Halo, Halo Bandung

Halo, Halo Bandung is an Indonesian patriotic song written by Ismail Marzuki that describes the spirit of the struggle of the people of the city of Bandung in the post-independence period in 1946, particularly in the Bandung Sea of Fire that occurred on March 23, 1946.

Background
Ismail Marzuki, then a singer-songwriter of the keroncong group Lief Java, performed regularly with the group in the mid 1930s at Studio Orkes NIROM II in Tegalega, Bandung, as part of the NIROM station's Eastern Programme. Having returned to Batavia after marrying fellow singer Eulis Zuraidah, he kept the sweet memories of the city in his mind. These recollections led him to wrote a song called “Hallo Bandung" in Sundanese, as well as other songs such as "Bandung Selatan di Waktu Malam" and "Saputangan dari Bandung Selatan". The phrase "Hallo Bandoeng" was well known at that time as the call-sign and usual opening used by Radio Kootwijk when establishing a radio-telegraphi c connection with Bandung (Dutch: Bandoeng), one of the largest cities in the former Dutch East Indies. It was made famous by Queen Consort Emma when she officially opened the radiotelephone service from Koninklijke PTT Nederland main building in The Hague on January 7, 1929 with the words "Hallo Bandoeng… Hier Den Haag". It quickly escalated even further as a catchphrase since the release of Dutch song "Hallo Bandoeng" by Willy Derby which sold more than 50,000 copies – a record for the time.

This early version of the song lyrics indicated that it was not meant to be a war-related marching song but simply a sentimental song. During the Japanese invasion, the song was translated into Indonesian as part of Japanese propaganda which included the purging of Dutch influence from society and promoting the use of Indonesian throughout the country. However, this second version still reflected its original themes of nostalgia.

Following the surrender of the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies, nationalists fought a four-year Indonesian National Revolution against Dutch NICA and initially the British Commonwealth. Early in this period, Ismail Marzuki and his wife evacuated to Bandung to escape the British-Dutch occupation of Jakarta. Unfortunately, after they settled in Bandung, an ultimatum was given by the British forces for the Indonesian combatants to leave the city. In response, the southern part of Bandung was deliberately razed by nationalists in defiance as they left on 24 March 1946; this came to be known as the Bandung Sea of Fire. This incident inspired Ismail Marzuki, as well as many Indonesian combatants and refugees, to alter the last two sentences of the song to become more patriotic and boost their fighting spirit against British-Dutch forces. Soon after, the song became famous as a symbol of the struggle of the Indonesian people for independence from colonialism.