Tantowi Yahya is an Indonesian artist, presenter, and politician who is currently the Ambassador of Indonesia to New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga. He is most famous for hosting the Indonesian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. In 2009, Tantowi became member of Indonesian parliament from Golkar Party, representing South Sumatra province. In 2014 he was reelected and this time he represented the capital city, Jakarta.
Personal life
Tantowi was born in Palembang, South Sumatra in 29 October 1960 as the forth of five children of Yahya Matusin and Komariah. Tantowi was born and raised in a simple family. His father, Yahya sold used glasses for living. Believing that English is a key to success, at the age of 14, he sent Tantowi and his younger brother, Helmy to an English course in Palembang. Yahya Matusin was a multi talented man. He was known as a great footballer, badminton player, a religious leader, accordion player and also an avid singer. Tantowi married his wife, Dewi Handayani in 1989 and has two sons, Mohammad Adjani Prasanna Yahya and Mohammad Alano Panditta Yahya. Tantowi is the elder brother of Helmi Yahya, a famous TV host and TV program maker and currently is the President of TVRI, Indonesian state owned television.
Television
Tantowi's early success is as host of TV show "Gita Remaja" in 1989 on TVRI. His best known career however came in 2001, from that year to 2006, he hosted the Indonesian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on RCTI. The next program he hosted was the Deal or No Deal Indonesia also on RCTI. In 2009 he hosted the local adaptation of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? this time on Global TV, but his sparkling career in television was cut short by his election into Indonesian House of Representative following his electoral victory in 2009 Indonesian legislative election.
Country music
Tantowi fell in love with country music when he first listened country songs of Elvis Presley when he was seven. It was his neighbour who lived next door who occasionally played Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, Patcy Cline and other country artists on his phonogram who then made him an avid country music fan. Though he had wide opportunity to record his voice, Tantowi only released his first country single Gone, Gone, Gone in 2000. Following success of this single, he then produced his first album Country Breeze, which was sold over 500,000 copies. His music success lead him to become host of "Country Road" music show in TVRI. He was dubbed as "the most popular country singer in Indonesia". He stated that country music is his "second religion". Tantowi Yahya is the founder of Country Music Club of Indonesia. He owned music label, Ceepee and event organizer CDP which organized Indonesian Beauty Pageants, the Indonesian Music Awards, AMI Awards and television award, Panasonic Awards. In 2005, Tantowi visited the United States under a Multi-Nation Program by Eisenhower Fellowshif. There he visited Nashville, center of country music industry. Representing Indonesia, Tantowi appeared as global artist at CMA Music Festival in Nashville in 2006. As a country singer, he has produced 10 albums with sale over 3 million copies combined.
Politics
In 2009 election, Tantowi ran for a seat of People's Representative Council as delegate from Golkar Party. He won the election by 240.000 votes and represented his native South Sumatra for the period of 2009–2014. As parliamentarian, Tantowi was placed on Commission I overseeing Defense, Intelligence, Media and Informatics and Foreign Affairs. In June 2013 Tantowi caused controversy when he visited Israel, as Indonesia does not formally recognize the state and does not have a diplomatic relationship with it. The criticism came primarily from conservative Muslims, primarily the controversial Islamic Defender Front. FPI's spokesman Munarman stated that Tantowi "ignored suffering of Palestinians" and stated that Tantowi should have visited Gaza instead. In September 2013, in an interview by ABC, he publicly declared Indonesian's opposition to Australia's government policy on asylum seekers, which involved towing back asylum boats in international water back to Indonesian territory and paying Indonesian villagers for information about people smuggling, calling it 'illegal, offensive and an affront to democracy'. This statement is in line with statement of Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa. In March 2017, Joko Widodo formally appointed Tantowi as the Ambassador of Indonesia to New Zealand. His place in DPR was taken by Ivan Doly Gultom.
