1997–2000: Formation and early years In 1997, keyboardist Andika formed a school band in
Bandung,
Indonesia that was called Topi, with Abel as bassist, Ari as drummer, and
Lukman as guitarist who joined the band after being invited by Abel. Lukman later asked his friend and a high-school student,
Ariel, to be the vocalist since he was interested with Ariel's voice. Ariel then proposed his friend
Uki as guitarist and Lukman approved it. Topi played in cafés — starting in the B Club café as their first appearance — birthday parties, independence day celebrations, and art festivals. Uki, Ariel, and Lukman decided to leave the band after seeing no vision for the band and Topi disbanded soon after.
2000–2009: Peterpan 2000–2002: Topi's reunion, Kisah 2002 Malam, and Taman Langit Andika regrouped former members of Topi in 2000, the drummer was replaced by
Ilsyah Ryan Reza, a college student from
Palu.
Loekman Hakim, a friend of Indra's elder brother, joined as their lead guitarist.
Andika Naliputra Wirahardja suggested Peterpan as the name for the band referring to
Peter Pan, the character created by
J. M. Barrie, an author (other names they considered were
Spiderman and
X-Men). But according to Ariel, the name was taken from the name of a rabbit satay stall at the side road in
Puncak,
Bogor, that Andika and his mom visited while taking a rest on the trip to Bandung from Jakarta. The band was formally founded on September 1, 2000. Peterpan played on Bandung streets and gigged in cafés, with the goal of becoming a house band in one of the city's cafés. Musica Studio's offered Peterpan a contract and released their debut studio album,
Taman Langit, in June 2003. By releasing mega-hits such as "Sahabat", "Mimpi Yang Sempurna" on a piano version, "Aku dan Bintang", "Semua Tentang Kita", "Topeng", and "Yang Terdalam", their debut studio album instantly become hugely popular around the country and made them superstars. The album has sold over 650,000 copies making Peterpan reach a Multi-Platinum Award.
2004–2005: Bintang di Surga and OST Alexandria Following their debut album's commercial success, Peterpan held concerts in six cities in Indonesia in only 24 hours on July 18, 2004. The six-cities concerts were also part of promotion for their second album. The concerts were titled "Konser Breaking Record" and included concerts on two Indonesian major islands:
Sumatra and
Java. The concerts started in
Medan, then
Padang,
Pekanbaru,
Lampung,
Semarang, and finally ended at
Surabaya. Peterpan then received an award from
Indonesian World Records Museum (MURI) for breaking a record, by being the first band to hold concerts in six provinces in a day. In 2004, by releasing a number of monster hits such as "Ada Apa Denganmu", "Mungkin Nanti", "Kukatakan Dengan Indah", "Bintang di Surga", "Di Atas Normal", and "Khayalan Tingkat Tinggi", their second studio album
Bintang Di Surga was released in August 2004 and quickly became the biggest phenomenon in the 2000s, not only in Indonesia, but also in the neighborhood countries such as Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia, where in the latter country that album was awarded 6× platinum. Selling over 350,000 copies in two weeks, by the end of 2005, it had sold a remarkable 2.7 million and to date had sold over 3.2 million copies in Indonesia. This album became the third best-selling album of all time in Indonesia and
Rolling Stone Indonesia magazine ranked album #116 on "The 150 Greatest Indonesian Albums of All Time" list. A song from this album, "Kukatakan Dengan Indah", got a place at #140 on
Rolling Stone Indonesia's "150 Greatest Indonesian Songs of All Time" list. Also in 2004, Peterpan collaborated with
Indonesian pop singer,
Chrisye, in Chrisye's album
Senyawa, specifically on the song "Menunggumu" which was written by Ariel. The greater commercial success of Bintang Di Surga had led Peterpan to receive recognition and won many awards in early 2005, where Peterpan won an award as Indonesia's favorite artist at
MTV Asia Aid in Bangkok. At the
Indonesian Music Awards (AMI) 2005, Peterpan ranked top in the nominations by obtaining 11 nominations. Four of them were printed through the song "Ada Apa Denganmu". Of the 11 nominations, Peterpan won 7 awards, including "best music group", "best album", "best graphic design album" and "best production work", due to the album
Bintang Di Surga. At the SCTV Music Awards 2005, Peterpan was honored in the "Top Pop Group Albums" and "Most Popular Songs". In February 2005, Peterpan planned to release a video album, later titled
Untuk Sahabat Peterpan which contains karaoke's music video and the 6 cities on 24 hours' breaking record concert's documentation, the video album was released a month after. In September 2005, Peterpan released a soundtrack for the Rexinema movie,
Alexandria. The album's release concert was aired simultaneously by six national TV stations, live in their hometown, Bandung, at the Dago Plaza. The soundtrack album included five new songs and renditions of five of their songs from
Taman Langit and
Bintang di Surga. The song "Tak Bisakah" was able to reap the controversy due to being copied by Indian musicians for the film Woh Lamhe Woh Lamhe with the title song "Kya Mujhe Pyaar". This album succeeded, sold over 1.3 million copies and was recognized as the best-selling soundtrack album of all time in Indonesia (#15 on the list of best-selling albums in that country). At the 2006
Anugerah Planet Muzik which is an annual award given to the most popular artists from Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia Peterpan won two awards as the "Best Duo/Group" for song "Tak Bisakah" and "Most Popular Group Artist". Peterpan also won their second award as Indonesia's favorite artist at
MTV Asia Aid.
