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Sabyan, 'Islamic music' and popular culture
The music craze among Indonesian Muslim millennials these days centers on Sabyan.
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The music craze among Indonesian Muslim millennials these days centers on Sabyan. (Shutterstock/File)
T
he music craze among Indonesian Muslim millennials these days centers on Sabyan. With its Middle Eastern-style, gambus musical genre, the group’s hit song Habibal Qalbi (Love of My Heart), had 171 million views on YouTube by June — the fourth most popular Indonesian song on the digital platform.
Number three is a Javanese dangdut hip-hop hit about love sung by Nella Kharisma, Jaran Goyang (Crazy Horse), with 176 million views. The two top songs are Virgoun’s Surat Cinta Untuk Starla (Love Letter for Starla) with 237 million views and Armada’s Asal Kau Bahagia (As Long as You’re Happy) with 236 million views.
Who is Sabyan and how did they become so popular? Formed in 2015, the band features Ahmad Fairuz on keyboard, Sofwan Yusuf on percussion, Kamal on darbuka percussion, Tubagus Syaifulloh on violin, lead vocalist Khairunnissa and backing vocalist Anisa Rahman. Starting out as a wedding band, the group explored more popular songs and decided to focus on thegambus Islamic musical genre, according to CNN.
It is believed that gambus became popular along with the spread of Islam in Indonesia. Is the genre originally from Indonesia, or was it imported from the Middle East? Birgit Berg in her published dissertation, The Music of Arabs, the Sound of Islam: Hadrami Ethnic and Religious Presence in Indonesia, stated it was unknown whether gambus was imported from the Arab world or was originally from Indonesia.
