She started singing in 1986. Her father, Darto Singo, was a famous singer and producer in Indonesia and Anggun decided to follow in her father's footsteps. At the tender age of 7 years she recorded her first album with children's song.
At 12, after becoming interested in rock music, she recorded her second heavily rock influenced album, "Dunia Aku Punya", that in the indonesian language mean "World of mine". This album became very popular and she became a megastar in East Asia. Having already had tremendous success in her homeland Indonesia, she decided to pursue an international career and left Indonesia in 1995, when she was only 19.
She settled in Paris, France and met producer Erick Benzi, who later helped her sign a record deal with Sony Music France and recorded her first French album, Au Nom de la Lune, in 1996. The album was released in 1997 and spawned a hit single, "La neige au Sahara". She re-recorded the album in English and it produced her biggest worldwide hit single to date, "Snow on the Sahara." The album has been released in 33 countries across the world, including the US.
To date, Anggun has sold approximately 3 million copies of records worldwide and has become the most successful Asian artist outside Asia. Her success has spread throughout Europe, particularly in France and Italy.
What if you could tell the world who you really are in 12 songs? That’s a bit what it feels like when you listen to Echoes, Anggun’s much-awaited new album.
A lot has been written about the Indonesian singer. Some people have mentioned a fairytale to explain the rise of a young music-loving girl who became a superstar in the country of her birth before striking out to conquer France and Europe when she was only about 20. Following a stream of hits in French, English and Indonesian (and her massive international hit Snow On The Sahara), she has now sold over 2 million records in just a few years. Her albums have been released in 35 countries and she has made the Top 5 in the European charts and the Top 20 of the US Billboard charts. Add to this a wide-ranging list of prizes and honours including a World Music Awards performance, giving the Christmas concert at the Vatican in the presence of Pope John Paul II, an interview with CNN in New York and her extremely prestigious nomination as a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France. Quite simply, Anggun is the Asian artist who has sold the most records outside Asia, without doubt one of the most famous Asian stars internationally.
People have also often listed the duets the woman has been involved in. Her eclectic musical tastes make her feel just as comfortable singing with Peter Gabriel, Michael Bolton, Julio Iglesias, Bryan Adams and Zucchero as with DJ Cam, Laurent Wolf and Pras from The Fugees. Her eclectic taste in movies have seen her perform the theme tune for American blockbusters (The #1 US box office movie The Transporter II) ; arthouse films (Open Hearts directed by Academy Awards winner Susanne Bier) and even the soundtrack to the latest feature film by legendary French director Claude Lelouch (Ces Amours-là).
With each passing year and album, she has kept surprising us and kept reinventing herself through new artistic projects and her own personal development. Echoes, in a sense, sums up this transformation, returning to the pop sound that made her name, but this time with new collaborators. The origins of this album are to be found in the coming together of two teams familiar with success: Gioacchino and Pierre Jaconelli on the one hand, and the duo of Jean-Pierre Pilot and William Rousseau on the other. Anggun has been involved in every step of the making of Echoes. She has written the lyrics of every song, making this album probably her most personal to date.
“I love her timbre. I’d been wanting to work with her for a while,” explains Giacchino, who has already collaborated with the biggest French stars, and who is currently working on Celine Dion’s upcoming new album. “I found in her the very same depth of personality that I liked about her voice.” This profoundness is felt in the Irish-influenced smash hit single Only Love, which deals with the quest for true and unconditional love. A Stranger timidly speaks of the loneliness and fear of the unknown that were often a feature of the singer’s constant moving around. Whereas a few years ago Anggun still sang of exile as a painful experience, now she knows where she is headed, as she has accepted that her destiny will always be bound up with travelling. Year of the Snake is a restrained song that gives the thoughts of a woman remembering painful momentsof her life. And yet, without any excess exoticism or pointless clichés, you find subtle traces of the singer’s Indonesian roots via the various subjects she tackles. Eternal talks of accepting the death of a loved one, without seeking to squeeze a tear out of the listener at any cost. On the other hand, the extremely sensual Rollercoaster, composed by Axel Bauer, conjures up the passion and sense of drama that can be part of the singer’s life aswell.
Jean-Pierre Pilot and William Rousseau were coming off the back of major successes in France when they met Anggun. “What surprised us was the contrast between the simple, fun-loving woman we had in front of us and the image of the superstar diva we know from her videos or live performances. The two personalities coexist inside her in perfect harmony,” William Rousseau explains. “As a result, we were keen to explore her more private side without going off into completely pared-down musical style.” Many women will identify with the themes of the album: an upbeat girl’s power message in Weapons, the weariness of My Addiction or the acceptance of who we really are in Impossible. Anggun reveals herself to be both mischievous and totally fulfilled. Yet the power of the melodies does not supplant the emotion, as illustrated by the bittersweet Buy me happiness and the discreet Silent vow.
