Margazhi is an explosion of the best of the talent: Aruna Sairam

While the Margazhi music festival is the season that musicians, veterans and up-and-comers alike, eagerly look forward to, this year, popular singer Aruna Sairam is planning to be part of it not as a performer but mainly as a rasika. “After being part of the December festival for so many years now, this season, I am not doing any performances in Chennai,” shares the singer. Adds that she will be taking a sabbatical from the Margazhi season this year to become a rasika herself and enjoy the magic of Margazhi from the other side of the mic. “My plan is to go listen to all the young artistes, go concert-hopping and canteen-hopping, and enjoy myself, because I never got to do that in all these years because I was only rehearsing and performing.”

ON THE NEXT GENERATION OF ARTISTESThe current crop of young artistes are so smart. They’re working very hard, and you’ve got some phenomenal talent. They’re all growing and picking up things so fast.

I try to stay abreast of everything that’s happening in the field, especially with the younger crowd, because, for me, that is the future of the music scene and the listenership. As a senior artiste in the field, it’s my duty to know how it’s all going to pan out. So, I keep listening to all of them. There are you know many young artistes who are doing collaborative work and hardcore Carnatic music as well, and it is interesting to see all tha. Youngsters I listen to are Abhishek Raghuram, Ramakrishnan Murthy, Rithvik Raja, Vignesh Ishwar, Sriranjini Santhanagopalan, Amrita Murali, and Ishwarya Vidya Raghunath.

‘I’M A DIE-HARD LATA MANGESHKAR FAN’My taste in music is rather diverse. Because I’m already doing so much work in Carnatic, I listen to different genres and songs from different countries as well. When I feel like hearing an opera, I listen to Maria Callas; for Brazilian songs, I listen to Mercedes Sosa. I’m a die-hard fan of Lata Mangeshkar. I listen to her and Asha Bhosle, or P Susheela Amma, who holds a similar stature in the South Indian film industry. I go back to retro film songs, but also keep up with the current songs because of my teenaged grandchildren. I also listen to Taylor Swift. For me, music is music. If, it’s interesting, it’s interesting. I don’t like to categorise. I just listen and absorb.
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