Latest News
Jakarta singing sensation settles in Vancouver

By Jim Gordon and Leeta Liepins
Published 12:03 PST, Mon January 13, 2025
—
Our City Tonight sat down with singer/songwriter, Kamasean Mathews, who is originally from Indonesia and a superstar in her own country.
OCT: You have a very interesting story, and we will start out by saying that there are approximately 274 million people living in the country of Indonesia, where you are from. When you were a young teenager, you competed in the TV show/competition Indonesian Idol. Tell us how this story unfolded.
KM: I was 16 at the time and I didn’t really have any expectations for the competition. My mom and dad said that I should just do it and they believed that I had nothing to lose. And I agreed that I had nothing to lose at the time, so I thought why not try out. I won second place, and it was just like that. I did get eliminated but I did achieve second place.
OCT: When we were talking before this interview, we were talking about the people in this part of the world who have finished as runners-up in similar competitions and what happened afterwards for them; people like Adam Lambert and Jennifer Hudson and the list goes on. Suddenly, you became a superstar in a country with that many people. Tell us how that situation turned out and how it was to deal with as a young girl.
KM: It was a lot and to be honest up until today it’s still a lot for me to take in, which is weird because I’m a grown-up now. It’s been over a decade since that competition. But every time I’m back in Jakarta and back to the whole routine, it still feels surreal. I don’t feel like the world sees me the way I see myself, which is cool and crazy at the same time. After winning a competition like that, people look at you like you’re so special and you’re so wonderful and of course these are great things, and I feel very blessed. It’s a great privilege to have that kind of platform because I can do a lot of things and ultimately do a lot of good things for people, but at the same time I can never go back to my old life where I could just go anywhere unnoticed. When I go even to a grocery store in Indonesia and pick up things, it’s not unusual for people to be questioning and looking at what I have in my grocery basket. They’re curious as to what I’m buying.
OCT: And all modesty aside, if we were sitting in Jakarta right now or another city in Indonesia, we would not be having this conversation without somebody coming over and talking to you. And that still happens to you all these years later. We must mention that you truly are multi layered. You’re living here in Vancouver and in fact you have a law degree so you could be practising law in Indonesia but because you’re here in Canada, your life is quite different. You also teach music in Vancouver, which is great.
KM: Yes, it’s been fun and it’s been great, and honestly, the reason I got into law school was because my first-degree was actually in audio engineering which I thought would be very useful for me in the music industry. I do understand that it is beneficial to me being an artist and musician. It’s important to not just understand the performance aspect, but also understand the whole production arena. The editing, at least for me personally, is very important. So then after I finished that, I wanted to go back to school and learn something that felt more academic, something more stable.
I didn’t feel like this when I went to school because the other avenue was way too much fun. My brother, at that time, was already finished law school so I thought I should give law a chance too. So, I went to law school, and I think it was also because at the time I was thinking that I didn’t believe there was enough representation in law for artists. That’s kind of how I like to live, the things that I do in my life, I like to be passionate but it’s hard to be passionate about things that you have no interest in, or you feel like it’s not beneficial to you. When I pursue something in life, I always make sure that it’s something that I enjoy, something that I love, and something that I’m passionate about, but also has to be beneficial to me.
OCT: You have two careers. To become a lawyer, the direction is basically from point A to point B, but when it comes to becoming a singer/songwriter to a becoming a superstar, well that’s uncharted. You cannot count on that so it’s great that you do all these things. We wanted to mention if people want to see more of your music, you do have a YouTube channel where people can view your music. Honestly, you have some wonderful music. You do have a great voice, and we are loving the fact that you also write a lot of your own music, which is very important. So, besides YouTube where else can people check out more of your work?
KM: People can check me out on Instagram and my handle is simply my first name, Kamasean. If you just type in my name, you’ll find everything there. My music is also on Spotify and again you can just type in my first name. Everything really is that easy.