Anggun is offering exclusive bonus tracks in this new album: Count on me, Sorry and the hypnotic song Always You produced by German electro-pop superstar Schiller, taken from the artist’s latest album which has reached the #1 spot in the German Album Charts and went Gold a few weeks after its release.
Sometimes fatale, sometimes disappointed, often amorous and always strong, Anggun sings about the woman she was and above all about the woman she is today. Neither completely the same nor completely someone else, with Echoes she gives us her most personal and paradoxically most universal album: the Echoes of an artist who is no longer torn between two cultures – her heartland of Indonesia and her adoptive country France; she has managed to find an equilibrium between these two worlds and to make the very best of them.
Discography
Indonesian-language albums:
* 1986: Dunia Aku Punya
* 1990: Mimpi
* 1990: Tua Tua Keladi
* 1990: Takut
* 1991: Anak Putih Abu Abu
* 1992: Nocturno
* 1993: Anggun C. Sasmi... Lah!!!
* 1994: Yang Hilang
* 2011: Echoes (May)
French-language albums
* 1997: Au nom de la lune
* 2000: Désirs Contraires
* 2005: Luminescence
* 2006: Luminescence Edition Speciale
* 2008: Elévation
* 2011: Echos (September)
English-language albums:
* 1998: Snow on the Sahara
* 1999: Anggun
* 2000: Chrysalis
* 2002: Open Hearts
* 2005: Luminescence
* 2006: Luminescence Special Edition
* 2007: Best Of
* 2008: Elevation
* 2011: Echoes
Impossible
Anggun Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's alright if i′m not understood
Have had 10 lives my stories still untold
Can't decide if i'm bad or i′m good
Said goodbye maybe one too many times
He′s too kind and too good but too dull
I change my mind and i don't think it′s a crime
Lock me up and i'll walk away
Tame me and i′ll lose control
Leave me and i won't leave your mind
Try to change me it′s impossible
Everything but complicated
Nothing's cruel beneath this smile
Take me as i am and don't you
Try to change me cause it′s impossible, impossible
Maybe i′m just like any other girl
Who eats too much and sometimes too little
Set in stone but this kind heart is fragile
Not a saint but not quite the devil
Repeat Reff
Everybody knows that there is so much
More than meets the eye
Our highest and our lowest are something
That define you and i, don't you
Repeat Reff
The lyrics of Anggun's song Impossible depict a woman who is confident and comfortable in her own skin, even if she is often misunderstood. She describes herself as someone with many stories yet to be told, but who struggles to decide whether she is good or bad. She confesses to having said goodbye too many times and to being attracted to someone who is kind and good, but ultimately boring. However, she resists any attempts to change herself, asserting that it is impossible.
The message of the song seems to be that everyone is more complex than they appear on the surface, and that it is impossible to fully understand or change a person. The lyrics suggest that we should accept people as they are, flaws and all, rather than trying to change them to fit our own expectations. The song encourages individuality and self-acceptance, while also acknowledging the challenges that come with forging our own paths.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm a girl who runs my untwisted world
I'm a strong and independent woman who lives life on her own terms.
It's alright if I'm not understood
I don't mind if people don't understand or agree with me.
Have had 10 lives my stories still untold
I've had many experiences but there's still a lot about me that's unknown.
Can't decide if I'm bad or I'm good
I'm not sure if I'm a good or bad person.
Said goodbye maybe one too many times
I may have ended relationships too often in the past.
He's too kind and too good but too dull
I found a man who was nice and good but didn't excite me.
I change my mind and I don't think it's a crime
I sometimes change my decisions but I don't see it as a bad thing.
Got to run to where my heart desires
I need to follow my heart and go where I want.
Lock me up and I'll walk away
If you try to control me, I will rebel.
Tame me and I'll lose control
If you try to change me, I will become unpredictable.
Leave me and I won't leave your mind
If you leave me, you will still think about me.
Try to change me it's impossible
It's impossible to change who I am and what I want.
Everything but complicated
I'm a simple person who's not hard to understand.
Nothing's cruel beneath this smile
I may look happy but I'm not always what I seem.
Take me as I am and don't you
Accept me for who I am and don't try to change me.
Try to change me cause it's impossible, impossible
You can't change me, it's impossible to do so.
Maybe I'm just like any other girl
I'm not that different from other women.
Who eats too much and sometimes too little
I have my own imperfections when it comes to eating habits.
Set in stone but this kind heart is fragile
I may seem tough but I have a vulnerable side.
Not a saint but not quite the devil
I'm neither fully good nor bad.
Everybody knows that there is so much more than meets the eye
There's more to a person than what you see on the surface.
Our highest and our lowest are something that define you and I, don't you
Our strengths and weaknesses make us who we are as individuals.
Writer(s): Jean-pierre Pilot, Vincent Baguian, William Rousseau, Anggun Sasmi
Contributed by Alexandra O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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