Posted:
Hey guys I found this article on http://www.rajahasan.com/ and just wanted to share it with everyone
Raja Hasan and the Lata Mangeshkar Challenge
Posted in Mentors, Other singers, SaReGaMaPa, Raja Hasan on September 27th, 2007 | 3 Comments
Very often do people wonder why reality singing contestant winners do not make it big as playback singers. Take a look at history and you'll have just a handful of names as successful playback singers. And none of these names might have ever won the contest. Where are people like Abhijit Sawant, Debojit or even Vinit? Does anyone have a decent playback career? All they are reduced to is stage shows - that they perform across the country - and in some cases overseas.
That brings me to a recent Lata Mangeshkar interview. She says:
"The (reality contest) singers sing Asha's, Rafi's and my songs and they are judged on that basis. New songs should be composed for these participants so that the composers know how well they pick up a song. Anyone can listen to a song a million times and learn it."
And the answer to all those queries lie in the last sentence of Lata. It all depends on how you can sing a composition you have never heared.
Ask me, and I'll tell you it is a lot more than just a composition. It is about getting a feel of what the movie is all about, characterisation, the feel of lyrics and of course, the composer's intent.
As a screenplay writer myself, I would be really annoyed, if the singer does not
bring out my storyline or the characterisation. Saregama, in its previous years always had a round where singers sang entirely new compositions. Vijay Prakash, who is now an A.R.Rehman regular, had excelled in one of these rounds.
If you want to want to succeed as a playback singer, what you do on stage is immaterial. "Thank you that you said that I sound so much like Sonu Nigam" is not going to get you anywhere. Music directors are not looking for stage-singers. They are looking for singers who can do justice to their compositions, with minimum effort. That is precisely why, Himesh, sings himself. Simply because he doesn't trust any singer with his compositions.
But getting back to the point - as Lata Mangeshker forcefully pointed out, it is how you sing an original composition - something that you have never heared before - that makes or breaks your career. This is where genuine singers are differentiated from what I would call IPod singers.
In my book, Aneek is nothing more than an Ipod artiste. He has a very good voice - but where has he shown how he would adapt a composition to his own voice?
On the other hand take Raja Hasan. He simply twists compositions at will. When he sang Allah ke Bande - he didn't go the Ipod route like Aneek does. His verison song is no where anyway close to what Kailash Kher sang. Or take Vishal Bhardwaj's Naina Thag Lenge. Watch the differences between the two versions he sang - one in the main routine and the second when the "once more" was demanded. He played around amazingly in the second instance. The two versions are miles apart.
With the Teri Deewani song, he added alaaps on his own - which were never in the original. With "Maahiya", he delightfully added his own bits - which I could didn't spot in either Shankar Mahadevan or Sukhwinder's version.
The point I am making here is, you must know the inner workings of a composition. You must understand the composers effort, his aim. And of course you must understand the lyricists' feel. As Raja has been a composer himself, he knows these tricks very well. And these reflect in each song he sings.
Does Aneek have even the slightest of ability to add an alaap of his own? If he had, we would have seen it. But sadly he hasn't done any of it.
N. Murali Mohan, who doesn't like being called a music expert (but still is one for all of us) said this:
"When a lyric and tune is given to the singer, the singer is expected to think through the song and give the right expression at the appropriate places. To be able to sing an entirely new composition which he never heard of and deliver his best requires good musical sense and classical background that Raja possesses in abundance. Also, Raja exercises great control over his breathe. Breathe control is the most essential and vital for singers. And for film music one should have a trick or two up your sleeve like changing the voice for each singer and if he could sing with a lady voice, I am convinced that Raja is a complete and natural singer"
That is precisely why Raja Hasan is the only one who can stand up to the Lata Mangeshkar challenge of singing an entirely new composition. The rest can look forward to buying a newer version of the IPod.
Raja Hasan and the Lata Mangeshkar Challenge
Posted in Mentors, Other singers, SaReGaMaPa, Raja Hasan on September 27th, 2007 | 3 Comments
Very often do people wonder why reality singing contestant winners do not make it big as playback singers. Take a look at history and you'll have just a handful of names as successful playback singers. And none of these names might have ever won the contest. Where are people like Abhijit Sawant, Debojit or even Vinit? Does anyone have a decent playback career? All they are reduced to is stage shows - that they perform across the country - and in some cases overseas.
That brings me to a recent Lata Mangeshkar interview. She says:
"The (reality contest) singers sing Asha's, Rafi's and my songs and they are judged on that basis. New songs should be composed for these participants so that the composers know how well they pick up a song. Anyone can listen to a song a million times and learn it."
And the answer to all those queries lie in the last sentence of Lata. It all depends on how you can sing a composition you have never heared.
Ask me, and I'll tell you it is a lot more than just a composition. It is about getting a feel of what the movie is all about, characterisation, the feel of lyrics and of course, the composer's intent.
As a screenplay writer myself, I would be really annoyed, if the singer does not
bring out my storyline or the characterisation. Saregama, in its previous years always had a round where singers sang entirely new compositions. Vijay Prakash, who is now an A.R.Rehman regular, had excelled in one of these rounds.
If you want to want to succeed as a playback singer, what you do on stage is immaterial. "Thank you that you said that I sound so much like Sonu Nigam" is not going to get you anywhere. Music directors are not looking for stage-singers. They are looking for singers who can do justice to their compositions, with minimum effort. That is precisely why, Himesh, sings himself. Simply because he doesn't trust any singer with his compositions.
But getting back to the point - as Lata Mangeshker forcefully pointed out, it is how you sing an original composition - something that you have never heared before - that makes or breaks your career. This is where genuine singers are differentiated from what I would call IPod singers.
In my book, Aneek is nothing more than an Ipod artiste. He has a very good voice - but where has he shown how he would adapt a composition to his own voice?
On the other hand take Raja Hasan. He simply twists compositions at will. When he sang Allah ke Bande - he didn't go the Ipod route like Aneek does. His verison song is no where anyway close to what Kailash Kher sang. Or take Vishal Bhardwaj's Naina Thag Lenge. Watch the differences between the two versions he sang - one in the main routine and the second when the "once more" was demanded. He played around amazingly in the second instance. The two versions are miles apart.
With the Teri Deewani song, he added alaaps on his own - which were never in the original. With "Maahiya", he delightfully added his own bits - which I could didn't spot in either Shankar Mahadevan or Sukhwinder's version.
The point I am making here is, you must know the inner workings of a composition. You must understand the composers effort, his aim. And of course you must understand the lyricists' feel. As Raja has been a composer himself, he knows these tricks very well. And these reflect in each song he sings.
Does Aneek have even the slightest of ability to add an alaap of his own? If he had, we would have seen it. But sadly he hasn't done any of it.
N. Murali Mohan, who doesn't like being called a music expert (but still is one for all of us) said this:
"When a lyric and tune is given to the singer, the singer is expected to think through the song and give the right expression at the appropriate places. To be able to sing an entirely new composition which he never heard of and deliver his best requires good musical sense and classical background that Raja possesses in abundance. Also, Raja exercises great control over his breathe. Breathe control is the most essential and vital for singers. And for film music one should have a trick or two up your sleeve like changing the voice for each singer and if he could sing with a lady voice, I am convinced that Raja is a complete and natural singer"
That is precisely why Raja Hasan is the only one who can stand up to the Lata Mangeshkar challenge of singing an entirely new composition. The rest can look forward to buying a newer version of the IPod.
