Exclusive Vionita Sihombing, Dare To Dream Big And Face People's Expectations

Exclusive Vionita Sihombing (Photo: Bambang E Ros, DI: Raga/VOI)

JAKARTA - Vionita Sihombing listed her name as the winner of the fourth season of The Voice Indonesia talent search event in 2019. Not long after, she made her debut as a potential young female soloist.

Until now, the 25-year-old singer has released five singles, namely Don't Appear Again (2020), He's Your Past, I'm Your Future (2021), Perih (2022), Afraid of Rindu (2023), and CEMBURU (2024).

Lagu yang disebut terakhir jadi pembedara, dirilis pada 26 Juli lalu secara kedependen, setelah Vionita mengakhiri kerja sama dengan HITS Records, label tempatnya berlindung sejak debut.

"This song 'CEMBURU' is the first time I've released it myself, because I was previously under the label. So this is the first child who really thought about it," said Vionita Sihombing while visiting the VOI office in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta recently.

Unlike when he was still working with the label, Vionita was not involved too much. This time, independently, he was actively involved, in almost all aspects.

CEMBURU itself was written by Andreas Jonathan, Desmon Latif, and Stefanus Efan (according to Spotify credit), which tells the story of someone who likes the opposite sex who already has a partner.

"I'm producing 'CEMBURU' with my friend, her name is Linda. So I don't know if this is a coincidence or not, the meaning of the song is very related to the story of my friend who is walking with a boy, likes guys, but it turns out that his guy has a boyfriend," said the singer who is familiarly called Vio.

"So the song 'CEMBURU' is for girls who are girlish, girls who are really forced, it's like hoping to be together but it turns out that it's hard to have," he continued.

Want To Keep Working

As a singer who currently chooses an independent path, Vio takes care of many things when releasing CEMBURU. He also thought about the initial concept to how promotions were carried out.

Although the decision to stop cooperating with the label also means that you have to try harder as a singer, Vio admits that he is happy because he can learn many things.

"If now I have to think about what the music is like or what the music concept should be like, what's the promo. Dab is more difficult, but I'm happy, I'm happy, it turns out I can learn a lot," he said.

In addition, the Batak-blooded singer also believes that she will release more works. The reason is, so far Vio has only released one single every year.

"Because I learned from before, it turns out that the release (of the song) for a long time is also not good in my opinion. So we seem like we are not productive. I really hope I can continue to make works," said Vio.

"Moreover, now it's already alone, so I don't have to wait for the timeline. So it's like I have a song, I can release it any time I want," he continued.

Dreams And Challenges As A Singer

Through 'CEMBURU', Vionita certainly wants to repeat her great success 'He's Your Past, I'm Your Future', his second single which has gone viral on social media several times and has reached 157 million streams on Spotify.

The song, which was released three years ago, unexpectedly, reached an unexpected popularity. However, the good luck of the song is not identical to that of Vionita as the singer. He felt he had to fight harder to know.

"I'm happy, I'm grateful too, many people know my song, but I don't know it," Vionita said with a laugh.

"Many know the song but don't know Vionita, and I don't really mind that, because the important thing is that his work comes to the listeners first," he continued.

With time running, Vio hopes that he will be increasingly known. He believes that hard work will not betray the results. One thing he wants to do now is focus on his works, both those that have been released and those that will come.

"Yes, I'm the most focused on making songs again. Maybe in the past the most related ones, who can most represent their feelings. Maybe 'CEMBURU' hasn't, 'Afraid of Rindu' hasn't, but I don't know later. Because I think there is a time like that, like there was a time when people failed to move on, someone seemed to fall in love again. There are eras in my opinion," he said.

Talking about the 'cursed' champion of talent search events in Indonesia, where in reality not many have achieved similar success when they were in the music industry, Vio didn't want to bother.

Although he had felt burdened as the champion of The Voice Indonesia, currently Vio admitted that he had 'peace' with his thoughts. He chose to work by enjoying the whole process that had to go through.

"Honestly, yes (feel burdened), but getting here has made peace. Actually the burden is more to the expectations of the people, I won first place but like this, I won first place but like this. If I was private, I enjoyed it, because I really knew what my goal was at the beginning to join The Voice. So when I was at this point, yes, this is what I wanted, "he said.

"And fortunately I'm not the person who said it like this, I don't feel down like that. So if you say it's a burden, now it's not," he added.

Furthermore, regarding the level of recognition of Indonesian music listeners to him, Vio himself admitted that he did not understand him exactly. He doesn't know what kind of singer to be. But one thing is for sure, he wants to be known more widely.

"I'm still thinking about what my branding is like. I'm still looking for my true identity. It's just that people like me singing ballad, that's why I'm still following the market. So how about a lot of people know Vio first," he said.

Convinced himself to continue working, Vionita had big dreams. He wants like many other great singers, to have his own album and appear on the big stage, even outside Indonesia.

"I happen to live on TikTok, I'm very busy with Filipinos, so I really want to sing in the Philippines. Then one day I want to have my own office, have an album, and can make a work that I actually write myself," concluded Vionita Sihombing.