Archana Pania, popular RJ, gifted singer, presenter and now co-presenter (with Salil) of Radio City’s Musical-e-Azam, the biggest live and unplugged music festival on Radio, writes a curtain-raiser on the fourth season of the series which begins at 8 am today, exclusively for RadioAndMusic.com.
Musical-E-Azam is a festival, a celebration of music, that’s not just an ode to all the fantastic music out there, but also to the artists that make it happen.
I remember in 2005, when this concept was being developed, I was out of the commercial radio business. But when an ex colleague told me, Imagine, greats from Lata ji to Sonu Nigaam will wake the city up with their live renditions on the breakfast show of Radio City!… That’s when I knew that I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of history in the making!
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Season 1 of MeA (that’s Musical-e-Azam) kicked off with Kailash Kher, with whom I’d had the good fortune of having done live shows, and he rocked the city even on radio with the best zest an artist could bring early in the morning! With his tunes and his shuddh Hindi andaaz mixed with the modern touch of Naresh-Paresh (co-composers, back vocalists, guitarists, band members of Kailasa), we knew we had a soulful yet contemporary start to Season One of MeA.
Jagjit Singh’s episode is still fresh in memory, because I just couldn’t believe that the man who sang soulful ghazals and Krishna and Ram Bhajans to me all my childhood had a sense of humour that would put a 20-year-old to shame! Accompanied by his harmonium, he sang â€?Bheege Honth Tere’ with such ghazal ka andaaz that it was amazing! And he did that because, he said, he loves Kunal Ganjawala’s voice. I remember he’d said, Yeh (Kunal) trained classical awaaz hai; baaki to bass naam ke gayak hain!… (Kunal’s is a trained classical voice; [many of] the rest aren’t very good singers.)
And when Sonu Nigaam featured on the show, it was really an all-round performance – his mimicry of half of Bollywood, and the way he sang the Bee Gees’ Staying Alive had everyone amused and entertained. And when he sang Kal Ho Na Ho, he made everyone in our studio cry! In hindsight, they could well have been tears of joy — for a great live performance.
For now, I’m looking forward to our very first artist – no, pair – tomorrow Music directors Sajid-Wajid, who belong to a musical khandaan and who have given us the very melodious and equally successful film album in Dabanng! They’re talented, spirited and successful, and I’m looking forward to a great start to the fourth and the biggest Season of not just Musical-e-Azam but any other live music show.
The beauty of the concept, even if I say this myself, is that it brings out all the interesting tid-bits and nuggets of information and trivia about the stars through the conversations we have with the stars and their interactions with our listeners. Music lovers will, of course, also love the live performances, and I’m sure Sajid and Wajid will give our first episode of the new season a wonderful start with great musical entertainment for all.
I hope you join Salil and me at 8 am today on Radio City in Mumbai to catch it all.
And yes, I promise to share with all music lovers right here on RadioAndMusic.com, my very own little personal diary of the highlights from each episode of the new season – all the fun and learnings, the little things that happen on the sidelines, the daily action and the inside scoops from each episode of Musical-e-Azam, as soon as I possibly can after the live episode had ended. So I’ll be back, right here, on RnM, at around 2 pm with my next update. For now, though, I’m fading out.
