Ahmad Dhani

Dhani Ahmad Prasetyo (born 26 May 1972), better known as Ahmad Dhani, sometimes Dhani Muhammad Prasetyo, Dhani S. Manaf, or just Dhani for short, is an Indonesian musician.

He was the frontman of Dewa 19 with his colleague Once Mekel as the co-lead singer, Ahmad Band, and also a member of the inter-continental band The Rock.

He is the owner and chairman of Republik Cinta Management.

Dhani has worked as a promoter and songwriter for other artists, including Alexa Key and Mulan Jameela.

He has won numerous awards including the Indonesian Music Awards for best musical arrangement.

He is one of the most influential musicians in Southeast Asia.

In recent years, he has generated controversy after his son killed seven people while driving illegally, and after becoming involved in politics.

Dhani Ahmad Prasetyo was born in 1972 in Surabaya, East Java, as the first of three children of Eddy Abdul Manaf, a diplomat of Sundanese origin from Garut, West Java, and Joyce Theresia Pamela Kohler, an Indonesian of German descent.

Dhani formed his first musical group, Dewa, in 1986 with Andra Junaidi, Erwin Prasetya, and Henry Juniarso.

Dhani served as the group's vocalist and keyboardist.

He skipped school to jam with his friends at Juniarso's house in the Airlangga University complex.

While in Dewa, Dhani became interested in jazz, and Dewa changed its name to Down Beat.

Down Beat won the Youth Jazz Festival in East Java.

It also won the inaugural Festival 90, a high school band competition that was part of the Djarum Super Fiesta Musical.

The band, however, resumed playing rock, renaming itself "Dewa 19", with a new vocalist, Ari Lasso.

The lack of modern recording studios in Surabaya prompted Dhani to move to Jakarta in 1989 in search of a record deal for Dewa 19.

After being rejected by several labels, Dewa 19 was signed to Team Records by Jan Djuhana.

Their first album, Dewa 19 (1992), was a huge success with several hits such as Kangen and Kita Tidak Sedang Bercinta Lagi.

Dhani helped to produce the band's 11 albums, which included Dewa 19 (1992), Format Masa Depan (1994), Terbaik Terbaik (1995), Pandawa Lima (1997), The Best of Dewa 19 (1999), Bintang Lima (2000), Cintailah Cinta (2002), Atas Nama Cinta I & II (2004), Laskar Cinta (2004), Republik Cinta (2006), and Kerajaan Cinta (2007).

It was the best-selling Indonesian rock album of 1993 and won Best Newcomer at the Indonesian Music Awards.

In Bali, Dhani announced he would form a band with Judika, the winner of Indonesian Idol 2007.

In 2010, Dhani sang with Ari Lasso at concerts in Jakarta and Bali, leading to rumors of a Dewa 19 reunion.

Dewa 19 went through several personnel changes but remained one of the largest forces in the Indonesian music scene, with Dhani as its driving force, until breaking up in 2011.

Dhani's popular solo album Laskar Cinta (Warriors of Love) was praised because it "challenged militant ideology".

After Dewa disbanded, Dhani joined forces with the Australian heavy metal band, Hospital The Musical to form a band named the Rock.

The band's first album, Master Mister Ahmad Dhani I, sold more than 150,000 copies in Indonesia.

It contained three new songs and seven covers of Dhani's earlier songs.

The hits from the album were "Kamu Kamulah Surgaku" and "Munajat Cinta".

Dhani next appeared in a band named TRIAD, an acronym for the Rock Indonesia Ahmad Dhani.

Unlike the Rock, TRIAD has five to six members unofficially appearing onstage and even sometimes four members, with Dhani performing as lead singer and rhythm guitarist.

Triad's self-titled album sold 500,000 copies.

It contained four new tracks, "Selir Hati", "Benar Salah IDolaku", "Mama", and "Sedang Mikirin Kamu", and seven cover tracks, including Queen's "Mustapha".

In January 2019, he was sentenced to 18 months in jail for hate speech.

In June 2019, he was sentenced to an additional year in jail for insulting political rivals.

He was released in December 2019.

In 2020, Dhani denied reports that his maternal grandfather, Jan Pieter Friederich Kohler, a German born in the then-then-Dutch-occupied country in 1883, was an Ashkenazi Jew.

Dhani said his mother and grandfather were German Catholics.

Dhani's stepbrother, Dadang S. Manaf, is a well-known Indonesian musician and was a strong influence on Dhani's musical interest from his childhood.

Dhani's father bought him a keyboard when he was young and enrolled him in music lessons, hoping Dhani would excel in classical music.

Dhani was largely influenced by the British rock band Queen.