Lesti Kejora

Lestiani better known with the mononym Lesti (born 5 August 1999) is an Indonesian singer, Dangdut Diva, actress, and television personality of Sundanese origin. In her earliest releases, she is known as Lesti DA (meaning Lesti Dangdut Academy) or Lesti Kejora (based on her first similarly titled hit "Kejora"). Although she sings in various genres, she primarily sings Dangdut music, a genre of Indonesian folk that is partly derived and fused from Hindustani, Arabic music and Malay and local folk music. Lesti has been instrumental in popularizing Dangdut throughout music fandom in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam. She is signed to Trinity Optima Production. She has also acted in a number of film productions. After various appearances without any Islamic attire, she decided to wear a hijab in the later part of her career. Her collaborations with other artists have earned her accolades and awards, particularly her work with Fildan Rahayu, Rizky Billar and Danang in duets. Her collaboration with notable songwriters such as Nur Bayan and Pak Ngah resulted in massive hits for her. Lesti started singing at a very young age. By age 8, she had stage experience singing in public at various venues. At age 14, she auditioned for the regionals of D'Academy (Dangdut Academy) on the Indosiar television network. Her audition in Cianjur earned her a golden ticket qualifying her directly to the Jakarta main pan-Indonesian show. She won the title in the first season of Indonesia's D'Academy talent competition in 2014 due to her distinctive and powerful voice. Immediately after, Lesti released her debut single "Kejora", which was created by Nur Bayan and was her winning song from the show. She also won a monetary prize and a car. At the end of 2015 she took part in D'Academy Asia, finishing runner-up to the winner Danang Pradana Dieva. Lesti has received top awards in the Indonesian dangdut music industry and countless nominations, including at the Ahugerah Music Indonesia (AMI) Awards 2017 where she won the "Best Dangdut Male / Female Solo Artist" category for the song "Egois". She won it again in 2020 for her song "Tirani". She is continuing her education at Mercu Buana University since 2018. In 2020, Lesti sat as a juror during the Liga Dangdut Indonesia talent competition on the Indosiar television channel. She has also appeared on a number of television mini-series. Lesti married with Rizky Billar on August 19, 2021.