2006–2009: Andika's and Indra's departures, Hari yang Cerah, and Sebuah Nama, Sebuah Cerita In November 2006, Andika and Indra split with the rest of the band, with both sides citing musical differences and lacking contributions from both of them leading to dismissal. According to Ariel, there were problems since the making of their first album. Indra had also just lost his child. Following Andika and Indra's dismissal, Andika's mother was disinclined if the remaining members were still known as Peterpan and Andika set the plan to threaten the band if Peterpan's name didn't retire. Andika and Indra later formed a new band named
The Titans, and signed with international label
EMI Music Indonesia, releasing a self-titled album and a single, "Rasa Ini". , Malaysia, in 2008 In 2007, the remaining members of Peterpan released their third studio album,
Hari Yang Cerah. This album produced other popular hits like "Menghapus Jejakmu", "Di Balik Awan", "Hari Yang Cerah Untuk Jiwa Yang Sepi", "Sally Sendiri", and "Cobalah Mengerti". The band also held an album's release concert which also aired simultaneously by six national TV stations, also live in Bandung, but at Gasibu this time. In 2018, the single "Menghapus Jejakmu" became the subject of public discussion after there was an element of similarity in the new song released by Korean Boyband
iKon "
Love Scenario". Although they have similarities, the meanings of the two songs are different. In September 2007, they took part in the Asia "Song Festival" in South Korea as representatives from Indonesia. The agreement under which Andika and Indra left the band allowed the remaining members to continue using the name Peterpan through the end of 2008. In early 2008, the band announced that they would be changing their name, stating that their 2008 compilation album,
Sebuah Nama Sebuah Cerita, would be their last under the name Peterpan. The album mostly consists of popular hits from the band's history, with four new songs: "Walau Habis Terang", "Kisah Cintaku" (a cover of
Chrisye's song), "Dilema Besar", and "Tak Ada Yang Abadi". In the same year,
David Kurnia Albert joined Peterpan as a permanent member after replacing Andika as an additional keyboardist a year later.
2009–2012: Unnamed band and instrumental album Suara Lainnya After retiring the
Peterpan name, Ariel, Uki, Lukman, Reza and David continued to play without a band name, using their names as a placeholder. Ariel said that they were planning to announce their new band name in 2010, when they have finished their next album. But this plan was delayed because Ariel was arrested in 2010 for
a sex tape scandal. During Ariel's time in prison, the band worked on an album containing instrumental arrangements of Peterpan songs. Even though the album was instrumental, the vocalist Ariel was still involved by giving the band ideas any time his bandmates visited him in prison. The album, titled
Suara Lainnya, was released on 23 May 2012, credited under the name "Ariel, Uki, Lukman, Reza, David". The album's release was supported by a concert, titled "Konser Tanpa Nama", held by Uki, Lukman, Reza and David on 29 May 2012. The instrumental concert was said to be the first of its kind in Indonesia.
