writer: Rahmat Novie Yanto
5 December 2022
Turning Heads And Blowing Minds
Head In The Clouds Jakarta, was one of the historical moments that occurred in the Indonesian music scene. After being cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic, this annual festival of 88rising finally happened in Indonesia by the end of 2022. It was historical because not only became their first festival in Indonesia, but also became the moment of homecoming for NIKI, Rich Brian, Stephanie Poetri and Warren Hue, the quartet musician that we are all proud of.
Being held in Community Park PIK 2 for two days, December 3rd and 4th 2022, 88rising invited not only the international Asian musicians, but also some local musicians that became the representatives of Indonesia. For the first day, 88rising invited Stephanie Poetri, MANJA, MILLI, Yanqi Zhang, ZICO, (G)I-DLE, Spence Lee, Kaskade, Ylona Garcia, Joji, Atarashii Gakko!, and NIKI as the line up.
For the second day, 88rising invited Warren Hue, BIBI, BAP., Chung Ha, Voice of Baceprot, YOASOBI, August08, eaJ, Veegee, Ziyi Wang, Jackson Wang, Elephante, Rich Brian, and some lineup from day one and day two for the encore, to the stage of Head In The Clouds Jakarta.
Just like what they have in their previous festival, Head In The Clouds Jakarta divided their stage into two, Double Happiness stage and 88 stage. As the first festival in Jakarta, held by 88rising, the fans’ enthusiasm was beyond amazing. Especially for NIKI, Rich Brian, Stephanie Poetri and Warren Hue, since it was their first performance in Indonesia after so many years.
Head In The Clouds Jakarta day one opened by the epic performance from Stephanie Poetri. Performed on the 88rising stage, Stephanie Poetri did a duet with one of Indonesia’s famous singers, Vidi Aldiano. They sang one of her songs that she released in 2022, ‘Bad Haircut.’ Another surprise that Stephanie Poetri brought to the audience was her duet performance with her mom, Titi DJ, and sang Titi DJ’s famous song that went viral on TikTok last year, ‘Sang Dewi.’
After Stephanie Poetri, MANJA, a local Indonesian band based in Bali, was up on the Double Happiness stage and performed some of their songs, and one of the songs was called ‘Rise.’
Soon after Manja, Head In The Clouds Jakarta welcomed MILLI and Yanqi Zhang to the stage. MILLI was performing on the 88 stage, while Yanqi Zhang performed on the Double Happiness Stage.
One of the most awaited performers from Head In The Clouds Jakarta day one was ZICO. The rapper performed ten songs during the performance, including ‘Any Song’, ‘She’s a Baby’, ‘Turtle Ship’, and ‘Okay Dokey.’ Zico’s performance was then followed by (G)I-DLE. Soyeon, Minnie, Miyeon, Yuqi and Shuhua performed eight of their songs, including their debut song, ‘LATATA’, ‘LIAR’, and ‘Tomboy.’
After being pumped by Spence Lee, Kaskade and Ylona Garcia’s performances, the audiences then gave a warm welcome to Joji, who performed ten songs during his time at Head In The Clouds Jakarta. Opened the performance with ‘Sanctuary’ and ended it with his latest hits, ‘Glimpse of Us’.
Atarashii Gakko! was up on The Double Happiness stage, after Joji’s performance. Pumped the audiences with their energy, Atarashii Gakko! wore their signature school girl style. The trio performed some of their hits on Head In The Clouds Jakarta, including ‘Koi Geba’.
The last homecoming moment from day one came from NIKI. The singer came to the stage and performed eleven of her hits songs for the audience of Head In The Clouds Jakarta. The singer opened her performance with the song called ‘Before’, followed by ‘Keeping Tabs’ and ‘Vintage’ afterwards.
NIKI had a chit chat with her audience and expressed how happy she was to be back to her hometown, Jakarta. She also expressed her gratitude to the fans and said that she loves Jakarta forever. NIKI continued her performance with ‘Backburner’, ‘Lose’, ‘I Like You’, ‘La La Lost You’. When she was about to sing the ‘Ocean & Engines’, NIKI asked the audience to turn on their flashlights and sang the song with her.
