Sonu Niigaam's Britain concerts - a tribute to Rafi

By Venkata Vemuri

London, July 15 (IANS) Popular Indian playback singer Sonu Niigaam has tied up with a Birmingham-based musical company for a three-concert tour of Britain in memory of legendary singer Mohammad Rafi.

The singer and the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) will stage three shows on their joint project "Rafi Resurrected" - a tribute album to Rafi, who gave innumerable Bollywood hit songs in the 1950s-80s.

The show starts off Tuesday at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. The next concert will be held Thursday at Apollo Theatre in Manchester and the final show will be conducted July 20 in London at the Coliseum. This last show will be a special one because it will be recorded by Sony TV.

CBSO's double-CD, 18-track album features some of Rafi's memorable singles and duets. Niigaam will be accompanied by female singer Gunjan.

The tracks include “Suhani raat dhal chuki”, “Dil ke jharoke mein”, “Patthar ke sanam”, “Gulabi aankhen” and the duet “Mujhe teri muhabbat ka sahara”.

The songs were selected from Rafi's repertoire of over 26,000 numbers by Shin of Birmingham Bhangra band DCS.

CBSO recorded the orchestral parts at its home base, the CBSO Centre, with Niigaam adding the vocals in a studio in Mumbai. Some Indian percussion was also added at a different Mumbai studio, and the project then completed the square by being mixed in London.

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