In Reply to: batak bands posted by womensbuisness on Tuesday, 24. April 2007 at 15:44 Bali Time:
who used to sing in Bali. I'll ask him about Freddy Amato - doesn't seem to be a Batak name (Batak people are from North Sumatra, not Bali). However, we do know a number of Freddy's that would have been singing around that time.
The reason that you are not seeing too many Batak bands around is because of October 2002. They were on temporary contracts with the hotels and were the first to lose their jobs when tourists stopped coming. The contractors, including musicians, are probably the unseen victims of the Bali bombings.
Many of them have had to leave Bali for other places within Indonesia or elsewhere in the world to try to make a living. Some have had to leave singing as a profession. Hopefully this will improve over time, but is taking a long time.