Final Round: Sonu Nigam

When someone like Hariprasad Chaurausia after listening to Classically Mild claims on stage that music of the country is not dying. When someone like Shiv Kumar Sharma calls the album as classically tough. When someone like Ustad Rashid Khan sends compliments to Sonu Nigam....one has to believe that the album is something special. This album is one feather in Sonu Nigam's cap which perhaps many of the contemporary singers do not. One of the reason why I adore and respect him so much.
The other day, I was so pleased to see Shankar Mahadevan singing one of the song of Classically Mild 'Dhanya Dhanya Naari Jeevan' on MMKM and it was even more heartening to see youngsters like Rahul Vaidya and Anwesha performing 'Soona Soona' on stage.
All I want to convey through this post of mine is PLEASE don't let independent music of our country die away. Bollywood music is just a small fraction of Indian music.

As far is rating the song is concerned...well I am too novice to rate such kind of songs.

Great performance by Sonu Nigam!
👏


Sonu Nigam shows us his versatility once again. To me, he is the most versatile singer in India today. And he is extremely talented as well. And overall, I would say Sonu Nigam is the best singer in India today. Himesh once said the same too. And its true.

He can sing everything so well, and now he shows he can do classical really well too. In this song, especially the "Soona Soona" line, he did very well, showing come classical ability, and it was quite difficult as well. The song also had a lot of feel, which he showed sometimes in the post-main sequence. All throughout, great classical performance by Sonu.

Nonetheless, I can't might not be able to give him full marks on classical, because there are better classical singers who have trained all their life in classical, and they truly deserve 10s. Someone like RFAK. Nonetheless, the way Sonu sang it, it appears he is nearly there as well. And that's a pretty big compliment.

Good performance but not over the top. This is not my cup of tea though.

i wish i could give him 1000 but as for now 10

One of the most amazing songs by Sonu Nigam. It should have had more recognition than it is given. Have fallen in love with his voice all over again 😊

Usually we hear classical songs in heavy sort of voices, Sonu's boyish voice brings such a new flavour to this classical song. The lyrics are fantastic and each word is pronounced correctly and emphasized so beautifully.

"Tujhe Dhoonday Albelay.." is amazingly sung. The fast beat collaborated with the classical singing is just too great and Sonu has kept himself well-equipped with the beat.

The way he sings "Soona Soona" with the twisting rhythm of the voice is perfect, this part is very difficult to do and Sonu does it so effortlessly. The fast flow keeps the listener intact with each and every word of the song and beat. The high-notes are outstanding and lower-notes are clearly sung.

It is very difficult to sing classical along with such a fast beat, this thing i have seen only Shankar ji do. Sonu has done it with complete justification and has enhanced the overall effect of this song with all the wonderful alaaps he takes.

👏 Would like to give a standing ovation to one of the greatest singers, Sonu Nigam. 👏

Final day to vote!!!

polls closing soon!

Decent composition by Deepak Pandit. The song captures the Sonu's eclectic musical tastes by bring in techniques from Hindustani, Carnatic, Jazz and, of course, filmi.

Unfortunately, the song/singing throws up some of the drawbacks of such a degree of eclecticism. By trying to be too many things at once, you end up being nothing! A synthesiser keyboard can produce the sounds of many instruments: piano, violin, harp, organ etc. But a synthesiser can never reproduce the beauty of a sound created organically by a real violin or a real piano...

To get specific about the singing, the one element of the song that will stick with a listener is the voice shaking harkat that Sonu is required to repeat throughout the song. Whenever there is a chance, the composer has made Sonu throw in that harkat! Yes, harkats and taans are important in Indian classical music, but you have to base them on a strong melody line, otherwise they jsut sound like unnecessary voice shaking - but that's more of the composer's fault than the singers. Check out this video by Begum Parveen Sultana - the tarana has an instantlly appealing tune and then the harkats are added:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECyXi1B-JCs[/YOUTUBE]

Thankfully, there was a bit of laykaari and a few Western'ish sequences too, to add a bit of variation. Sonu would have excelled with a few more slow, melodic portions, which would bring out his filmi adayagi - which remains his forte in my opinion. My favourite part was 'Mana aaj bhi kachche hain...'

Anyway, my score will remain a mystery for some time. I'll just round off my review with a round of applause for Sonu Nigam - one of India's greatest singers! 👏

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I am going all the way back to the start of Uditji's career for the final, mainly because of the nostalgia value! With the album Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Indian film music found an amazing, original and refreshing voice in Udit Narayan and one of the greatest bollywood duos (Udit-Alka) was formed. 'Aye Mere Humsafar'!

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1CUAHbZjmo[/YOUTUBE]

And I am posting a BONUS song from Uditji - 'Yeh Tara Woh Tara' from Swades - AMAZING!

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHIVDf9XlYI[/YOUTUBE]


Narayan Narayan!

I would like to say something here in defense of Sonu Nigam. I agree with the judges when they say that Rahat saab is a better classical singer than Sonu Nigam. But the thing is Sonu did something which was not his foray. He made people know that classical singing is not just about sitting on a stage with a instrument in hand. And believe me common masses would not have listened to this album if it was sung that way.