One of the oldest genres of music, the Mando has been preserved for generations in Goa in Konkani. On the other hand, Dulpods are songs of the masses and touches upon social and current issues in Goa often with sarcasm. The only time one can hear these songs sung live at a competition is at the annual Mando festival. The 57th All Goa State Level Mando Festival will be held this year at Institute Menezes Braganza Auditorium, Panjim on December 11 and 12 from 6 pm onwards.
Organised by the Goa Cultural and Social Centre, the festival has always encouraged children and teenagers to sing and in the long run preserve this unique genre of music. The General Secretary of the Goa Cultural and Social Centre, Milagres Fernandes, informs that the competition will be also telecasted live on their YouTube channels for viewers across the world. “All Goa State Level Mando Festival is free and open to all to enjoy two evenings of melodious voices and music. It is important that the audience appreciates the young talent that comes on the stage and motivates them to continue singing Mandos. Mando has survived because of children, who turned into teenagers and then even sung for the senior categories,” says Milagres. The show will be compered by the brother duo of Agnelo and Armando Fernandes from Borim.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
A computer teacher at Saviour of the World High School, Loutulim, Quincy Fernandes, will be guiding the students of the school in two categories, children’s category and teenager category. The school had participated for Mando Competition on two occasions. In 2012, they participated in the teenager group and secured second place while in 2019, they participated in children’s category and bagged first place. “I am happy to inform that those who participated in the children’s category are now taking part in Teenager category. Reagan Fernandes who was of 2012 teenager category is now our musician. Under children’s category, we have students from age 6 – 12 and will be singing a romantic song, ‘Igorjechea Festak’. Under Teenager Category the participants will melodiously sing to another love song, ‘Doriachea Lharari’,” informs Quincy.
The participants in the children’s category include Franisa Carvalho, Misha Gomes, Freeda Gonsalves, Abernie Andrade, Lidiya Furtado, Arran Fernandes, Ian Vaz, Shaden Fernandes, Shenoy Fernandes, Swain Fernandes and Leon Fernandes. The participants in the teenager category, Elisha Antao, Swency Fernandes, Sibyl Cardozo, Velisa Fernandes, Xavia D’Costa, Fedora Andrade, Ransom D’Mello, Kaiset Fernandes, Alister Almeida, Shawn D’Mello and Valancio Fernandes.
Biology teacher, Rolita Judy Pires and Konkani teacher, Ruchta Gomes will be guiding the young voices of Ruzaieche Fullte Kolle, a Mando troupe from Rosary Higher Secondary School, Navelim, in the teenage category. “When the competition was announced, we asked students who wanted to participate to audition. We asked them to preferably sing any Mando for the auditions. We have been practising for two weeks now,” says Rolita. Ruzaieche Fullte Kolle has previously won the first place at the Mando Festival in 2022 with the unwavering support of Principal Magret Dias. However, this mando group is formed with completely new voices.
The group comprises of 15 members, led by the melodious voices of Ashyl Gomes and Reuben Fernandes, Maria A Fernandes, Aditi Furtado, Esther Pires, Sachiel Cardoso, Shane Silva, Joyd Antao, Joshua Lobo and Jonas Oliveira. The musical accompaniment is provided by Josh Issac on guitar, Dashia Gomes on mandolin, Vozler Pereira on double bass, Russell on violin and Adonis on ghumot, guided by the expertise of and Rolita Judy Pires.
Frank Estrocio has written the original Mando for the group, Caranzalechim Chok-Chokit Noketram. The group members who will be participating in the original category of the competition includes lead singers, Frank Estrocio and Sadira Fernandes, Welsy Estrocio, Agnela D’Souza, Lerissa Estrocio, Joylin Barbosa, Liza Sequeira, Princeton Da Gama, Fean Almeida and Cipriano Fernandes. The musicians include Salvador Corte and Lemuela D’Mello on violin, Sherwin Fernandes on guitar and Prashant Paddenkar on ghumot.
“I love writing songs and I have written and composed toast songs. I play in the youth band of Caranzalem and I also play the bass guitar in my parish choir. We have been practising for a month for the mando competition and some of the members had participated when we were very young in different groups. This is the first time we will be performing together as a group and we are very excited,” says Frank, who has his choir, Echoes of Grace.