NIKI also gave the fans a special performance when she sang her latest hits, ‘High School in Jakarta’. Coming up to the stage wearing high school uniforms, she and her bandmates were having fun with the audience while singing the song. To close the day, NIKI chose to sing ‘Lowkey’ and ‘Every Summertime’ and made the audience sing the song together with her.
Head In The Clouds Jakarta day two was held on Sunday, December 4th, 2022, and opened by Warren Hue. who sang ‘Runaway W Me’ as the first song of the day. He then greeted the audience and told them how excited he was about having his stage performance on Head In The Clouds Jakarta.
After Warren Hue finished his stage, BIBI was the next lineup to the 88rising stage. The soloist from South Korea opened her performance by singing one of her songs titled ‘Blades.’ She said she enjoyed being in Indonesia and said that the weather was way hotter than in South Korea. During her performance in Head In The Clouds Jakarta, BIBI also sang ‘The Weekend,’ ‘BIBI Vengeance,’ and ‘Kazino.’
Moving on, after being pumped with the performances on the 88rising stage, the next performance was at the Double Happiness stage with BAP., who sang some of his popular songs, one of them was ‘Same Shoes, Same Company.’
The 88rising stage then fired up once more with another solo performance from South Korea. It was Chung Ha who sang after BAP. With her energetic choreography, Chung Ha sang ‘Gotta Go’, ‘Rollercoaster’, ‘Sparkle’, ‘Flying on Faith’ and ‘Californian Dreams’. She even gave one of her fans a pleasant surprise, by giving the fan a sign and also, a kiss on his album of hers.
Head In The Clouds in Jakarta was getting more fun as the performers continued to fire up the stages. From Indonesia with pride, it was Voice of Baceprot, a rock group from Garut, Indonesia, who gave different vibes and colors to the festival with their powerful songs.
After VOB ended their stage, Yoasobi was up on the 88rising stage and sang their famous hits, including ‘Tabun,’ ‘Yoru ni Kakeru,’ and ‘Kaibutsu,’ an OST to one of the famous anime, ‘Beastars.’ It was their first performance in Indonesia and thanks to the spirit of Indonesian fans, Yoasobi promised that they would come back to Jakarta in the future.
August08, who was performing at the Double Happiness stage, gave another different music color to the festival as he performed with his rap songs, one of them was ‘Keep Me Around.’
The next performance was coming from eaJ, at the 88rising stage. The soloist didn’t come in the usual way, because he disguised himself as Head In The Clouds Jakarta staff by wearing their t-shirt uniform. During his performance, eaJ was coming down to the crowds and saying hi to his fans directly from the stage pit. The singer sang twelve of his songs, including ‘in my civic’, ‘friendly fire’, ‘a typical story’, ‘LA stars’, and ‘car crash’.
The next performers after eaJ were Veegee and Ziyi Wang, at the Double Happiness stage. After the cool performances on the Double Happiness stage, it was Jackson Wang, who became the next act. He performed his famous songs during his time in Head in The Clouds Jakarta, such as ‘Just Like Magic,’ ‘Blue,’ and ‘Drive You Home.’
The night was getting hotter after Kaskade took the stage after Jackson Wang. He performed at the Double Happiness stage and pumped up the audience once more before the final performance presented by Rich Brian at the 88rising stage.
Of course, Rich Brian performed his greatest hits such as ‘Vivid’, ‘100 Degrees’, ‘Yellow’, ‘Glow Like That’, ‘Drive Safe’, ‘Tokyo Drift Freestyle’, ‘Edamame’ and ‘Slow Down Turbo.’ He also talked with his fans using his mother language, bahasa Indonesia, and the act made the crowds go wild. Rich Brian told the fans how happy he is because it was his first performance in his hometown after three years.
As the festival came to an end, after Rich Brian ended his performance, Stephanie Poetri and Jackson Wang took the stage and sang their duet, ‘I Love You 3000,’ followed by Atarashii Gakko! with ‘NAINAINAI’, Yoasobi featuring Warren Hue with the english version of their songs, Warren Hue feat Rich Brian with ‘Getcho Mans’ and ‘California’. The stars then closed their performance in Head In The Clouds Jakarta with ‘Midsummer Madness’.
