his voice, Tantowi only released his first country single Gone, Gone, Gone in 2000. Following success of this single, he then produced his first album Country Breeze, which was sold over 500,000 copies. His music success lead him to become host of "Country Road" music show in TVRI. He was dubbed as "the most popular country singer in Indonesia". He stated that country music is his "second religion". Tantowi Yahya is the founder of Country Music Club of Indonesia. He owned music label, Ceepee and event organizer CDP which organized Indonesian Beauty Pageants, the Indonesian Music Awards, AMI Awards and television award, Panasonic Awards. In 2005, Tantowi visited the United States under a Multi-Nation Program by Eisenhower Fellowship. There he visited Nashville, center of country music industry. Representing Indonesia, Tantowi appeared as global artist at CMA Music Festival in Nashville in 2006. As a country singer, he has produced 10 albums with sale over 3 million copies combined. Politics In 2009 election, Tantowi ran for a seat of People's Representative Council (DPR) as delegate from Golkar Party. He won the election by 240.000 votes and represented his native South Sumatra for the period of 2009–2014. As parliamentarian, Tantowi was placed on Commission I overseeing Defense, Intelligence, Media and Informatics and Foreign Affairs. In June 2013 Tantowi caused controversy when he visited Israel, as Indonesia does not formally recognize the state and does not have a diplomatic relationship with it. The criticism came primarily from conservative Muslims, primarily the controversial Islamic Defender Front (Front Pembela Islam/FPI). FPI's spokesman Munarman stated that Tantowi "ignored suffering of Palestinians" and stated that Tantowi should have visited Gaza instead. In September 2013, in an interview by ABC, he publicly declared Indonesian's opposition to Australia's government policy on asylum seekers, which involved towing back asylum boats in international water back to Indonesian territory and paying Indonesian villagers for information about people smuggling, calling it 'illegal, offensive and an affront to democracy'. This statement is in line with statement of Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa. In March 2017, Joko Widodo formally appointed Tantowi as the Ambassador of Indonesia to New Zealand. His place in DPR was taken by Ivan Doly Gultom. References External links Official Website 1960 births Living people Indonesian Muslims Anugerah Musik Indonesia winners English-language singers from Indonesia Indonesian country singers 20th-century Indonesian male singers Indonesian male actors Indonesian people of Malay descent Indonesian diplomats People