A Musical Tribute – Ye Jo Halka Halka Suroor Hai

So here goes my first post. Thanks to Suprabh and Rohit for giving me posting rights as soon as I asked for it. I am going to mostly post my favourite songs even though I dont really know anything about music except that my best days are spent listening to them.

Been listening to this song all day and by the end of the day I am sure it goes into my “All time favourites” list.

Nusrat Sahab is of course no stranger to any of us, he is one of the most recognized musicians of contemporary times and probably the biggest master of Qawwali music, and this song shows exactly why.

There is nothing I can say about Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He is so great, that how much ever I praise him, it will fall so short, it will be an insult to his greatness.

Instead, I think the greatness of this song and the singer is attested best by all those people who have sung this as a tribute to him. I know a lot of people hate this renditions because they feel they spoil the mood of the original. The original is a classic no doubt, and nothing can take their magic from them. But for me, I like to listen to the other renditions as well. Sometimes they bring out another aspect to the music with a different style of singing, sometimes they just remind us how great and incomparable the original is.

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan has sung this on quite a few occasions. Here is the one that I liked most.

I think Rahat is doing a good job in following in his uncle’s footsteps and while he may not have the talent or voice of the maestro and may never reach the levels of Ustad Nusrat, he is great in his own rights.

Also, particularly liked this rendition by a female singer Rabia Sehar.

Never heard of her before and dont know who she is, but I totally love the way she sings. A lot of people sing, and sing really well .. but she is amongst the few who seems to really enjoy while singing. Just listening to her rendition makes me want to sing and dance along.

Also, want to mention this rendition by Jeff Buckley.

He has absolutely no training in Hindustani Classical and that shows. The rendition is actually funny and people may even find it atrocious. But, when a western singer listens to a Qawwali for a first time and falls so much in love with it that he says about the original, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, “He is my Elvis” and memorizes and sings this in his honor, however good or bad it is, it speaks about the greatness of the original track and the maestro who sang it.

There are of course many other renditions of the same song and I may have missed some really good ones, if you heard of a good one, please post it below as I would love to hear it.

Rosh