My first journey to Shillong’s two-day-long Cherry Blossom Music Competition takes 15 hours. However Seventies disco funk group Boney M is performing, and so is R&B and hiphop sensation Akon, so it’s nicely well worth the lengthy and admittedly tedious journey.
As I attain Guwahati and hop on to the cab assigned to me, Sachin Singh, a Shillong-born Punjabi driver, zips by means of the serpentine freeway that results in our vacation spot, solely to get caught in a two-hour lengthy visitors jam simply 15-20 kilometres from the pageant’s venue, RBDSA Sports activities Advanced. We lastly attain at 8.30pm, and discover we’re out of community protection, which makes it tough to let anybody know that we’re at Bhoirymbong village in Shillong’s Ri Bhoi district.
Unhealthy information: I don’t get Akon’s “unique” interview, the place I might have delved into his upcoming album and his not too long ago launched track ‘It’s a Lovely Day’, which deviates from his standard sexualised lyrical compositions, explored his collaboration with Michael Jackson and even requested him why he thinks he didn’t win a Grammy regardless that his albums and songs have acquired 5 nominations on the Recording Academy’s award present. I might have gone past ‘Chammak Challo’, however I solely may make it simply in time to shake a leg to the one Indian track he has collaborated on. That’s the excellent news.
Boney M takes over the stage
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When Akon will get on the stage, he owns the area, the group and the power. He begins with ‘It’s a Lovely Day’ after which picks up his songs from the early Noughties, beginning with ‘Blame on Me’ and ‘The Sweetest Woman’ to ‘Smack That’ and ‘Harmful’.
The mic goes off in the midst of one among his songs, however Akon walks across the stage, preserving his cool, and waits for the glitch to be resolved. A minute-long disruption isn’t met with silence. The viewers cheers and Akon owns the stage once more, saying, “Don’t fear, it occurs. It occurs, man! It’s okay. Properly, I really feel good as a result of each day is an exquisite day, it doesn’t matter what.” He then breaks into his 2004 hit ‘Ghetto’ and wings it for the remainder of the present.
Then got here the doyens of disco music, Boney M, on stage.
And, right here is the higher information: I do get an interview with Boney M, regardless that it’s awkwardly taped between a images session with their on-stage collaborators, The Shillong Choir, within the inexperienced room at almost 1am.
When requested about their expertise on the pageant and in India, member Maizie Williams solutions as she poses. “It’s incredible,” she says. We profit from two minutes we’ve got with them and requested them the inevitable query, which is usually met with confusion however hardly results in confession. However Maizie was surprisingly immediate to call her favorite Boney M track: “By the Rivers of Babylon,” she says.
She can be candid about sharing the title of the new-age musician that has made it to her favorite playlist. After pondering and saying, ‘There are such a lot of I really like,” she zeroes in on “Ed Sheeran”.
Boney M’s Maizie Williams
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Although this terse little interview doesn’t depart us with sufficient perception into how Boney M perceives the evolution of the worldwide music business, we do steal about half an hour from their 40-minute-long efficiency to see the group jive to their hits, like ‘Rasputin’, ‘Brown Woman within the Ring’.
If our first day ends with ‘Brown Woman’ and one other heavy jam again to the lodge, Taj Vivanta, Shillong, the second begins with ‘Brown Munde’ — a Punjabi gig by Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor. She sings originals and covers, from ‘London Thumakda’ to ‘Mundeya toh Bach Kay Rahi’.
Her gig is adopted by the British electro-pop group Clear Bandit, with violins, cellos and two spunky break dancers. They croon a few of their hit songs, together with ‘Rocakabye child’.
The pageant, themed Yr of the Legends, noticed a footfall of almost 50,000 attendees this time and with Japan as its associate nation, it hailed J-pop sensations Zombie-Chang, Amaiwana, DYGL, Nonoc, Newspeak and Lillies and Stays within the Japan enviornment which had meals, trend, calligraphy and origami stalls spelling Japanese tradition for Indians.
We meet Meghalaya’s Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to get the lowdown on the pageant, which is organised by Meghalaya Tourism and managed by Rockski EMG. “We contribute almost ₹2 crore to the pageant,” he says. A musician himself, he has began the Meghalaya Grassroots Music Challenge to advertise native musicians.
As for Shillong’s visitors scenario? “They are saying, there are two issues in Shillong you could’t predict: the climate and visitors,” he smiles.
The author was in Shillong on the invitation of Shillong Cherry Blossom Competition 2024
Printed – November 18, 2024 05:52 pm IST
