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ver the past few months, Indonesian music lovers have seen world-class musicians such as Avril Lavigne, Santana, Janet Jackson, David Foster, Maroon 5 and Linkin Park perform in Jakarta.

Concert promoter Big Daddy announced recently that British singer/songwriter Sir Elton John was willing to come and play a concert for his “Greatest Hits Tour”. The concert was scheduled for Nov. 18 at Sentul International Convention Center in Bogor, south of the capital.

Sir Elton will not be alone, as he will be joined by his longtime buddies Davey Jonston, Nigel Olsson, Robert Birch, Jeffrey Bullard and John Mahon, and the background singers.

Promoters say that bringing international singers and bands to the country is really not easy, given the fact that Indonesia’s political conditions are very dynamic and that natural disasters are common.

“We needed around four or five months to convince Sir Elton John to come to Indonesia. As a person with the given royal title of ‘Sir’, he is one of the world’s greatest figures and of course there are some requirements, including security issues, that we needed to fulfill in order to have a successful concert,” Michael Rusli, president director of the Big Daddy told The Jakarta Post.

When they brought Linkin Park to Jakarta in September, they did not only work with police personnel to secure the event but also with the Indonesian Military, according to Michael.

Security has always been a significant issue for any artist planning to have a concert in the country.

Berlian Entertainment, the promoter that brought the world’s teenage sensation from Canada, Justin Bieber, to Indonesia in April this year, said that the ratio between the police personnel and the audience reached up to one to five.

“The security, both at a national level and during the concert, is very crucial for every international artist. We always work closely with police personnel and other security officers to beef up security systems,” Dino Hamid, Berlian Entertainment CEO told the Post.

During Bieber’s concert, the promoter even had 10 ambulances and 100 paramedics on the ready in anticipation of injuries. During his concerts in other countries, many Bieber maniacs went into hysterics and hurt themselves.

Additionally, Dino said they were all worried that the concert would be canceled at the last minute, because just a few days before Justin Bieber arrived in Jakarta, the National Police had just disarmed a bomb next to a gas pipeline near a Christian church in Serpong, Banten, several kilometers away from the concert venue.

When the bomb was disarmed, Justin was performing in Singapore.

“We were worried about the bomb issue. We even thought about jamming the cell phone networks around Sentul to prevent the spread of bomb news, which could scare people. But, thank God, everything was running on schedule and the audience was happy,” he said, adding that the concert successfully attracted as many as 10,000 people.

However, promoters said that no international artist had canceled a concert due to bombings or natural disasters.

Ressanda Tamaputra, promotions coordinator for PT Java Festival Production, which hosts the Java Jazz Festival and Java Rockin Land, said that despite the bomb issues, the foreign artists kept on performing their best to show their support to Indonesia to counter terrorism.

“Java Jazz Festival 2005 was held a few months after the tsunami hit Aceh, and Java Rockin Land 2009 was held two weeks after the J.W. Marriott bombing. Not one single artist canceled a show,” Ressanda said.

He also said that the Java Festival Production did not set up a special security system as long as they were collaborating well and managing good communications with the police.

“Improving Indonesia’s image is part of our mission, and we can prove that by being able to hold world-class music festivals,” he said.

Both Michael and Dino agreed with Ressanda on that. The good image of Indonesia would be brought by word of mouth from the world-class musicians, and it would result in more and more musicians coming to Indonesia.

Promoters’ ability to attract such musicians also develops a good track record for them, strengthening their position to lobby more artists.

Dino even said that the entertainment industry in the country began to flourish after US President Barack Obama visited Jakarta in November 2010.

“It proves to the world that Indonesia is safe. After Obama’s visit, you could see that more international artists were willing to come to Indonesia,” he said.

The impact of more international musicians visiting Indonesia also benefited the local musicians, since they could learn from their international counterparts to improve their musicianship.

“In the Java Jazz Festival, the local artists learned by collaborating with international artists, and some [local artists] were even invited to perform abroad or have their albums produced by international artists,” Ressanda said.

Moreover, the hype behind western concerts encourages Indonesian bands to put on the same kind of live performances.

Berlian Entertainment, for instance, just promoted legendary Indonesian pop band Kahitna’s concert in order to celebrate their 25th year in the music industry in Jakarta in October.

“We are going to promote their concert in Bandung in November, with a theme called ‘Love’ that is taken from their short story book,” Dino said.

Before playing a concert in Jakarta, Kahitna launched a collection of short stories entitled Di antara Kebahagiaan, Cinta, dan Perselingkuhan (Between Happiness, Love and Affairs) that was based on their songs.

The site for Kahitna’s third concert has not yet been decided, but Kahitna fans should be ready because Berlian is scheduled to promote the “Affair” themed concert in 2012. (nfo)