Ricky Kej and other Grammy winners gear up for the world's largest concert for kids

This year's World Music Day on June 21, will easily be one of the most eventful ones ever, all thanks to the multiple online concerts happening across the globe throughout the day.

Grammy award winner Ricky Kej

along with five other reputed musicians from across the world including Lucy Kalantari, Kalani PE'A, Wouter Kellerman, Ion Samson, Marlachi Divas and Lonnie Park are gearing up to perform an hour-long concert this weekend. They will be singing kid's songs based on

the Sustainable Goals

set by the United Nations. The event is officially supported by other international bodies like WWF, UN Climate Change, Earth Day Org and 50 Years Earth Day 2020.

In an exclusive interview with Bombay Times, Ricky Kej talks about his unique concert, his biggest takeaway from the lockdown and his honest opinion about the

Bollywood music industry

. Excerpts...

Your upcoming concert on World Music Day will be the largest concert ever held for children. Tell us about it...

Songs we learn as children remain with us forever and the morals contained in them direct our choices and our lives. With this in mind, I created ‘My Earth Songs’. Ever since I won the Grammy Award, I have dedicated my life and music to creating

Environmental Consciousness

and awareness on Climate Change, and this concert is an effort to ensure a new generation of environmentally connected human beings. We have to start with children if we are to raise a generation of environmentally conscious citizens and that is what we are setting out to achieve through this concert. This concert will provide meaningful entertainment to children while conveying really important messages around our environment. We have brought together six Grammy winners and two Grammy nominees from around the world to perform these songs live in concert. The concert will be showcased on multiple streaming and social media platforms and will be the largest ever concert for children in history. I hope to inspire children around the world to fall in love with our planet.

You have done other events too during COVID-19 lockdown - how is it to do digital concerts? What are the pros and cons of a

virtual concert

, you think?

The pandemic has heavily impacted the music industry and we are currently in a state of evolution. As performing musicians, I use my live concerts to connect emotionally to hundreds of thousands of people to inspire mass behavioural change and also perform intimate concerts to world leaders to remind them of their commitment to climate action. However, arenas always have physical limitations. With virtual concerts, the whole world is our playground.
My last two online concerts in April and June 2020 was watched by millions around the world and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. I did wonder how we will all be able to keep our energy and momentum high as these virtual concerts were filmed completely at home and there is absolutely no feedback from the audience coming through but a lot of people reached out to me stating that they were extremely inspired by the music and the overall message of my concerts. As an artiste, it is very fulfilling when the audience is so receptive. Massive virtual concert such as these is a new experience but I am very happy with the way it all turned out in the end. I have several more large scale virtual concerts coming up and we are expecting the viewership figures to increase tremendously.

The global lockdown and our battle with the pandemic have taught us much. What is your biggest takeaway? What has this pandemic and the subsequent lockdown taught you?
This pandemic has clearly shown us how fragile we are as a species and how interdependent we are. It has shown us beyond any doubt, that if we are faced with an imminent threat, we humans are capable of massive behavioural change and that our leaders are capable of making strong decisions. We have to utilise this time to reflect on our relationship with our natural environment and put sustainability at the forefront of everything that we do. There are several factors that contribute to each major environmental issue and they are all interlinked. What we need is a change in consciousness and behaviour. We need to consume less, of everything. We have to vote for leaders who are environmentally conscious and we have to support businesses that are environmentally responsible. Conscious actions such as these will have a ripple effect and will contribute greatly to the well being of our planet.

What is your favourite thing about Bollywood songs and Hindi film music?

I think Bollywood music is very well produced, very high quality, right up to any international standards. The issue is with content. Since Bollywood provides 99.9 per cent of all musical content in India, every song that is made in India is either an Item song or a love song. Even the so-called independent musicians are making songs hoping to impress Bollywood, to get a chance to create for them. Very early on in my career, I decided not to become a Film Composer. Since music in India is deeply integrated with Bollywood, I had to base my career abroad, even though my music is primarily Indian. I would only compose for a film, if it is in alignment with my thoughts and philosophies, and is created with a singular purpose to make this world a better place. Making art just for the purpose of sales does not make sense to me. I have loved the styles of

Pandit Ravi Shankar

, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan because they have never let genre boundaries define them. All that they did was make music that they strongly believed in and collaborated with some of the best musicians and individuals across the globe. The world was/is their musical canvas.