Theater

Singer Jessica Manuputty has a mission: to preserve and pass on the lagu-lagu (Moluccan traditionals) that she learned from her family. She therefore released her first solo record with this repertoire in 2017. Tonight she will celebrate the release of her second album and will perform live with her band, melancholic island songs. In between she talks about her grandparents, how she learned the lagu-lagu from them and what these songs mean to her.

'TOMA TERUS!' is an intimate performance about belonging, nostalgia, resilience, the search for your identity and the connection with your roots.

About Jessica Manuputty

Jessica Manuputty grew up in Lunteren (NL), far from the Moluccan islands that her grandparents once had to leave behind. But they brought with them the music of Maluku: traditional folk songs with rhythms like the swell of the waves and melodies like a warm breeze on the beach. For as long as Jessica can remember, these songs have played in her family's living room. And from an early age she learned to sing this Lagu Lagu in three voices, together with her mother and her sister.

Her innate love and great talent for music eventually brought her to the Utrecht Conservatory, where she graduated in 2008. After graduating, Jessica Manuputty made a name for herself as a singer in Dutch jazz, soul and pop music. She played with well-known national and international acts such as Jett Rebel, Barry Hay, the Metropole Orkest and Jacob Collier, in sold-out clubs such as Paradiso and at festivals such as Pinkpop, Lowlands, North Sea Jazz and Sziget.

But the swell of the waves and the warm sea breeze had nestled deep in her DNA, just like the homesickness her grandparents have always harbored for their island in the east of the Indian Archipelago. Deep-rooted feelings that found expression in 2017 in Jessica's first solo album TOMA!, a live album recorded with the Lagu Lagu from her youth.