After two gloriously musical evenings following a long day of literary musings at the Jaipur Literature Festival, the 15th edition of the Jaipur Music Stage ended on an exuberant note on 12th March 2022. The concluding day of the music festival brought to the fore three diverse performances by singer-songwriters and musicians working across an eclectic mix of genres, including folk, pop and rock.
The third day of the Festival featured the winners of the Songdew contest, Xubaan, who brought their unique flavour of music drawing from a wide range of influences such as reggae, jazz, funk and progressive rock; Ali Saffudin, a gifted singer-songwriter from Srinagar, Kashmir, who is known to deftly manoeuvre between tender, heart-wrenching ballads and power-packed, folk-punk anthems; and Ankur & The Ghalat Family, a Hindi rock project led by frontman and singer-songwriter Ankur Tewari, along with Gaurav Gupta, Sidd Coutto and Johan Pais. Tewari has composed and written lyrics for multiple feature-length films, including Guilty, Yeh Ballet, and the blockbuster film Gully Boy.
The Festival followed Covid-19 protocols that were mandated by the central and Rajasthan governments during the time of its rescheduled dates.
About his performance, Ali Saffudin said, “This platform provides an engaging opportunity for multiple writers, poets, and artists in the fields of art, literature, and music. Just like every other year, we’ll begin with a series of Ghalib’s, followed by a wide range of Kashmiri poetry.”
Ankur Tewari shared his excitement on being part of the Jaipur Music Stage, saying, “It gives me great pleasure to be back on stage after such a long time as the Festival embraces its 15th edition. Literature and music do go hand in hand, so to have a music stage at the ‘Kumbh of literature’ adds more gaze for all its attendees in a post-pandemic world. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, there haven’t been any opportunities to perform so it’ll be an ice candy to relive the magic of music at the Jaipur Music Stage. ”
