Once Mekel
Indonesian singer and actor
Elfonda Mekel (born 21 May 1970), better known as Once Mekel ([ˈɔntʃə], pronounced Ohn-chè), is an Indonesian musician, actor and politician. He is renowned as one of the best male vocalists in Indonesia due to his distinctive vocal style and power. Rolling Stone magazine included Once in the "50 Greatest Indonesian Singers".
Once started his career as a singer after completing high school, by becoming a semi-professional singer.
After achieving success as a vocalist, Once was invited to join Dewa 19, which had renamed itself Dewa, replacing Ari Lasso as the lead vocalist after the completion of the Pandawa Lima album (1997) and the single Elang (1999). Before joining the band, he had released solo singles such as "Juwita Pandang" (1991) and "Anggun" (1999).
Joining Dewa, Once played a significant role in the success of two best-selling albums, Bintang Lima (2000) and Cintailah Cinta (2002), with his distinctive vocals. Once produced a total of 5 albums with Dewa as co-lead vocalist with Ahmad Dhani. After his success as a co-lead vocalist with Dewa, Once revived his solo career with the single "Dealova" (2005), which was also the soundtrack for the film of the same name.
Following Dewa's disbandment in 2011 due to his departure, Once focused on his solo singing career.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Once Mekel” as indonesian singer and actor. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as indonesian singer and actor. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4251050. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1997, 1999 and 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “Once Mekel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.