Inul Daratista with her suggestive style

Inul Daratista (born Ainur Rokhimah, 21 January 1979) is a dangdut singer and performance artist from Pasuruan, East Java, Indonesia. She became nationally famous in 2003, and is known for her suggestive style of dancing that has caused major controversy in Indonesia. Inul is a corrupted version of Ainur, and the singer's childhood pet name. As she began her musical career singing in a rock band, she adopted the stage name Daratista.

Inul Daratista after concert in Singapore, 2004 (picture)

Inul Daratista rose to national fame after a televised January 2003 concert in Jakarta. Her dance moves, which she calls Goyang Inul or Ngebor (lit. 'drilling'), quickly became the source of controversy due to her suggestive gyrating hip motions. Some conservative Muslim organizations such as the Indonesian Muslim Council (MUI) called for a ban on her concerts. She was cited as a reason to pass a national anti-pornography bill that was drafted during the height of the controversy in mid-2003, but as of 2005 has not passed. Inul's dance style was also criticised by other dangdut singers, most vocally Rhoma Irama, for "corrupting" the genre, though these criticisms did little to dent her popularity.

Elvi Sukaesih The Queen of Music Dangdut

Elvy Sukaesih (born June 25, 1951) is one of the most popular singers in Java, Indonesia, and has been dubbed the Queen of Dangdut. Sukaesih has a significant fanbase in other Asian countries such as Japan. She has been a prolific recording artist since the late 1960s.

Elvy Sukaesih's male counterpart is the King of Dangdut.

King of Music Dangdut - Rhoma Irama

Rhoma Irama (born December 11, 1946, in Tasikmalaya, West Java) is an Indonesian dangdut singer. During the height of his stardom in the 1970s, he became the self-proclaimed Raja Dangdut (King of Dangdut) with the group Soneta.

He was known as his stage name Oma Irama before he made a pilgrimage to Mecca and became a haji. He later took the name Rhoma Irama, which is an abbreviation of "Raden Haji Oma Irama" (Raden is an aristocracy title for Javanese and Sundanese cultures, but it is still unknown whether Rhoma Irama is a member of aristocrat class of Sundanese, which is known as his ethnic background).

His career began in the 1960s when he recorded solo records and with the group Orkes Melayu Purnama. He sang duets with many Indonesian female vocal stars such as Inneke Kusumawati, Rossy, and the later to be crowned 'Queen of Dangdut', Elvy Sukaesih. Once Oma broke from recording with the Purnama Group, he formed Orkes Melayu Soneta, the first so-called Dangdut group. In fact, Oma established the term "Dangdut" with a song by that name from the early 70's. Once Soneta was established in the early 70's, Oma changed his name to Rhoma and went on a decade long run of successful hit records and films, all of which starred Rhoma playing himself while performing all of his hits.

Rhoma Irama is also well-known as an imam and is the chairman of the Muslim Forum (FUI), a nonpartisan religious organization. In 1992 he taught Cahyono, one of the Indonesian comedians according to his conversion to Islam. Once, Cahyono stated that Rhoma knew all of the Catholic principles as well as its mistakes.

Rhoma Irama was in the news in 2003 for his criticism of the suggestive dancing of fellow dangdut singer Inul Daratista. Recently, he was ineligible to receive the PhD award from the American University of Hawaii in February 2005 after being busted for plagiarizing his title.[citation needed]

In a comprehensive research about dangdut, a local journalist cited an allegation that Rhoma Irama may have stolen some of the tune of his songs from Indian movie theme songs. He also one of the artists on the only CD containing dangdut music in the United States, which was released on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings as part of its Indonesian music series.

Free download music Dangdut

Dangdut is a genre of Indonesian popular music that is partly derived from Arabic, Indian. It developed in the 1970s among working class Muslim youth, but especially since the late 1990s has reached a broader following in Indonesia and become one of music genre originally from Indonesia. Dangdut music is very differ then other music genre in the world, that it will be easily recognized as dangdut music.

Description
A dangdut band typically consists of a lead singer backed by four to eight musicians. The term has been expanded from the desert-style music, to embrace other musical styles. Modern dangdut incorporates influences from rock, Latin, house music, hip-hop, R&B, reggae and even Western classical music.

Culture
Most major cities, especially on Java, have one or more venues that have a dangdut show several times a week. The concerts of major dangdut stars are also broadcast on television. In 2003 singer Inul Daratista became the subject of much controversy and criticism from conservatives over her suggestive, erotic style of dancing during televised shows.

MyIndo.com reported in 2003 that Project Pop, an Indonesian Nu metal band, released a humorous tribute to dangdut titled Dangdut Is The Music Of My Country.

Because the popularity of the genre, some movies and TV show use Dangdut themes such as Rhoma Irama's movies and Rudy Soedjarwo's Mendadak Dangdut.