Fiersa Besari concert cancelled after speakers emit smoke mid-set

Indonesian singer-songwriter Fiersa Besari was forced to cancel a concert mid-set when the speakers and lights above the stage began emitting smoke.

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The singer was performing in Pekanbaru, Riau on January 29 when the speakers and lights above the stage began emitting smoke simultaneously, which caused the crowd to alert the singer and his band. Besari shared several videos of the incident in a Twitter thread, writing, “In all my gigs, this is the first time the lighting and generator have exploded (heard a sound like a firecracker followed by black smoke). Forced to stop and we evacuated. Hopefully all my friends are okay, right? Sorry, we couldn’t finish the show.”

Ini video yang lebih jelas. Awalnya, kebanyakan dari kami mengira itu suara confetti atau kembang api. Setelah sadar, langsung berdesakan keluar. Semoga kawan-kawan tidak kenapa-kenapa, ya
.
(Cr: instagram afifbaihaqii) pic.twitter.com/qkxBPEFOsJ

— Fiersa Besari (@FiersaBesari) January 29, 2023

In a later update to the thread, Fiersa added, “At first, most of us thought it was the sound of confetti or fireworks. After realising what it was, we immediately rushed out.” The singer and his band appear to have been unharmed by the incident, with no official explanation available on what caused the speakers and lighting to suddenly emit smoke.

Besari most recently released the collaborative single ‘Balada Si Roy’ with Eet Sjahranie of EdanE, a veteran guitarist who was once part of influential acts such as God Bless and Superdigi, on December 15 last year. It followed the release of his fifth studio album ‘Berjalan Mundur’ just a month prior.

In 2021, Besari joined Feby Putri for the indie folk ballad ‘Runtuh’, which has since become the singer’s most popular song with over 156 million streams on Spotify at the time of writing. Putri had first shot to fame with her cover of Besari’s ‘Celengan Rindu’, which has garnered over 57million views on YouTube.

In an interview with Putri in 2021, she told NME that the collaboration had been brewing for some time, with the artists initially discussing the possibility in 2020. While they were unable to make the collaboration happen then due to scheduling conflicts, Putri shared, “[Around July 2021] I reached out to Fiersa to write a song together. He accepted and I was completely overjoyed. Afterwards, we worked on the song via telephone because of the pandemic. ”

“Before we met in person, we tried to determine what the theme of the song would be and what the lyrics would be. Our decision for the theme: it’s good to be grateful, but it’s acceptable to cry.”

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