LORNA WINS GOAN HEARTS IN SOLD OUT EVENT IN KUWAIT
Over a thousand die-hard Lorna Cordeiro and Konkani
music fans crammed inside the American International School Auditorium in Hawally
to witness the living legend otherwise called the nightingale of Goa, perform
live on the 28th of August 2015 in probably the best organized Goan
program in Kuwait in a long long time.
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| Norman Cardozo - Lorna's pillar on stage |
Launching their first ever event in Kuwait, ‘Celebrate
Entertainment’ a newly formed Event & Media management company under the
headship of young and dynamic Cheslee D’Souza, ‘an evening with Lorna’ was an
astounding success and the mainly second and third generations of young Lorna
fans, most of whom had never seen her
but had grown up listening to her famous songs playing in their parents cars or
at some Goan function or a party, enjoyed an evening of wonderful performances, not
only from Lorna who was accompanied by the very talented Norman Cardozo on the
keyboard, but also all other performers that participated in the program as well. The fact that barely three months ago a
Konkani film loosely based on the life of Lorna, ‘Nachom-ia Kumpasar’ featuring many of her
famous songs was shown successfully in Kuwait,
added to the mystery and aura of the legend.
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| The Classix - Good performance by them |
With the audience having already packed the hall well
before the scheduled starting time, the program kicked off, with Kuwait’s expatriate Goan band ‘Classix’
made up of talented Goan boys who warmed
up and jelled the audience with some retro English renditions and the all time
Goan favorites Mira Mira and a medley of classic Konkani hits. By the time the Classix ended their set, the audience
were already anxious to see Lorna and the excitement and anticipation reached fever pitch when the evening’s host,
the dashing and flamboyant Lloyd D’Souza came on stage and asked the eager
crowd ‘Ladies and gentlemen….. Are you
ready for Lorna?’ The response was unanimous, "Lorna Lorna" they screamed, the lights
dimmed, the magical music of Norman played and on stage glided in Lorna with her trademark arms raised, flawlessly rendering ‘Denem’ (gift) a new
composition, wherein she thanks the almighty for the gift of her voice. Incidentally the song was composed by Nevis Olivera,
Superintendant of Customs in India, and was the perfect build up for other all
time favorites like ‘ Sorge tojea doleanim’ and ‘ Ker Korina’ which followed.
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| Master of Ceremony - Lloyd D'Souza |
Taking a short breather during which time local talent
Jhankar Acadamy took centre stage to perform some amazing dance routines, Lorna
was back on stage for the second set.
One of the highlights of the evening was the interaction Lorna was able
to have with the audience through emcee Lloyd D’Souza, who every now and then
got Lorna to share some trivia about herself.
Her song ‘Sorga Rajeanth’ a sad ballad was composed by the late Souza
Ferrao, Lorna informed the audience. She
then ended the session with an upbeat version of all time favorites, ‘Calangute’
and the foot tapping ‘ Nachon-ia
Kumpasar’.
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After intermission, popular Kuwaiti singer Mubarak Al Rashed
who is a lover of Indian music, made a guest appearance on stage and surprised
and impressed the crowd with his flawless and charming rendition of Senorita
from a popular Hindi film.
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| Popular Kuwaiti singer Mubarak Al Rashed
The novelty of Lorna who started her career as a Jazz
singer in a popular nightclub in a Mumbai hotel is her intense power packed
voice which she uses to easily cover her lack of stage glamour. It’s this voice along with the popular Chris
Perry compositions that have got her performing for her fans all over the world
including the Middle East, USA, UK, France and Portugal. To
prove her versatility and taking on the challenge of emcee Lloyd she jammed
with the Classix to sing the title song of her comeback album after 25 years in
1995 ‘ Portun aikat mozo tavo’ which she followed up with the timeless ‘ Sopon’
and ‘Amerikak Paushi’. The audience was also given an opportunity in
between to watch Penny’s Dance group performing the Kulti fogdi a traditional Goan
harvest dance.
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| Penny’s Dance group performing the Kulti fogdi a traditional Goan harvest dance. |
Chief Guest for the evening Mrs. Jawhar Al Bader
thanked the organizers for inviting her and paid glowing tributes to Cheslee
D’Souza who she said she had known as a
little boy, and was happy to learn that today he is running an event company at
this young age by organizing such a big event.
The guest of honor Anand D’Souza was also invited on stage and presented
with a bouquet of flowers. Both Lorna
and Norman Cardozo were honored by the organizers towards the end of the
evening with plaques and Cheslee thanked them for accepting his invitation and
making the evening such a success. Lorna
also cut the ribbon to release the program souvenir which was freely
distributed to the audience.
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| Jhankar Acadamy took centre stage to perform some amazing dance routines |
Dashing through the aisles to give away spot prizes on
Lorna trivia, Lloyd asked Lorna if she would ever return to Kuwait and the diva responded with raised
arms, of course I will, I love you all and look forward to seeing you all
again.
Going into her final set of songs, Lorna started with
‘Tuzo Mog’ by asking the very sporting audience to sing along with her and
ended the evening on a high with ‘Lisboa’ and ‘Bebdo’. For the mainly Goan audience hungry for some
quality entertainment, the entire show was a novelty. The
timely start, the glittering on stage lighting and faultless sound system put
together by Waves Sound and Engineering headed by Anand and his team was
something that Goan audience had hoped one day to see and hear. SB Media brought glamour to the event and
took care of the videography. The media
coverage was handled by ‘Kuwait Today’.
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| A section of the very receptive audience |
The main sponsors for the evening were ‘ Gulf Cable
& Electric Industries Company ‘ and ‘Wrap It’. Associate sponsors were Avanti Restaurant,
Kapico, Caesars, Ali Alghanim & Sons, Gulf Spic, Burgan Bank, Malabar Gold,
Reliance Technical and Waves Printing.
While thanking all the sponsors, and people who supported him in
organizing the event, Cheslee did not forget to remember his two closesd friends
Wazil and Abigail who both passed away tragically in a car accident a few
months back. He also thanked Prashant and his family and friends for the support he received.
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| Honor to be in the same pic as the three stars of the evening |
As people filed out of the auditorium, the huge impact
Lorna had created and the success of the show was evident from the smiling
faces, the happy chirpy laughter and the seemingly endless queue to take selfies
with Lorna. Celebrate Entertainment and
particularly Cheslee D’souza should take
a bow for finally giving the Goans a mega event that was superbly organized. As a fan summed it all up ‘Lorna is the reason we listen
to Konkani music’, thank you Celebrate Entertainment for letting us see her too!!!
Julio Cardoso
Kuwait
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