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View all search resultsGuruh Soekarnoputra, influential musician and dance maestro, dies at 73
Guruh was receiving intensive care at MRCCC Siloam Hospital in Central Jakarta before being pronounced dead on early Saturday, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) secretary general Hasto Kristyanto said in a statement.
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Guruh Soekarnoputra (center), brother of fifth Indonesia president Megawati Soekarnoputri, waves to journalists on January 12, 2008, after visiting his sister's political rival, the second Indonesia president, Soeharto, at the hospital. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
G
uruh Soekarnoputra, the youngest son of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno, a bona fide dance artist of the group Swara Mahardika who found his own fame for writing and producing some of the most progressive music in the country's pop history, passed away at the age of 73 after struggling with a long bout of unspecified illness.
Guruh was receiving intensive care at MRCCC Siloam Hospital in Central Jakarta before being pronounced dead on early Saturday, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) secretary general Hasto Kristyanto said in a statement.
Guruh's health condition deteriorated over the years, according to friends and family members, prompting him to receive hospital care multiple times.
“We remember Guruh as a great artist, a Marhaenist figure, and a committed party figure,” Hasto said, referring to the PDI-P's pro-peasant ideology that Guruh's father formulated in the late 1920s. “We truly feel a deep loss.”
Guruh, the youngest sibling of PDI-P incumbent chair Megawati Soekarnoputri, spent years representing the party as a member of the House of Representatives despite having no formal position in the party. Guruh served his last term as lawmaker between 2019 and 2024.
Although having only a light footprint in politics, Guruh left an indelible mark on the country's cultural history, especially in the music scene.
The progressive rock album Guruh Gipsy, which he recorded with his neighborhood friends Keenan Nasution, Roni Harahap, Chrisye and Abadi Soesman in Menteng, Central Jakarta, became an unrivaled masterpiece that casts a long shadow across Indonesian music history.
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