Behind the songwriting of Bapa Mengenalku

We had just finished moving, leaving behind the tight corners of an apartment for a house that finally gave us room to breathe. Downstairs, there was an empty space that seemed to wait quietly for something meaningful. I knew almost immediately what it needed: an upright piano.

That piano became more than furniture. It became a place where melodies found their way into the room, where simple chords turned into worship songs, songs meant not just to be heard, but to be sung together. Most of what I wrote then was for the church, for voices gathering as one.

But one night, in the middle of an ordinary moment, something unexpected happened.

Theresia sat there, holding her Dyson hair dryer, looking at me with a curious seriousness that only she could carry so effortlessly. “Beb,” she said, “could you make a song with the word ‘hair’ in it?”

I remember pausing, half amused, half confused. Of all the words, “hair”?

“You see,” she added, pointing gently to strands on the floor, as if that explained everything.

It didn’t. But somehow, it didn’t need to.

Days later, after listening to a piece by Joe Hisaishi, I sat at the piano and let my fingers wander. A progression formed; soft, unplanned, almost like it was already there waiting. One chord led to another, and before I realized it, a song began to take shape.

That song became “Bapa Mengenalku.”

And yes, somehow, quietly, almost playfully, the word “hair” found its place in the chorus.

That was 2022.

Back then, Theresia was well. We would sit side by side on that piano bench, singing the song together. No audience. No stage. Just us, a piano, and a melody that felt like it belonged to both of us.

Now, she is in heaven.

The house is still there, the memory is still here. And the song remains, carrying echoes of laughter, of something light and strange that turned into something sacred.

So this song is no longer just a worship song.

It is a memory.
It is a conversation that never really ended.
It is love, still finding its way into sound.

And so, together with the Contemp.la team, Yefta dedicated “Bapa Mengenalku” to her, to Theresia M. Warsito, who once asked for a song about something as simple as hair, and unknowingly gave us something eternal.