London, July 15 (IANS) Popular Indian playback singer Sonu Niigaam has tied up with a Birmingham-based musical company for a three-concert tour of Britain in memory of legendary singer Mohammad Rafi.
The singer and the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) will stage three shows on their joint project “Rafi Resurrected” – a tribute album to Rafi, who gave innumerable Bollywood hit songs in the 1950s-80s.
The show starts off Tuesday at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. The next concert will be held Thursday at Apollo Theatre in Manchester and the final show will be conducted July 20 in London at the Coliseum. This last show will be a special one because it will be recorded by Sony TV.
CBSO’s double-CD, 18-track album features some of Rafi’s memorable singles and duets. Niigaam will be accompanied by female singer Gunjan. The tracks include “Suhani raat dhal chukiâ€, “Dil ke jharoke meinâ€, “Patthar ke sanamâ€, “Gulabi aankhen†and the duet “Mujhe teri muhabbat ka saharaâ€.
The songs were selected from Rafi’s repertoire of over 26,000 numbers by Shin of Birmingham Bhangra band DCS. CBSO recorded the orchestral parts at its home base, the CBSO Centre, with Niigaam adding the vocals in a studio in Mumbai. Some Indian percussion was also added at a different Mumbai studio, and the project then completed the square by being mixed in London.
— By Venkata Vemuri
Great news for Rafi-fans across the world. Sonu Nigam is doing tremendous work by reviving the music of Rafi Sahab. There are several theories doing the round as to the number of songs of Rafi Sahab. In this article the author says that 26,000 songs have been rendered by Rafi Sahab. Can an authentic number be informed ?
Very nice and very much appreciateable work by Mr. Sonu Nigham. Once an Indian Singer who has sung “O hare dopattay wali, seedhi saadi bhooli bhaali Janam Ruk Jana” said during his interview, this is time for Kishore. But Muhammad Rafi’s time will come back. He was true by his statement. according to the authentic number of Muhammad Rafi’s sons, i would like to disclose that during Live Stage Show in which Mr. Shahid Bijnauri was comparing had said that “this time Muhammad Rafi has sone more then 26000 songs.
It was not without reason that the current great Sonu was born on July 30th, a day prior to Rafi Sahab’s departure to heaven. Time and again, Sonu remembers Rafi Sahab by writing something or the other about the king of music or by giving concerts especially during July. According to Sonu, Rafi Sahab is unseen God. He was only six when our Sahab departed. Kudos to Sonu & thank God for having given Sonu to the music world for taking over the responsibilities of Rafi Sahab. Recently, in a reality show “Jo Jeeta Woh hi Superstar”, which was won by Rahul Vaidya and runner up Abhijeet Sawant, Abhijeet Sawant showered praises on Rafi Sahab by saying that though they also follow Kishoreda, Rafi sahab hamen Bhagwan ki tarah hein. Soon Rahul vaidya was also interviewed in which he was also mentioning that if you simply say we are fans of Rafi Sahab it will not sound good whereas actually we are Rafi Bhakths and he pelted jhalaks such as Abhi Na Jao chodkar, aaj mausam bada, tere mere sapne, kabhi khudpe, kya hua tera vaada etc. etc. When he was asked to sing a high pitch song of rafi sahab, he apologised and went for soft and romantic songs. Just see the impact.
As far as number of songs rendered by singers are concerned, it is my opinion that many a times people go by the number when it was first published and repeat the same. According to me, if lataji’s collection can go around 30000 after Rafi sahab’s departure, Rafi sahab’s collection would be easily around 26000 plus. In one of the articles, I even spotted Kumar Sanu’s collection as 10000 songs. can it be so? I hardly know 10 to 12 songs only of the Kumar Sanu. In Kerala, one ardent fan of Rafi sahab had already collected 16000 songs of Rafi Sahab and was in search of further songs. Anyway, these number games are played by many just to please others. But one thing is certain Rafi Sahab has the maximum number of songs and also maximum super hits and hits which cannot be surpassed at all just like Don bradman’s batting average of 99.96. Mr.Murty, I hope the above is clear. Pl. let me also know from your end. Thanks. “Rafi sahab zindabad”.