An Indonesian pop star died when she was bitten by a King cobra onstage last week after continuing on with her performance for 45 minutes before becoming ill.
Irma Bule, a 29-year-old folk singer who regularly performs with live snakes, suffered a bite on her thigh during a show at Karrawang, West Java,
east of Jakarta, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
"An eye-witness, Ferlando Octavion Auzur, said Bule refused an offer of antidote after the bite," the newspaper reported. "But 45 minutes later, she collapsed on stage vomiting and suffering seizures and was taken to hospital, where she died."
According to National Geographic, King cobras can grow as long as 18 feet with venom strong enough to kill 20 people and even an elephant in a single bite. The cobra, known for elevating its body off the ground and hissing before an attack, is normally shy and avoids human contact unless cornered, NatGeo said.
Bule was a dangdut star, a genre of folk pop fusion, South Asian film music, and rock and roll that became more
popular in the 1980s, according to The Washington Post.
The site Coconuts Jakarta wrote that dangdut, which was once banned in Indonesia, is now "such an oversaturated musical genre in Indonesia that it's not surprising how many artists employ gimmicks in their act to stand out from the rest. Unfortunately, dangdut singer Irma Bule's deadly gimmick, combined with her dedication to showmanship, led to her untimely death."
According to the Daily Mail, Bule's mother Encum said her daughter's use of snakes in performances had become "her trademark" over the past three years. It was believed that the King cobra used in Bule's performance was defanged, but it was not, The Washington Post noted.
"I don't know what started her off using a snake, but she would wrap it around her neck while dancing and sometimes she would wrap it around the music player," Encum told the Daily Mail.
Bule was married to a factory worker and had three children, ranging in age from eight to four.
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