BOSTON– Indian playback singer Vijay Prakash will perform at Boston’s India Day virtual music concert with Indian American singer Anuradha Palakurthi on Sunday to celebrate India’s Independence Day. The event is organized by India Association of Greater Boston, known as IAGB.
“I will be singing in various Indian languages apart from Hindi. We have songs in Gujrati, Marathi, Punjabi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Anuradha will be singing in Kashmiri and Assamese,” Mr. Prakash told INDIA New England News via an online interview.
Mr. Prakash is one of the singers credited for the song ‘Jai Ho’, which won the Academy award and also the Grammy award. He has been awarded the Filmfare award for the best Kannada playback singer- Male twice in 2015 and 2017 and the Karnataka State Award for the best male playback singer in 2016.
“Jai ho is a song that has celebrated me in my life, a song that changed many lives including mine. I feel very privileged to be a part of this song that has become timeless and my sincere thanks to A R Rahman sir who not only featured me in this song but also took me for the Grammys and I was on stage with the legendary A R Rahman sir,” Mr. Prakash told INDIA New England News. “I will be performing “Jai Ho” for the people of Boston and for all the members of IAGB because it’s a beautiful occasion to celebrate all the success stories of Indians living in Boston and across US.”
Mr. Prakash said that he is glad that Ms. Palakurthi will be joining him during the IAGB program.
“I am very happy to have Anuradha Palakurthi perform with me,” Mr. Prakash said. “Talking about her musicianship, I think she is one of the finest singers that we have who is so passionate and dedicated towards her Art.”
Mr. Prakash said he wants to thank Boston and IAGB for giving him this opportunity to perform for them and it’s indeed a very special moment and day for everyone.
“I wish all of you a Happy Independence Day,” Mr. Prakash said.
Mr. Prakash is from Mysuru and was born in a family of musicians, composers, singers who served the cause of Carnatic classical music. His grandfather Karnataka Kala Tilaka Shri Laxmipathy Bhagavatar, parents Karnataka Kala Shree Late Shri L. Ramasesha and Smt. R. Lopamudra were his earliest gurus. He later on learned from Smt. R. Vedavalli from Chennai.
His work spans devotional, classical, films and pop. He is a versatile artiste in the truest sense. His thirst for music made him move to Mumbai in 1996. He came under the tutelage of Shri Suresh Wadkar who exposed him to Hindustani classical and other light forms of Indian Music. He has sung in more than 3,000 ad jingles and close to 1,000 film songs in many Indian languages – Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and Marathi.
Mr. Prakash has also performed at the international music festivals like the Woodstock festival and the Womad. He was been featured in MTV India coke studio season 2 and season 3 of which some of his songs like Banjara, Baina, and Sati have gone viral. He is also a part of the band called ‘Ananthaal’ with Clinton Cerejo and Bianca Gomes and their recent release sannu ik pal was a week ago.
He is one of the very few Indian artistes who performed in the United Nations (New York) in 2017 commemorating the 70th year of Indian Independence.
Mr. Prakash was invited by the reputed Berklee college of Music Boston in 2016 to perform with their Indian ensemble which comprised of students from 22 countries and who performed his hits along with him at the Berklee Performance Centre to a packed audience.
