HIS talent is undeniable. Just listen to one of his songs and Ronnie – or Ronnie Jupiter on social media – clearly has all it takes to make the grade as a world-class singer-songwriter and performer.
So it is hard to believe that Ronnie only began to seriously put himself out there in the music scene quite recently.
His love of performing slowly bloomed into his ultimate dream of becoming an all-round entertainer.
During his college days doing a major in film studies, Ronnie became a regular in the performing circuit, doing university concerts and corporate gigs.
He found his sound in R&B, soul and pop – genres he grew up with.
Ronnie also wrote screenplays and poetry on the side, but his studies remained his career focus.
In 2015, he joined the Covenant Dance Crew and actively joined dance competitions.
The group is still together, taking gigs in the performance scene.
After almost a decade of performing experience, Ronnie stepped into the limelight and auditioned successfully for Flydol 2018.
His win got him a single, Something New, written and produced by John O from Paperplane Pursuit, and that got his voice heard on radio.
In the same year, he also got a slot on Asia Got Talent.
It was a big deal for Ronnie, since it was his first TV reality show.
He aced it and got three “Yes” approvals from the judges. The show was aired in 2019.
He was ready to go further in 2020 with open mic gigs and performances. But the pandemic threw a wrench into his plans. So Ronnie turned to keeping himself fit.
As someone who loves to dance and sing, he fancies himself a performer. Doing both requires a lot of stamina.
“I might look like I am doing well on stage but on the inside, I would be screaming, let me breathe!” he joked.
Ronnie is known for his covers. Just tap on any of his singing videos on his Instagram
page and be floored by how good he is. So,
when it came to writing his own songs,
Ronnie was not sure how they would be accepted.
It does not help that Ronnie does not know how to play any instrument. It makes conveying ideas in music more difficult. However, in true Ronnie fashion, he dove headlong into the challenge and instantly fell in love with the process.
Last year, Ronnie entered the Short+Sweet Malaysia competition under the Song category and won the Audience Choice Award with the song All Nighter.
“People are used to me covering songs. I was not sure how they would accept my own composition. The fact that I won meant a lot to me,” said Ronnie.
Every word and note in a song he writes is personal to him. It is the reason he finds it difficult to write songs for others. However, he has found comfort collaborating with other musicians.
Ronnie collaborated with Indonesian singer Syauqi Destanika last year and released a Malay ballad single, Terbanglah Kau Setingginya.
More recently, he teamed up with his good friend Yasheer and released a single, Ballerina.
“If I could collaborate with any local artiste, I would love to collaborate with Yuna. I sang Crush during a specially curated show on Nada Music MY and the whole time I imagined how great it would be to sing the song with her.
“Another artiste I would love to work with is Datuk Siti Nurhaliza.”
Most of Ronnie’s performances can be found on YouTube and Instagram. However, dig in a little deeper and you might
just find his Soundcloud site, where he showcases another side of his music.
Although it has not been updated for a while, the top song on the page is Insidious, written and performed by Ronnie with Stranger Things “Epic Main Theme” and L’Orchestra Cinematique.
As a film student, Ronnie loves movies and TV shows, and is a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In 2019, he took the C418 remix of one of his favourite shows, Stranger Things, added lyrics, and with the help of his friend, mixed and turned it into a song.
It is so good, you could swear it is an official song for the show.
According to Ronnie, he is planning to
re-release his Insidious Things piece when Season 4 of Stranger Things comes out, as a fan tribute to his favourite show.
