Firda Marsya Kurnia of Voice of Baceprot, also often called VoB, has been named considered one of the BBC’s 100 Inspiring and Influential Women of 2024. She is amongst famous politicians, activists and more. The fact is that she is the one woman from Indonesia on the list.
In VoB Marsya plays guitar and vocals. Sam VoB is a heavy metal band from Garut, West Java, Indonesia. It consists of three members, all of whom are women, Marsya on guitar and vocals, Widi on bass and Sitti on drums. The band was formed while still in junior highschool.
In its publication, the BBC describes Mars as groundbreaking. She opposes the religious and gender norms that suppress women’s activities in her country. From VoB’s song lyrics, it could be traced that she can also be aware of politics, environmental degradation, and corruption.
“Singing in English and Sundanese, probably the most widely spoken languages in Indonesia, the trio’s lyrics express frustration with patriarchy. Being a metal band whose members all wear a hijab, they face a whole lot of rejection from conservative Muslim groups,” the BBC describes.
Before she reached the top of life, Marsya felt the bittersweet taste of life. Some stories tell how strong she is to get into this type, after she disliked the tragedy in her school, rejected some music festivals, until she achieved some proud achievements within the yr 2024.
As Kompas reports, Marsya was expelled from highschool. One day VoB was invited to a TV station and answered the query whether their school supports your music. Marsya, because the leader of the group, said “No”.
Because of her statements, the varsity felt they were disrespected and even damaged the varsity’s image. Therefore, the varsity decided to withdraw them. The girls left the varsity and joined one other school where they were reunited in the identical school.
Read also: Number of metal bands Indonesia vs Southeast Asia 2023
The first Indonesian band to perform at Glastonbury
VoB has been invited to perform at Glastonbury Festival 2024. Glastonbury Festival is an open cultural event going down in Pilton, Somerset, southwest England. This is a spot that mixes musical, artistic and lots of other performances.
Voice of Baceprot after acting at the Glastonbury festivals | The official voice of Baceprot on Instagram
“Being the first Indonesian band to perform at Glastonbury Festival, being the band to open for the Woodsies stage, being the first hijab-wearing band to perform there, or whatever people want to call us, we would still be ourselves and no one can change that.” , says VoB on its official Instagram (June 30).
Winning an award as an important woman
Her team won the Cita and Cipta 2024 awards as an important woman. The event was organized by Liputan 6 and Fimela on July 31, 2024. VoB won within the free speech forces category.
“We from Głos Baceprotu want to thank Liputan6. This is a very extraordinary recognition… We also thank the women who are there. We dedicate this award to women who continue to move and thank everyone who wants to move forward,” VoB’s Marsya said in front of the audience, as quoted by Liputan 6 at Shangri-La Hotel Jakarta (July 31).
