He then formed his band, Soneta Group, achieving multitudes of musical successes with groundbreaking dangdut style that incorporates Western, Malay, and Bollywood influences.

He has been active as well in the political arena, with a history of joining campaigns for the Islamic United Development Party (PPP) during the New Order era.

[4] Oma Irama's first bands were known as Tornado and Gayhand and covered Western rock and roll music of Paul Anka, Andy Williams, and The Beatles.

Their first album, Volume 01, Begadang ("Stay up all night"), released in 1973, featured four songs by Oma Irama, three by Elvy, and three duets.

The song featured a topless Oma Irama wearing tight trousers and holding an electric guitar.

[6] Furthermore, the main single "Begadang" reached at number 24 on the magazine's "150 Greatest Indonesian Songs of All Time" list.

Performing live, he adopted many of the props of stadium rock, including large audiences, powerful sound systems, complex sets, fireworks, flashing lights, and smoke machines.

[8] By December 2013 Rhoma Irama is proposed as one of the Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB) presidential candidate along with Jusuf Kalla and Mahfud MD.

[14] In 2003, neighbors followed by journalists caught both Rhoma Irama and Angel Lelga, an actress, in the latter's apartment at midnight.

Some of his statements were: Muslims would see their reputation sink if they elected non-Muslims, calling people by their SARA (acronym for ethnic, religion, race) characteristics is justified when defending pribumi's interest, Joko Widodo is just a step for Basuki and Chinese to assume power.

In Indonesia, attacking a person's race or religion in a political campaign is punishable by fines and prison time.

The initial investigation ended with Rhoma Irama shedding tears in front of journalists[20] saying "to Joko Widodo and Basuki Purnama, I love them all" but insisted he did nothing wrong.

[25] However Ramdansyah was relieved from his post after another investigation into his neutrality concluded he was unfairly siding with Fauzi Bowo re-election team.