How Pop Batak Group Trio Ambids To Win Young Viewers' Hearts At National Music Festivals

JAKARTA - As a pop Batak vocal group, Trio Ambition has started its musical journey since the 1980s. Although Charles Simbolon left behind who died in 2011, Andi Situmorang and Joe Harlen Simanjuntak are still continuing the legacy of the Trio Ambition, with Eli Marojak Simanjuntak as a replacement for the late Charles.

In recent years, Trio Ambition has had a new experience, as a Batak pop group that is able to win the hearts of young people and the national music market.

They have appeared at major music festivals in Jakarta which incidentally attended by young people from various ethnicities such as Partypora, and most recently is the Soundsfest 2025.

"The experience we have experienced when playing on big stages like this, in fact, we ourselves are sometimes confused," Andi said when met behind the 2025 Soundsfest stage at Gambir Expo, Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, Sunday, May 25.

Trio Ambition can be said to be a senior Batak group, but we are confused ourselves, there are also many teenage viewers. Even Joe's brother once asked to call on stage, "continued Andi.

In his appearance at Soundsfest, Trio Ambition performed two types of songs, which speak Batak and Indonesian.

"Sometimes we sing, we see an audience too. If later someone requests a song or something, what is clear is that we have prepared Batak songs and national songs," said Andi.

Asked further how Trio Ambition could win the hearts of young non-Batak spectators, Andi said that his group was also transforming, over time.

Trio Ambition was originally in the Batak song. But then, we also made national albums, even Indonesian songs, such as from Papua, Ambon, even to Manado," he said. Maybe that's what makes Trio Ambitious can be known in the national music scene.

"If in the past we had made an album, it was called the 'Nusantara' album. There we collaborated with other areas," said Joe.

Currently, the Ambition Trio is not only Batak's pop vocal group for certain groups in the Batak tribe community. They are one of the colors that appears, grows, and develops from the richness of Indonesian culture.