It’s been over a year since Indonesian singer-songwriter Putri Ariani first took the stage on “America’s Got Talent” Season 18 in June 2023. America was introduced to the then-17-year-old when she performed her original song “Loneliness” from the piano, prompting Simon Cowell to be so moved by her vocal that he asked if she’d sing another song because he “liked her voice so much.” She obliged and dedicated her second performance, Elton John‘s “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word,” to Cowell and then understandably earned his Golden Buzzer.
Later in that 18th season, U2 cleared their song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” specifically for Ariani to perform it live in the “Qualifiers.” In the “Finals,” Ariani returned to Elton John’s songbook for “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” and got to sing alongside Leona Lewis for the final results show. Though she finished in the top five as a runner-up to winner Adrian Stoica & Hurricane, Derbyites voted Ariani as the act that should have won Season 18 and if we’re being honest, she’s the act that is still on our minds. So what is our fan fave up to now? Read on for your Putri Ariani update, as of December 2024.
Following “AGT,” Ariani released the song and video for her single “Perfect Liar” in November 2023. Then, in January 2024 she lent her vocals to the Alan Walker EDM track “Who I Am,” now her most played song on Spotify with 49.9 million streams.
Just below “Who I Am” with 49.8 million steams of its own is the recording of “Loneliness” which, along with “Perfect Liar,” is included on her debut English language album “Evolve,” released on Nov. 22, 2024. The lead single from “Evolve” is “Sheepish,” the slow build ballad you’d expect from such a talented R&B vocalist, but she balanced it by releasing the video for the stirring independence anthem “Crown.”
While we all collectively wait for Ariani to return to the “Got Talent” stage in a future “AGT: The Champions” season, we’ll have to stay up to date with everything she’s doing by checking out her Instagram and YouTube channels.
When Ariani isn’t on set for music videos, we can already tell from her social pages that she’s keeping active with gigs in Las Vegas and beyond. Recently, Ariani won the Indonesian Music Award for “Duo of the Year” for adding her vocals to the Dewa Budjana song “Cintaku Untukmu” and was one of the performers at the Asian Television Awards on Nov. 30, 2024, where she got to debut “Crown” on stage.
Do you want to see Putri Ariani back on “AGT” for a future season? Sound off about that and your favorite moments from her time on the show and career after in the comments below.
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