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A mash-up of classic film and folk songs and ghazals rendered by the younger generation of singers will entertain the audience every three months at Alhamra as part of a new musical show, Gohar-i-Nayab, in the pipeline.

Alhamra Art Centre is gearing up to launch a music show featuring young singers, who would perform classics songs of legendary singers from the ‘60s to ‘80s.

“Our mission is to support and preserve the cultural diversity and heritage of all traditional and contemporary music and to bring in a new lot of singers immensely liked by music lovers on social media,” said Muhammad Azam Khan, a former radio buff who worked at Radio Pakistan for four decades.

The Lahore Arts Council will initiate this musical programme with the assistance of Khan early next month and the best voices have already been chosen who would be provided with this platform to showcase their talent.

Singers Kishwar Jahan, Muhammad Zubair, Saif Ali Khan, Amanat Ali, Ali Abbas, Muhammad Hanif and Ali Bakhsh have been chosen by Mr Khan for the first programme.

During his radio journey as a producer, Mr Khan introduced legends like Nayyara Noor, A Nayyar, Ghulam Abbas, Naheed Akhtar and Suraiyya Khanum among others.

He has to his credit some everlasting compositions as well, including ‘Ay Puttar Hataan Tey Nai Vikday’, ‘Rung Laye Ga Shaheedon Ka Lahoo’ and ‘Raat Pheli Hai’.

Lahore Arts Council Executive Director Athar Ali Khan said: “In today’s times, we experience a daily barrage of horrific incidents, insensitive attitudes of people on roads, frustrating and overabundance of bad news. Art and music, especially classic old melodies, can bring relief to the wounds of our souls. The diverse musical talent the youth possesses in music and other art forms will celebrate the traditional and commercial music of yore through this programme.”

He added that film music from the ‘60 to ‘80s in the voices Noor Jehan, Mehdi Hassan, Akhlaq Ahmed, Naheed Akhtar, Mehnaz and many others would be recreated and performed by young singers, which would be a pleasant innovation.

Originally published in Dawn, June 11th, 2019