Tauseef Akhtar wanted to give his fans a high quality Ghazals virtual concert and on Saturday 27 June, they were in for a treat. The show started at 9.05pm IST and lasted for almost 2 hours. The performer was very at ease and the ticketed online concert was sold out a few days before. Extra tickets were added due to high demand.
A few eminent personalities from the music industry joined to listen to the mellifluous Ghazals. The singer mentioned in the concert, after reading instant messages from the chat box, that various artists attended the live event from different parts of the world. Nadeem Saifi, from Nadeem-Shravan, joined early and that made Tauseef very pleased as he worked as an assistant for the music director duo on many films and he shared with us some trivia. It was a delight to listen to such stories. Ace sound engineer, K.J Singh who worked with A.R Rahman, Vishal Bhardwaj and Nadeem-Shravan also attended the event as well as poet, Roop Sagar, who worked on the album ‘Aamad: The Arrival’ (2017).
The concert featured original songs from Tauseef Akhtar, penned by various poets and that added more texture to the singing. Set in a small room with lights, the visual quality was high and the sound systems were perfect. The steaming had no lag and the technical aspects were satisfactory. Tauseef managed to please the audience, minus his live musicians and that was a request, which many fans made. The singer suggested that his next online concert will definitely include live musicians.
The singer sang Ghazals such as the popular “Phool Khilte Hain”, “Ishq Karo” and “Aapse Dil Lagana” from his album ‘Ishq Karo’ (2014). “Ye Rang Ashkon Ka”, “Huzoor Aapka Bhi Ehteraam Karta Chaloon Tumko Dekha To Ye Khayal Aaya”, “Zindagi Naam Ko Humari Hai” and “Tumko Dekha To Ye Khayal Aaya” were all lapped by the audience and praises started to pour in the chat box.
To top it all off, there were many requests for Jagjit Singh’s Ghazals and evergreen tracks like “Hothon Se Chhulo Tum” and “Chithi Na Koi Sandesh” were beautifully rendered, enlightening connoisseurs of this genre.
As many artists decide to reach more fans online, Tauseef’s idea came at the right time, proving he is quite a trendsetter. When quizzed if he was pleased with the response and how different it was as a performer from a live concert, he says, “I was very happy and pleased to see the response because it was my first ticketed online concert and it was a complete sell out. I had people from the US, Canada, Europe, South Africa, UAE, the Middle East, the Far East and obviously India. This was my first very global concert and I am really very thankful to all those who participated and made it such a huge success. As a performer, it was a new dimension for me to do this kind of virtual paid concert. I think this is the first stepping stone and I’ll be bringing it much more bigger concerts and concepts to my listeners.”
