Aruma, who usually goes by Arum, was born and raised in a family engaged in the arts. Her father, Deny Willy Junaidy, S.Sn., M.T., Ph.D., was a lecturer of interior design at ITB who had spent years in the musical arts. He was also the exemplar for Arum’s career in music.

Aruma was first introduced to the arts through painting. She was then engrossed in the musical arts and subsequently took piano lessons in the fourth grade. Piano successfully led Aruma to new heights when she won the prestigious Fiestalonia Sun of Italy Pesaro in Italy. She was only an eighth grader at the time.One year later, Aruma started mastering the guitar. As time went on, her singing abilities sharpened. She regularly made song covers and uploaded them to social media. “When I play piano and guitar, I often get carried away and start humming,” said Aruma in an interview.

In addition, Aruma was active in the Ardan School, a broadcast educational institution managed by Ardan Radio. “Ardan continuously supports me in my music, as radio is also one way music disseminates,” she expressed.

Her musicality shown on both social media and at Ardan began to garner a lot of attention. Arum then received an offer from Ardan to release her first single, dubbed “Spend the Night”. Not long after that, she got an offer to duet with Buana Lintang to sing “Pernah Hampir Sempurna”. Through this song, in 2022, Aruma signed a three-year contract with one of the music label giants, Sony Music Entertainment.

Aruma is currently focusing on the pop-folk genre. The single “Muak” released in 2022 is still her most successful work to date. The said song has been played more than 142 million times on Spotify and 17 million times on YouTube, earning her double platinum.

Furthermore, Aruma continued to create new work through her songs. “Currently, there are two songs still in the promotion phase, and they are already available on all music platforms,” revealed Aruma.

Despite being busy with her work, Aruma expressed a strong commitment to her education at ITB. She balanced her career and education by making priority matrixes every day.

“I am grateful for being a part of ITB FAD. I am living in an environment dedicated to the arts together with my friends and lecturers who always support me for what I do,” she stated. 

Aruma revealed that discipline had been her principle all the time. In addition, she always believed in herself and gave her absolute best at everything. “Every person has their own way; just let it be and be yourself,” she concluded.

Reporter: Pravito Septadenova Dwi Ananta (Geological Engineering ‘19)

Indonesian Editor: M. Naufal Hafizh

Translator: Ariq Ramadhan Teruna (Chemical Engineering ‘21)

English Editor: Anggi Nurdiani (Manajemen, 2021)