KC and the Sunshine Band is an American disco and funk band that was founded in 1973 in Hialeah, Florida. Their best-known songs include the hits "That's the Way (I Like It)", "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty", "I'm Your Boogie Man", "K ...

's "

That's the Way (I Like It) "That's the Way (I Like It)" is a song by American disco and funk band KC and the Sunshine Band from their self-titled second studio album (1975). The single became the band's second No. 1 hit in the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and it is one of the ...

" with the

accentuation In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as ...

reversed. Pleased, Guruh wrote some lyrics, drawing inspiration from

Rangga Warsita Raden Ngabehi Ranggawarsita (14 March 1802 – 24 December 1873, jv, ꦫꦢꦺꦤ꧀ꦔꦧꦺꦲꦶꦫꦺꦴꦁꦒꦮꦂꦰꦶꦠ, Raden Ngabehi Ronggawarsita, ) was a Javanese philosopher and poet. He was born into the famous literary Yasadipura ...

's poems. When recording, Guruh played the gendér and piano.

and Keenan Nasution provided vocals, with Chrisye also playing the bass and Keenan playing the drums. Roni played the piano, Oding Nasution was on guitar, and Abadi Soesman on synthesizers. The Hutauruk Sisters provided female backing vocals.

Lyrics

The lyrics to "Indonesia Maharddhika" are a mix of Balinese and

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

. While writing the lyrics to "Indonesia Maharddhika", Guruh Sukarnoputra decided to hide the names of the six contributors to ''Guruh Gipsy'': Oding (Nasution), Chris(ye), Kinan (Keenan Nasution), Roni (Harahap), Abadi (Soesman), and Guruh (Sukarnoputra). Shown below is the name Abadi in the lyrics (which can be heard above). The initials of the name is indicated in bold.

Release and reception

"Indonesia Maharddhika" was released as the lead track of ''

'' in 1976. "Indonesia Maharddhika" was well received. In December 2009, "Indonesia Maharddhika" was selected by ''

'' as the 59th best Indonesian song of all time.

References

Bibliography

* * {{authority control 1976 songs Songs in Indonesian Indonesian songs Indonesian pop songs Indonesian patriotic songs