Lyodra

Lyodra Margareta Ginting (Indonesian pronunciation: [liˈjodra marɡaˈrɛta ˈɡintɪŋ] lee-yoh-drah; born 21 June 2003), known mononymously as Lyodra, is an Indonesian singer and actress. She was the winner of the A3 category (aged 13–15 years) at the 2017 Sanremo Junior children's international solo singing competition in Sanremo, Italy, and the winner of the tenth season of Indonesian Idol. In both competitions, Lyodra practiced the use of the whistle register, which is the highest range of the human voice. She was listed as the youngest Indonesian Idol champion at the age of 16 years and 256 days. Lyodra was awarded Best Children Female Solo Artist from the 20th Anugerah Musik Indonesia Awards, and Best New Asian Artist in Indonesia from the 2021 Mnet Asian Music Award. In addition, she was nominated for Best Southeast Asian Act at the 2021 MTV Europe Music Awards.
Lyodra was born Lyodra Margareta Ginting on 21 June 2003 in Medan, North Sumatra. She was raised in a Catholic family and was given the baptismal name Margareta. Her first name, Lyodra, itself is a modification or another form of the female name in Hebrew, Liora, which means "Light". Lyodra is the eldest of two children, from entrepreneur Simar Ginting and psychiatric nurse Natalia Johanna Tarigan. She has a younger brother named Igyralo Ginting, who is two years her junior.
Lyodra's singing talents had already began to show as young as 2 years old. When she was 4 years old, she had already been participating in local singing competitions in Medan City. According to her father, Lyodra was able to sing the song "Ibu Kita Kartini" with a better vibrato technique than her peers, even better than those who had taken vocal lessons before.
In 2013, Lyodra studied under Derta Purba, who was also the vocal teacher of the classical singer Putri Ayu Silaen. She also studied playing the organ while serving as a psalmist at mass at the Catholic Church of St. Francis of Assisi, Medan. Lyodra's ability to sing with the whistle register was found to be self-taught. When she was still a seventh grader in junior high school, Lyodra imitated Mariah Carey's use of the whistle register in the song "O Holy Night". She has admitted experiencing damage to her vocal cords in 2016 due to excessive singing using the whistle register.
Apart from singing, Lyodra is also studying acting. She was a member of the theatre club while studying at St. Ignasius Junior High School, Medan. She also took piano class. After graduating from junior high school she continued to Santo Thomas 2 Senior High School, Medan. In 2021, Lyodra attended the Pelita Harapan University and majored in communication studies but resigned at the end of second semester.
Lyodra started her career as a national child singer at the Kirana Semen Indonesia 2014 event, which was organized by state-owned enterprise PT Semen Indonesia (Persero) Tbk. After winning the regional round which was held in Medan City, she advanced to the final in Jakarta, along with 28 other finalists from 28 cities in Indonesia. In the final round at the national level which was held on 31 March 2014, at Djakarta Theater XXI, Central Jakarta, Lyodra took to the top four position and took home the first consolation prize in the form of cash worth 25 million rupiah.
On 1 August 2014, Lyodra appeared as a participant in season 4 of Indonesia Mencari Bakat, which aired on the national television station Trans TV. On 19 October 2014, after going through various stages of competition and eliminating down to 19 contestants, Lyodra was eliminated in the sixth major round. After her elimination, Lyodra was signed by the record label GUT Records, which hosted musicians Erwin Gutawa and his daughter Gita Gutawa. Together with six other children who were considered to have special talents in the field of music, she was chosen as one of the members of a music group project called Di Atas Rata-Rata 2 (DARR 2).
Lyodra's joining of DARR 2 has made her involved in various large-scale musical performances, one of which was the Java Jazz Festival 2016 which was held throughout the 4–6 March at JIExpo Kemayoran, Jakarta. On 2 April 2016, Lyodra along with six other DARR 2 members performed at a concert, "Di Atas Rata-Rata 2: Bikin Konser", located in Ciputra Artpreneur, South Jakarta, which included the attendance of the former Governor of DKI Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama. On 17 August 2016, Lyodra and the six other DARR 2 personnel performed at the Merdeka Palace for the commemoration of on the 71st Independence Day of the Republic of Indonesia, performing for President Joko Widodo and a number of state guests.
