Poparazzi: The return of red

Umair Jaswal, Atif Aslam, Ayesha Omar, Zoe Viccaji and Sikandar Mufti

It was six years ago when a music show that paired some of the best in the pop/rock genre with those from the folk/classical genre took Pakistan (and the world at large) by storm. Every year since then, Coke Studio has been consistently delivering music to an audience that seems to grow bigger and bigger and across the globe. Over 44pc of the show’s audience is foreign, we were informed at a launch event of CS’s sixth season, held in Lahore.

It makes perfect sense, therefore, that the sixth season of the show would send its featured Pakistani artists and crew out into the world to jam with artists from different countries including Italy, Morocco, Nepal, Norway Serbia and Turkey, and bring the fruits of that collaboration back home. This season’s global musical influences are said to hail from Fes, Morocco, The Balkans, Turkey, Kathmandu, Nepal and of course, Pakistan. Both the audio and the video of the show have been shot in different parts of the world — in over eight countries to be precise and involved the work of over 3,000 crew members in total.

Anoushey Ashraf, who looked resplendent in an elegant black jumpsuit, hosted the launch event. After standing in respect for the Pakistani national anthem, a moment of silence was observed for the victims of the Peshawar blasts and Balochistan earthquake before the CS house band and featured artists were asked to take to the stage. These included the likes of Asad Ahmed, Babar Ali Khanna, Kamran Zafar, Sikandar Mufti, Omran Shafique and returning musicians Jaffer Zaidi and Gumby.

This season’s featured artists include Abrar-ul-Haq, Alamgir, Ali Azmat (who will be returning to the show after having performed in the first season), Asad Abbas, Atif Aslam, Ayesha Omar, Fariha Pervez, Muazzam Ali Khan, Rostam MirLashari, Rustam Fateh Ali Khan, Saieen Zahoor (the artiste who received the most applause when he took to the stage), Sanam Marvi, Sumru Aðýryürüyen (from Istanbul, Turkey), Umair Jaswal, Zara Madani and Zeb and Haniya.

Last year saw Atif Aslam and the Islamabad-based rock outfit Qayaas collaborate on Charkha Nolakha — arguably the song that defined the entire season. This year, Qayaas’s lead singer, Umair Jaswal returns to the studio as a solo artist. “This time its different as I’m coming alone,” he said speaking to Images on Sunday, “I’m playing a composition that is older than Qayaas. It’s the material I started out with and now after eight to nine years it’s coming out. For me, this season is more intimate. It’s literally just me and my microphone. You pay more attention to your singing and for me the environment was more personal and intense.”

Zoe Viccaji who has been a part of the studio for many, many seasons and is now being featured as one of the main artists says that this time, “it’s completely different. I went to Rome and worked with the band that was working on my song. When you work with different musicians outside the country and see the way they’ve taken a song, it’s a completely new experience. The approach in Rome was completely different.”

“It’s been a miracle for me, this season,” she continued, “It’s opened up avenues for me to work with international musicians and see how doable it really is. It was not as difficult as I thought it would be.”

The soundtrack of the evening was a groovy orchestral version of Jogi that featured collaboration between Fariha Parvez and Moazzam Ali Khan, a sort of preview into what to expect this season. CS’s season six will be aired on a whopping 40 channels across Pakistani while also simultaneously being released online.

A coffee-table book, published by Markings, was also launched that celebrated the past five years of CS. Titled, Sound of the Nation, it was a collection of behind-the-scenes photos showing some of the major artists that have been a part of the CS family, celebrated important moments in the season’s history and attempted to show the emotional and cultural impact of the show on ‘regular’ people. Post-event, some of the House Band members and previously featured artists could be seen pouring over the book and reliving some of the moments depicted in it.

The evening wasn’t all about music: the lifelong efforts of Mr and Mrs Tayyab from the Rising Sun Institute towards spreading education among the lesser-privileged, special-needs children, were recognised. Mr and Mrs Tayyab, who have been going around in a mobile van focusing on providing therapy and education to those they felt needed it the most, were called on stage and were asked to receive a token of appreciation.

Coke Studio has come a long way from its first season. Somewhere between then and now, other music shows popped up on the scene but none managed to make their mark the way CS has. And, although it’s launching a couple of months later than usual, this season of the show promises a whole new world of music for its audiences. And we can’t wait to start discovering it.

Newspaper View: [Click for larger image]