Recorded it in 30 minutes: Anup Jalota on singing Afghani song
Singer Anup Jalota has recorded his first-ever Afghani song, which marks his collaboration with Farishta Sama, a singer from Afghanistan.
Singer Anup Jalota, who is often attributed as Bhajan Samrat and has several ghazals and devotional songs to his credit, has recorded songs in several languages. Now, the Padma Shri recipient has sung a track in Afghani Persian. The track, Dar Damane Sahra, marks his collaboration with Afghani singer Farishta Sama, who he met in Germany. It has been composed by Nainawas. Sharing how the track worked out, Anup Jalota says, “I have a huge following in Afghanistan, so I thought why not sing in their language. The situation in Afghanistan is such that music is banned, children cannot go to school, women cannot go out of the house, etc. So, I recorded this song as it gives a beautiful message of love and music.”
Ask if it was challenging to get the pronunciation of the lyrics right, and he says, “It took me 15 minutes to understand the feel of the song and I recorded it in the next 20 minutes. Farishta helped me get the accent and pronunciation right. I asked her to record the entire song, including my parts. So I had to just copy her style, which was pretty smooth.”
Speaking about the popularity of Indian music in Afghanistan, the veteran shares, “Indian classical music is quite popular in Afghanistan. In fact, some musicians there sing our ragas. There are some amazing tabla players in Afghanistan and one of them plays the tabla with me whenever I perform in the US.”
