Dira Sugandi

Dira Yulianti Sugandi is an Indonesian singer and actress. She was born in Bandung, West Java on July 29, 1979 into a family with a strong singing tradition (both her mother and grandmother were singers). She began her singing career as a vocal performance major in the Music Department at Pelita Harapan, earning her bachelor's degree in 2006. She has performed with many Indonesian groups and musicians, such as SOULMATE, Maestro Big Band, Rieka Roslan, SOVA, Imam Praz Quartet, ARAB Jazz, and the Pelita Harapan University Big Band and with foreign musicians such as Incognito in Bandung, Surabaya, Makassar, Medan (2002) and in Bali, Singapore, Jakarta (2006) and with Keith Martin in Bandung (2005), and with the Yellowjackets in Jakarta and Bandung (2006). In 2009, she was awarded the Indonesian Young Jazz Talent Award at the Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival where she sang a song called Lucky in a duet with American singer, Jason Mraz.
Her debut album “Something About the Girl” was produced by Incognito‘s Jean-Paul Maunick a.k.a. Bluey and was released in 2010 in the UK, Japan and Indonesia. The album features 12 songs, primarily in English, with two cuts in Indonesian including "Kami Cinta Indonesia" (We love Indonesia) written by Harry Roesli.
In December 2010, she acted in the musical version of the film "Laskar Pelangi" which was shown at Taman Ismail Marzuki Fine Arts Center in Jakarta, sharing the role of the teacher, Muslimah, along with two other actresses, Lea Simanjuntak and Ekadeli.
On May 15, 2011, Dira Sugandi performed a duet with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli during his first-ever concert in Indonesia, at the Ritz-Carlton Pacific Place in Jakarta.
Dira Sugandi performed at the Anugerah Musik Indonesia (AMI) Awards 2011, an Indonesian Music Award show on 6 July 2011 in Jakarta.