#Showbiz: Yuni Shara among Indonesian artistes hit by floods

KUALA LUMPUR: Indonesian singer Yuni Shara, the elder sister of diva Krisdayanti, is marking the arrival of 2020 with a most unwelcome “guest”.

The 48-year-old artiste who was a celebrity guest in TV3’s reality talent show Mentor in 2006, is one of the many Indonesian celebrities whose homes were affected by the massive flash floods that hit Jakarta on New Year's Day.

Taking to Instagram recently, Yuni uploaded a photo of herself, calf-deep in flood water at her Jakarta home . In her caption, she said: "Alhamdulillah. Thank you 2019, welcome 2020."

Besides her, other celebrities whose homes were flooded were singers Audy Item, Evi Masamba and Rian of the group Dmasiv, actor Nicky Tirta, and actresses Anya Geraldine, Nycta Gina and Sinyorita Esperanza.

Yuni, who hails from Malang in East Java, launched her singing career in 1987 when she was 15. She has three albums to her credit and is best known for her keroncong style.

Flash floods and landslides sparked by torrential rains have killed at least 43 people across the Jakarta region, leaving whole districts under water and thousands homeless.

Jakarta is regularly hit by floods during the rainy season, which begins in late November.

But this week’s disaster marked Jakarta’s worst flooding since 2013 when dozens were killed after the city was inundated by monsoon rains.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has announced a plan to move the country’s capital to Borneo to take pressure off Jakarta, which suffers from some of the world’s worst traffic jams and is fast sinking due to excessive groundwater extraction.