Indonesian pop star Siti Badriah performed at the New Taipei City Plaza in Banciao District (板橋) yesterday as thousands of Indonesians watched her dance and sing.
The hour-long show was part of the city’s annual New Taipei Indonesian Cultural Festival, where Siti performed dangdut music, a mix of Indonesian folk and pop derived from Hindustani, Malay and Arabic music.
In an interview after the show, Siti said that Taiwan was where she performed overseas for the first time in 2012 and yesterday was part of her third visit to Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
Siti said she was amazed that the fans were as enthusiastic as during her previous visit in 2016.
The 26-year-old thanked the government for offering post-disaster assistance to her country following a magnitude 7.5 earthquake and tsunami that hit Sulawesi Island on Friday, leaving hundreds of people dead.
Ami, an Indonesian worker based in the city, said that she and her friends took advantage of the weekend to see the show.
Yuri, an Indonesian-Chinese who came to Taiwan more than a decade ago, said she attended the festival with four of her colleagues just to see Siti’s performance.
Siti’s set marked the end of the half-day festival, which featured Indonesian entertainers, as well as dozens of booths offering public-sector or private-sector services to Indonesian workers.
At the opening ceremony, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) said that the city is home to nearly 50,000 Indonesian nationals, including more than 40,000 Indonesian migrant workers and 3,700 Indonesians married to Taiwanese.
Chu thanked them for their contributions to the city and the nation.
He also expressed his condolences over Friday’s disaster.
Indonesian Representative Didi Sumedi said that it was amazing to see so many Indonesians attending the annual event.
He thanked the city government for providing the facilities for his office, which co-organized the festival.
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