Less than a year later, Lyodra, who was 13 years old at the time, took part in an international solo singing competition for children aged 6-15 years, entitled Sanremo Junior 2017, in Sanremo, Italy. Under the direct direction of the DARR 2 vocal coach and choreographer team, she trained intensively every weekend in Jakarta, resulting in Lyodra having to go back and forth from Medan to Jakarta for nearly two months. After completing the pre-competition process, she left for Italy accompanied by Gita Gutawa and sponsored by the Creative Economy Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (now Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy).
On 3 May 2017, at the Ariston Cinema Building, Sanremo, Lyodra performed the song "Dear Dream" by Gita Gutawa, an English translation of its original Indonesian language version, "Janji untuk Mimpi", which was translated by Ria Leimena. She became the winner in the competition category she participated in, Category A3 (aged 13-15 years), beating nine participants from nine other countries. In addition, of the 24 finalists from 18 countries divided into three categories based on age groups, she was selected as the only finalist who were to receive a special award from the committee, in the form of the "Prix of Sanremo Junior Committee" trophy.
In 2019, Lyodra made her breakthrough by participating in another talent search event, this time Indonesian Idol. During the audition she performed Lady Gaga's song "I'll Never Love Again", and with her usage of the whistle register impressing the judges resulted in her reception of a golden ticket. Her audition video trended as first in YouTube Indonesia within the few hours of its release.
On 2 March 2020, after passing the audition stage and going through a competition quarantine process for 5 months, she was crowned the winner of the tenth season of Indonesian Idol, with her being the youngest winner in the history of Indonesian Idol at the age of 16 years, 8 months, and 15 days. After the show, Lyodra signed a contract with the record label Universal Music Indonesia and was managed by Star Media Nusantara, an artist management company owned by MNC Group.
From Indonesian Idol, Lyodra received a song entitled "Gemintang Hatiku" as her prize, which became her first single as an adult singer. There are two versions of the song, with Lyodra singing the pop ballad version of this song. This song won Lyodra the award in Pendatang Baru Terdahsyat from the 2020 Dahsyatnya Awards.
On 14 February 2021, a seven-episode teen drama web series, 7 Hari Sebelum 17 Tahun, aired on the media service provider application for the digital channel Stro, in which Lyodra made her acting debut in as an antagonist named Gina, a temperamental high school student. The series was named one of the best television shows in Asia by NME Asia Magazine.
On 16 July 2021, Lyodra released her first studio album which was titled homonymously by her stage name. Her solo album, Lyodra, contains eight singles, four of which are new singles, namely "Kalau Bosan", "Dibanding Dia", "Oe..Oe..Oe..", and "Pesan Terakhir". In this eponymous album, she collaborated with a number of musicians who act as composers and producers, most prominently Dipha Barus, Ade Nurulianto, Anji, Yovie Widianto, Mario Gerardus Klau, Tohpati, and Laleilmanino. Lyodra's album became her debut solo album as an adult singer under the Universal Music Indonesia label, after more than three years of a career as a child singer in the music group Di Atas Rata-Rata 2 which was raised by GUT Records. The album became one of the most recommended Asian albums by The Victor Magazine.
In October 2021, Lyodra was nominated as "Best Southeast Asian Act" from the 2021 MTV Europe Music Awards held on 14 November 2021, at the László Papp Budapest Sports Arena in Budapest, Hungary after being defeated by JJ Lin from Singapore in the online voting on the official website MTV Europe Music Awards.
In November 2021, Lyodra was the performer of Indonesia's National Day in the series of Expo 2020 at Al Wasl Plaza, Dubai, with notable attendance by President Joko Widodo and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Due to the success of her solo album, Lyodra was highlighted by Spotify as Artist of the Month for the November 2021 period from Indonesia in the context of the Equal campaign program. In the campaign, Lyodra's photo was chosen to be placed on a Times Square digital billboard in New York City, United States.
In December 2021, Lyodra's debut album won the Album of the Year award from 2021 Indonesian Music Awards which was held at Studio RCTI+, Jakarta, after taking first place in the online voting. Lyodra also won an award as Best New Asian Artist from Indonesia at the 2021 Mnet Asian Music Awards which was broadcast live on 11 December 2021, on the Mnet TV channel and the JOOX application which was held at CJ ENM Contents World in Paju, South Korea.
