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An Indonesian pop-rock outfit, Golden Dragon, has been crowned Southeast Asia’s best band at the redAMP competition finale concert held in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

The Yogyakarta-based band — consisting of Icun Lin (vocalist), Steven Zhang (vocalist), Sanley Zhong (vocalist), Bertho Yu (keyboardist), Dhanny Ji (guitarist), Andre Wu (bassist) and Henz Wei (drummer) — successfully defeated 2,575 groups to claim the trophy.

Jointly organized by Air Asia and MTV Asia, redAMP is a contest to unearth the best indie bands from the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Nations.

The competition also promoted AirAsia’s new online ticketing service for entertainment, www.airasiaredtix.com.

Kicking off on May 24 with a call for short music clips from bands in the region, the competition’s 20 semifinalists battled it out for a spot in the top 10 in Bali on June 22.

The finalists, then, had to put their destiny in the hands of the public who cast their votes on the internet, before the final three (plus a wildcard band) crossed guitars in Kuala Lumpur.

The fact that this inaugural event attracted more than 2,500 bands from all over the Asean region — including from Vietnam and Myanmar — came as a big surprise to the organizers.

“We never thought that the response was going to be this big,” said Johan Aris Ibrahim, head of financial services at AirAsia Malaysia.

Golden Dragon, which was the first to perform at the Kuala Lumpur finale, impressed the judges with their song “Shen Tang” (“The Palace of Gods”) about a man who falls in love with a goddess after being trapped in another world.

“It wasn’t easy for the judges to pick the best band,” said Malaysian producer, Roslan Aziz, who was the chief judge in the finals.

Aziz said that all four bands had almost the same musical ability. But in the end, he said, what made Golden Dragon stand out from the other bands was their outstanding vocals and visually spectacular performance.

“This band is very unique, I think they have a good future ahead,” Aziz said.

Golden Dragon formed in 2000, after encouragement from Yogyakarta’s Chinese community elders. Since then, the group has performed at wedding ceremonies, Chinese new year celebrations and many other cultural events.

While there is no doubt that Golden Dragon has young talented musicians, it’s not their musical talent that made them stand out from the other bands in the competition.

Rather than singing their songs in Indonesian, like most local bands, Golden Dragon actually performs in Mandarin.

“We’re probably the first band in Indonesia that consistently sings our songs in Mandarin,” Bertho said. “And we’re proud of that.”

The second thing that sets the group apart from other musicians is their unique stage presence.

While the band members usually adorn anime-inspired costumes, during the final they wore costumes reminiscent of classic Chinese Army uniforms.

With their latest accomplishment, band member, Icun said that in order to succeed Golden Dragon has to reach the international market.

“As a band that sings in Mandarin, it’s very hard for the group to win public attention in Indonesia,” Icun said.

But Adib has a different opinion, saying Golden Dragon stands a good chance of succeeding at home.

“We have a large Chinese community in Indonesia, and I don’t think we have a band like them,” he said. “If they focus on their segmented market, they have a chance to soar.”

As the competition’s winner, Golden Dragon will receive a development package worth 50,000 Malaysian ringgit ($15,500) and an opportunity to make an album under an international record label.

The first runner-up of redAMP was Thailand’s Sixty-Nine, followed by Malaysia’s Stoneybay and Filipino group Pancake 80.