Local society to honour famous Indian singer

Apr 29, 2006

The Pavarotti of Indian classical music is being honoured in Hamilton Monday.

Ghazal singer Jagjit Singh will be the star attraction at the dinner reception hosted by the India-Canada Society of Hamilton, at which he will become the honourary patron of the society.

The event celebrates Singh's 40-year contribution to Indian music and honours his role in returning traditional forms to popularity.

It also marks the Hamilton launch of May's South Asian Heritage Month.

Singh made his reputation singing ghazals, a traditional Urdu form that has its roots in the Arab world.

The style is often considered a love song, but it is better defined as songs or poems that speak to or about women.

The 65-year-old's singing and composing traverses the range of human emotions. He deals with the passions and pangs of separated lovers, offers devotional works and melancholy notes. His imprints leapfrog international borders.

Singh was born Feb. 8, 1941 in western India to a religious Sikh family. He began by performing traditional religious music and then turned to the ghazals.

Historically, ghazals travelled from Persia (now Iran) to India along with Muslim merchant-settlers and got assimilated in Indian culture. It flourished when the Moghuls ruled the sub-continent.

His career started with him performing at weddings and then developed into a session singer for Indian movies.

Singh's fortunes turned when he began simplifying and modernizing the style of the music so that it appealed to a wider audience.

Singh is widely acclaimed in South Asia for reviving interest in ghazals, after they lost momentum in the mid-70s. One of his novelties was a balanced combination of western instruments and Indian classical ragas.

The "King of Ghazals" has a massive fan following in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East and Central Asia. But his popularity extends practically everywhere there is a South Asian community.

Singh will perform to a full house tomorrow in Toronto at Roy Thomson Hall.

His star power has been further amplified through the medium of Bollywood films, several of which have featured his compositions and playback singing.

Limited tickets for Monday's dinner at McMaster's University Club at 7 p.m. are available by contacting Nikhil Adhya at 905-388-0079.