The Indonesian singer and A sia's
G ot Tale nt judge on meeting
President Obama, telling Jay
Park to chill out, and getting
political in her songs.
12
8 DAYSwhat‘s up with...
Anggun 43
8 DAYS: Based on your experiences as a judge
on X Factor Indonesia and Asia’s Got Talent,
what makes or breaks a contestant?
ANGGUN: The most important part is confidence.
When you know you have talent and you've been
working on it, and you feel like there's nothing
else in the world you want to do, then it's time
to walk the stage and show it to us. And I don't
really like the word ‘judge’, because there's
something very negative about it. Our role is
actually to serve the contestant, but you need
to bring out your best before we can give our
advice. Oh, and actually the most difficult judge
to impress is David [Foster]. My God, if I had to
audition in front of him, I'd be praying to all the
Gods (laughs).
So David is the hardest judge to impress,
followed by you and Jay Park?
It depends. David is always difficult to
impress when it comes to singers. He’s very
picky. He cares a lot about how 'precise'
you sing. Some singers have beautiful voices,
but they sing out of tune sometimes. Which to
me is fine as long as the emotion gets through.
David, on the other hand, can't stand
this. And Jay’s
specialty is
dance because
he knows
a lot about
it. Whenever
there's a dance
performance
which impressed
[David and me],
Jay would be like,
“I have friends
who can do this
much better.” As for me, an act has to
touch me. I’m an emotional person and
an act is successful if they make me
want to see them again. I don’t care
much about technicality or perfection.
I believe honesty and beauty work to
create a moment on stage, where the
audience forgets everything and is immersedThree’s company:
Anggun with
fellow Asia’s Got
Talent chums
David Foster and
Jay Park.