2012–2023: Noah 2012–2013: Renaming as Noah, Seperti Seharusnya and resurgence of popularity , Indonesia, in 2013|255x255px After Ariel was released early on July 23, 2012, Ariel, Uki, Lukman, Reza and David announced their new name,
Noah, on August 2, 2012. According to the band, they were not specifically referencing the prophet
Noah. Ariel stated that he simply thought the name was simple and fit with their music. Then on August 3, 2012, the band released their first single under then Noah name, "Separuh Aku", via simultaneous airplay on 200 radios at 15.08 WIB, refers to release date. On August 9, 2012, Noah released a book titled
Kisah Lainnya. Their first album under the Noah name,
Seperti Seharusnya, was released on the same day. The album was sold through
KFC outlets and has sold over 200 thousand copies in three days since its release. By February 2013, the album has sold over one million copies and Noah received a Multi-Platinum Award. With over a million sales,
Seperti Seharusnya was one of the
best-selling albums in Indonesia. The collaboration resulted in Noah's first English-language song, "Hero", which was released as a single via airplay in 170 radios on August 6, 2014, and in
iTunes on August 7, 2014. In December 2014, Reza announced that he was going to leave the band after one last show on New Year's Eve. By January 1, 2015, Reza was officially no longer part of the band. Also on December 31, Noah released their new album,
Second Chance, which contains three new songs including "Hero" and nine rearrangements of Peterpan's song. In March 2015, Noah announced that they were planning to hold a tour in United States in April 2015, specifically in four cities:
San Francisco,
Los Angeles,
New York, and
Washington DC. The tour was delayed because Ariel was not fit among other unstated reasons. The tour ended up being held in October 2015 in three cities: Los Angeles, Washington DC, and New York. On May 19, 2016, Noah released an album titled
Sings Legends. The album consists of rearrangements of eight Indonesian songs that Noah considered legendary.
2017–2020: Keterkaitan Keterikatan and Uki's departure After releasing and promoting
Sings Legends, Noah began working on a new album, the first since
Seperti Seharusnya that fully consisted of new songs. At first, the album was planned to be released in 2017. On September 16, 2017, Noah released two songs, "Jalani Mimpi" and "My Situation", as a single. On the night of the same day, Noah held a concert titled Road to New Album, where they played those two songs. They also told the audience that they had only finished those two songs and were not close to finishing the album yet. In July 2018, Ariel said that they had almost finished the music for the album's songs, but the lyrics were not halfway done. Because the process was taking longer than usual, Noah got help from
Java Jive guitarist, Capung, who previously had produced Peterpan's album. Noah also collaborated with other singers and writers to write the lyrics. On June 14, 2019, Noah released "Wanitaku", a song that they had partially revealed in 2017, as a
JOOX-exclusive single. Then on June 28, "Wanitaku" was released on other digital music services. Audio video for "Wanitaku" that Noah uploaded to
YouTube revealed the album title,
Keterkaitan Keterikatan, as well as its cover. On August 8, 2019, Noah held an album-launching concert for
Keterkaitan Keterikatan. On the same day, Noah's guitarist
Uki announced his resignation from the band via an Instagram post. At a press conference on 14 August 2019, Noah announced the
compact disk release of
Keterkaitan Keterikatan via
KFC restaurant chain. The album was subsequently released in digital music services on 28 August 2019. As of 12 September 2019, the physical format has sold over 400,000 copies and received 4× Platinum certification from Musica Studio's. At the 23rd
Anugerah Musik Indonesia, the album won another Best of the Best Album award for Noah.
2021–2023: Continuation of Second Chance On 12 December 2021, Noah announced that they will release
Second Chance: Taman Langit, a re-recording of their 2003 album
Taman Langit, and perform in a series of concerts in 2022. Noah's version of
Taman Langit, along with a remake of "Yang Terdalam" music video, was released on 17 December 2021. Noah then continued by releasing a re-recorded version of "Bintang di Surga" as a single on 7 January 2022. Noah's version of their 2004 album
Bintang di Surga was released afterwards on 12 January 2022. Lastly, Noah released the new version of "Menghapus Jejakmu" as a single with a music video on 21 January 2022, and the new version of
Hari yang Cerah on 26 January 2022. On 1 January 2024, the band announced that they went on hiatus until "undisclosed future". ==Community==