In 2022, Lyodra was awarded the Musician of the Year award organized by the social networking app and music video platform from China, TikTok. Lyodra was also listed in the "Outstanding Young People" from Forbes 30 Under 30 Indonesia magazine for 2022, representing artists in the music field, which contains 30 young people under the age of 30 who inspire the community.
On 3 June 2022, Lyodra announced that she would be collaborating with British musician, Calum Scott. The collaboration is Calum Scott's project to promote one of his songs, "Heaven", a solo song was included in the Bridges album. Calum Scott sings this song in a duet with 4 singers from Southeast Asia, with collaborations with Lyodra (Indonesia), Diana Danielle (Malaysia), Darren Espanto (Philippines), and Hoàng Duyên (Vietnam).
On 7 June 2022, through the official Instagram page of Idola Cilik, Lyodra was chosen to be one of the guest judges in the talent search event with Judika and Aurel Hermansyah. The program aired commercially through RCTI TV channel on 13 June 2022.
On 12 August 2022, Lyodra released a single with Andi Rianto entitled "Sang Dewi", which is a remake of Titi DJ's original version in 2001 . This single is Lyodra's first collaboration with an Indonesian musician. The teaser of the single was released on YouTube on 10 August 2022, which had received 100 thousand views.
On 7 November 2022, Lyodra was confirmed to be performing at the Asia Artist Awards (AAA) 2022 by the event's Twitter account. Lyodra was the only Indonesian singer to appear at the event.The event will be held on 13 - 14 December 2022 in Japan. In December 2022, Lyodra also won the Asia Celebrity Awards category in the music section at the Asia Artist Awards. The award is Lyodra's third international award after Sanremo Junior 2017 and 2021 Mnet Asian Music Awards.
On February 10, 2023, Lyodra released a single, titled "Ego". Later that year, on March 3, she collaborated with Tiara Andini and Ziva Magnolya to release a song titled "Menyesal" which was produced and accompanied by Yovie Widianto in his album project,Yovie & His Friend. "Menyesal" is a remake of the original song with same title from Ressa Herlambang, whose released the original version in 2012.
On September 26, 2024, Lyodra announced her second studio album, Melangkah, which was released digitally on October 11, 2024. It is her first full-length studio album release since 2021's Lyodra.
On several occasions, Lyodra has cited Beyoncé, Jessie J, Bruno Mars and Ariana Grande as her musical inspirations. In particular, she cites Beyoncé's "Listen" as a song that she often sings, because it has had a "positive influence" on her. She has said to have been a fan of Mariah Carey since she was in junior high school. Lyodra's vocal range, whistle register, is also similar to Mariah Carey. In addition, she was noted to have adopted Beyoncé's hoarse voice in her single "Mengapa Kita Terlanjur Mencinta". She also once said that Agnez Mo was an inspirational figure for her. Lyodra is known to be fond of Agnez Mo's works, including "Rindu", "Matahariku", "Karena Ku Sanggup", and "Jera". In addition, other singers such as Raisa, Rossa, Judika, Once Mekel, Dua Lipa, and Billie Eilish also indirectly influenced her musical style.
Lyodra is a soprano. She is best known as a pop singer; the first three singles in her career as an adult singer were primarily pop ballads—"Gemintang Hatiku", "Mengapa Kita Terlanjur Mencinta" and "Tentang Kamu". In addition to pop ballads, she has also explored R&B and EDM in "Sabda Rindu" and "Oee.. Oee... Oee" . In "Sabda Rindu", the single is paired with the colors of pop with the cheerful rhythm of riffs and runs found in R&B; in "Oee.. Oee... Oee", the EDM song explores the usage of the Karo traditional instruments.
Critics have described Lyodra as a powerhouse in terms of vocals, with Salman Achmad of Hai writing that Lyodra "has the power of a voice to reach high notes" and "her vocal character is very strong". Diana Rafikasari from Sindonews described Lyodra as a singer who is "very capable of processing slow tempo songs". Meanwhile, the official website for the children's music group Di Atas Rata Rata 2 has stated Lyodra's vocal character as "strong in bringing powerful pop songs".