Indian singer Zubeen Garg enthrals Trinidad audience

By Paras Ramoutar

Port-of-Spain, Feb 19 (IANS) Well-known Bollywood singer Zubeen Garg, who hails from Assam, enthralled an overflowing audience at the Trinidad & Tobago capital with his latest hits, "Ya Ali" and "Subah Subah".

The talented musician, who plays several instruments and is also an accomplished singer, had the crowd swaying to his numbers at the Centre of Excellence here Saturday in a delayed Valentine's Day soiree. Zubeen shared the stage with the heartthrob of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), Raymond Ramnarine.

The concert, over the weekend, was organised and coordinated by international Indian cultural activist, promoter and commentator, Rafi Mohammed, son of former T&T deputy prime minister Kamaluddin Mohammed.

Zubeen is billed as the first Indian entertainer from Assam to perform here. He was supported by Ramnarine's Dil-e-Dan, one of the oldest Indian bands in T&T, which has been in the entertainment business for the past 40 years. Zubeen also used his own sound track for the show.

Zubeen had the young-at-heart couples dancing along with senior citizens as he belted out some of his hits like "Ya Ali", "Subah Subah", "Jag Lal", "Ek Din" and "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom". He even played the drum with one of his renditions.

Zubeen has more than 7,000 songs in his repertoire and over 40 albums to his credit.

Zubeen said he had looked forward to coming to T&T and was "extremely happy to play for the much-talked-about T&T audience".

Raymond, in an interview, said he wanted to share stage with Zubeen Garg. "I could not wait to meet this great singer. His songs are topping the charts in local frequencies as people throughout the land are requesting for his hits, 'Ya Ali' and 'Subah Subah', on the local radio," he said.

Zubeen, also an actor and director, has premiered in his own Assamese movie, "Tum Mor Matho Mor", and acted in several other movies. He is now working on his latest venture, "Chakra".

Over the past four decades, T&T has hosted several well-known Indian performers from Bollywood like Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar, her sister Asha Bhonsle, Hemant Kumar, Kumar Sanu and recently Shah Rukh Khan.

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