Shyamhari Chakra
For the Odias who love music, Nazia Alam does not need an introduction.
Daughter of legendary singer Sikandar Alam and Naima Alam and younger sister of familiar actress Sophia Alam, she has already achieved her own distinct identity as a young and accomplished singer.
From being a finalist at the very popular SaReGaMa reality show as a teenager to the winner of India’s prestigious Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Prativa Puraskar for Odissi music, Nazia has been then pride of Odisha while her success story has been an inspiration for many aspiring artistes.
Interestingly, it was her mother Naima Alam, a trained Hindustani classical singer, who named her as Nazia after the immensely popular Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan who was a world-renowned singing sensation then. Apparently, she dreamt her daughter to be a famous singer someday in future.
True to her mother’s wish, Nazia showed a natural inclination towards music since early childhood and emerged as an accomplished singer.
Though she was a brilliant student, she took up the challenging career of a classical singer than opting for a white collar job.
“I knew that music was my future, yet I was preparing for civil services examination simultaneously with learning music. I had also thought of going into teaching as a profession. Of course, my parents always encouraged me to become only an artist and to make music my only career. But a remark of my professor changed my career preference for ever,” reveals Nazia.
“With your kind of talent in music I would be very unhappy if you make civil services or academics you primary and music a secondary career. ‘Tume jadi kou district re collector hei basiba tahale Odisha re sangita kariba kie? (If you become a Collector, who would serve music in Odisha?)’ – this was the remark of my professor”, she shares.
“There are very few people in this world who get to pursue their passion as their profession. I consider myself lucky and fortunate as one among those and so there was no looking back”, she points out.
Equally adept in Hindustani, Odissi, ghazal, film music genres, Nazia was in headlines during 1997 to 2001 when she got selected in two national level singing competitions – Saregama and Meri Awaz Suno.
“I was just out of my school during those days. These shows were then hosted by Sonu Nigam and Anu Kapoor. I had the opportunity to meet and interact with some very popular music directors and singers from Bollywood like Shankar Mahadevan, Anu Mallick and Alka Yagnik who had judged me”, she fondly remembers.
Nazia recollects a sad experience that she had during the reality shows in Mumbai. “Wherever I would introduce myself and mention the name of my state I belong to, none would recognise Odisha (then Orissa). So I always had to mention that I was from the land of Puri Jagannath. It was there that I had promised myself to make my state known someday for its music. This is the reason why I shifted my focus to Odissi music after years of training in Hindustani,” shares the versatile singer who was the first from Odissi music to claim the national award for young artistes in 2009.
Is she not keen in her career as a playback singer in Odia film industry? “I got my first offer for the Odia film ‘I Love You’ from music director Swaroop Nayak in 2002. But I could not avail it then as I was on my first tour of America with my father. Since my first love has been classical music and I also gained recognition for classical genre, I naturally concentrated in classical music. However, I am also open to sing for the films”, she explains.
From her distinct debut in 1997 when prestigious music company HMV released her album “Jagannath Janana”, Nazia has, so far, recorded more than 500 songs in five languages – Odia, Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali and Urdu – in addition to above 2000 live concerts of Bollywood, ghazal, devotional, patriotic, Odissi and Hindustani music in India and abroad.
She has been in limelight at the national level with the Sampoona Geetgovinda album that was released by HMV Saregama in 2008 that was released by Gajapati Maharaja Shri Dibyasingha Deb and Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan in a special ceremony in New Delhi.
Nazia learnt Sanskrit for this special project and did her doctoral research on Geet Govind later on.
‘You are destined to go very far in the field of music. You are very dedicated in your pursuit of music. Please keep it up”, legendary singer Manna Dey had said this to Nazia way back in 2007 when he had visited to perform at Rabindra Mandap.
The legend’s predictions have come true.
