Season 9 of the signature fusion music platform Coke Studio will be remembered by fans for all time to come, as Amjad Sabri, who passed away tragicallyearlier this week, will be seen performing in this Season. In what is probably the last studio recording, Amjad Sabri together with Rahat Fateh Ali Khan read the qawwali, Aj Rang Hai.
With the duo of Bilal Maqsood & Faisal Kapadia of Strings as Executive Producers, the Season will bring together multiple music directors, delivering music of different genres will bring forth the talent of some of the most accomplished and major names of the industry including Noori, Shani Arshad, Jaffer Zaidi, Shiraz Uppal, Faakhir Mehmood and Shuja Haider.
Although Amjad Sabri did not feature in previous seasons of Coke Studio, Tajdar e Haram was performed in Season 8 last year by Atif Aslam, as a tribute to the original performers, Ghulam Farid Sabri and Maqbool Ahmed Sabri. Amjad Sabri had also helped Coke Studio on this rendition. The rendition gained worldwide fame with over 33 million views on digital media. Speaking about his kalaam during the recording in May, the late Amjad Sabri had stated,
“About 40 years ago, my father and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan read this kalaam at a dargah in Karachi and 40 years later, Rahat and I are reading it again .”
“Coke Studio is the ultimate manifestation of Coca-Cola’s music strategy and Season 9 will further strengthen Coca-Cola’s cultural leadership, celebrating diversity while bridging barriers relevant to
the youth of today,” stated Rizwan U. Khan, General Manager of Coca-Cola Pakistan, and added,
“It is very distressing that Amjad Sabri himself will not be with all of us to see Season 9 go on air in August. His death is a huge national loss.”
The vast talent on the music direction and production side will be matched in Season 9 by a dazzling array of artists, many of whom have performed in previous Coke Studio seasons, as well as several upcoming and talented singers performing for the first time in Coke Studio. While national icons who have performed previously include the likes of Abida Parveen, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Sanam Marvi, Umair Jaswal, QB, Saieen Zahoor, Ali Azmat, Noori, Zeb Bangash, Faakhir and Meesha Shafi to name a few, the new artists include Shilpa Rao, Mehwish Hayat, Momina Mustehsan, Natasha Khan, Ali Khan, Rizwan Butt, Basit, Rachel Viccaji, Nirmal Roy and of course the maestro of qawwali, Amjad Sabri.
Upon the sad demise of Amjad Sabri, Strings commented:
“We’ve always believed in collaborations because this is how the industry grows. After the monumental response of season 8, we decided to bring onboard 6 of Pakistan’s leading music directors to be a part of Coke Studio. Our vision since season 7 has been to involve more and more people from our music industry and make this platform a collective dream. When we presented the idea to Coca-Cola, they loved it and were fully supportive. It was a challenging task and our guidance was required throughout the process, but today we are extremely satisfied that we took this initiative.”
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