The true happiness of celebrating Christmas is when we started singing Christmas carols and song. Whether it is in the background while decorating the house or the crib or applying paper to the wooden star, music is very important to put Goans in the mood for the season. One has to start brushing up on the carols before carol singing begins in the church and with new catchy songs coming every year, these songs are accepted with open hearts.
Known as Goa’s pop singer, Olavo Rodrigues, who goes by the stage name O’Luv, gifts Goa at least one Christmas song every year. This year, he released, ‘Alegria Para O Mundo’, Portuguese version of Christmas carol, ‘Joy to the World’ with music arrangement by Joaquim De Souza. During the Covid-19 pandemic, O’Luv released back to back singles on his YouTube channel, which included ‘Ballok Jezu’ from his album, ‘Feliz Natal’ by VP Sinaris & Sons, followed by original songs, ‘Merry Merry Christmas…Khuxall Natalam’ with music and lyrics by O’Luv and music arrangement by Elick and ‘Nasceu Jesus Nazareno’ with lyrics by Adv Bosco Largos Cotta and music by Elick. “I always love to try to sing in different languages. Since this carol, Joy to the World’ is mostly sung in English, I sung it in Portuguese with the help of my teachers,” says O’Luv. On December 23 at 8.30 pm and on December 25 at 12.30 pm, O’Luv will sing English, Konkani and Portuguese Christmas songs on his Facebook page.
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Andrew Ferrao, who is from Verna and based in Mumbai, have recorded with 13 new singers from July 2020 till date. For this Christmas, he released traditional Christmas carols and hymns. “These six are our traditional Christmas carols and hymns. I’m documenting these beautiful compositions since are not available on YouTube. I mainly record new singers to give them an opportunity of recording their vocals,” says Andrew. The songs include ‘Belea Xharant’ featuring Mimoza Barreto from Chichinim, ‘Bapan Utor Dilam’ featuring Malonza Barreto from Chichinim, ‘Mariechea Khandar’ featuring Ruchita Gomes from Orlim, Emmanuel featuring Aishwarya Afonso from Chichinim, ‘Babulea’ featuring Swizel Costa from Majorda and ‘Konn Re Ballok’ featuring Aishwarya Afonso from Chichinim.
Working in the banking industry in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, Nifa Alphonso was attracted to music from a youn age. However, busy with her academics and then career and family life, she never thought that she would be able to write and sing songs. Until she was introduced to Mack Dias. Originally from Pomburpa, Nifa’s grandfather, Nolbert Sequeira, was a music teacher in Moira and his violins are her prized possessions. “I always regretted that I dint have the opportunity to sing. I used to write songs but only to sing to myself. After working in Mumbai and Dubai, my husband, son and I moved to Canada in 2007. Quite recently, I was introduced to multi-instrumentalist Mack Dias who helped arrange music for my first single, ‘Mhojem Goenchem Jivit’ which was released just a month age,” says Nifa.
Her second original song is a Christmas carol ‘Happy Birthday Jezu’ which was written to celebrate the birth of Jesus, which has received a tremendous response all over the Goan Diaspora. “This song was composed within a week and I researched that there were songs for Happy Birthday Jesus which were released in the USA but nothing more than that. So I decided to compose one in Konkani. I wanted to record the song in the church but unfortunately, the Christmas tree is decorated only at the end of Advent and that would be late to release the song,” says Nifa. Mack did the music and the song is sung by Mack Dias, Lucina Pinto, Atanasio Lobo and Nifa.
“Finally, the song was recorded at Erin Mills Town Centre starting at 7 am and was shot by my son, Nial Alphonso. The recording, mixing and mastering is by Jonathan Paris Music and the editing was done by Donny Faia of HS27 from Pomburpa. Lucina Pinto did medicine in Goa Medical College and moved to Canada after marrying Godfrey Pinto. She is the daughter of Francisco and Juliana Cordeiro from Mapusa. Atanasio Lobo is from Pirazona Moira and the ex-Sarpanch of Moira. The song has received a great response and my friends in Goa have informed me that many parishes are practising the song to sing for the midnight mass,” says Nifa.
Dubai based Goan singer, musician and songwriter, Friz Love’s new song, ‘Zolmola Jezu’ is his fourth Christmas original song and it has an Indian vibe to it, something that Friz has experimented for the first time. “My first Christmas song was in 2017 and the following two years. I didn’t release any Christmas song during the pandemic. I composed this song and was set to release it last year but due to some unforeseen event, I couldn’t release the song. This is the very first time I tried my hands on Bhajan style Indian music. After I did the outline of the song, I sent it to my friend, Prathamesh Premnath Chari, one of finest tabla and drummer in Goa, who wholeheartedly obliged to play the tabla for the song. The video features Prathamesh Premnath Chari on Tabla and Ian Carvalho on flute, which was shot in Ireland by my friend Jude Silveira,” says Friz, who is also thankful to his wife and son.
Speaking about the inspiration for his song, Friz explains, “I got inspired by my guru, Fr Dominic Alvares, who has composed beautiful songs in Bhajan style. So I gave it a try myself. The thought provoking lyrics of the song was penned down with lot of insights that I got meditating upon the birth of Christ. In this modern world, we are losing the true meaning of Christmas. In this song, I highlighted three aspects of life, to be sensitive towards the needs of others, value relationships instead of gadgets in this technology world and to save the innocent life in the womb and say no to abortion.”
The song was released on December 19, and has well received. “The response has been amazing from people as they got connected with the lyrics and felt the words of the song. They have given their appreciation for the song through their likes, comments on my channel and WhatsApp messages. So far, it has got almost 10,000 views which for me is an incredible number.”
Do remember to add these few Goan Christmas hits to your playlist while enjoying the music of the season.
