Isyana Sarasvati's big year: EKLEKTIKO, eight AMI nominations, and crowds that don't need translating

Built from Isyana Sarasvati's published interviews with Medcom (August 2026) and Detik (December 2025), and from news coverage by Medcom, Merahputih, RRI, iNews, Popbela and Time Out. Sumo38 did not interview her. Her quotes are translated from Indonesian; the original wording is in the Indonesian version.

Few Indonesian artists had a September like Isyana Sarasvati. On the 3rd she was named on the lineup for Lollapalooza India 2027 in Mumbai. On the 21st her album EKLEKTIKO helped make her joint leader of the AMI Awards 2026 nominations, with eight. And four days later, promoter Ravel Entertainment announced that she and St. Loco would open for Avenged Sevenfold at Jakarta International Stadium on 10 October, saying the band had asked for both acts.

An album with no fixed genre

EKLEKTIKO, her fifth album, is split into four chapters, Lunora, MAMIU, Cecilia and ABADHI, each with its own colour and mood, according to RRI. The era opened with "hari ini", a single made with Hindia. When she introduced the project at her EKLEKTICON event, she told Detik the creative phase began after she closed her decade-long concert series in 2024, and she described the album's music as completely free and made with her whole soul. One song from that period, "terima kasih dariku", co-written with Petra Sihombing, is a thank-you to the people who stayed in her life.

Playing to crowds who don't know the words

This year she has taken that music abroad. In August she played Pentaport Rock Festival in Incheon, South Korea, and told Medcom that seeing "Indonesia" in brackets next to her name on the soundcheck schedule stayed with her. The Korean crowd moshed and formed circle pits to songs they had never heard. "If we are talking about 2026, I can say it was one of the best crowd energies I have played to," she said. It renewed her belief "that music really is universal": whatever the genre or language, if the feeling gets across and you connect with the audience, it lands.

What freedom means to her

In the same interview, given for Indonesia's Independence Day, she explained what "merdeka" means to her as a musician: being able to create in a way that is true to who you are. She hopes Indonesian music gets more respect and more room to be heard abroad, and her advice to other artists was short: "You do you."

What's next

The Avenged Sevenfold show on 10 October comes first. She is due in Mumbai for Lollapalooza India on 23 and 24 January 2027, and the AMI Awards ceremony is still to be dated. For context on that stadium, see our report on The Weeknd's two nights at JIS.