The state has talent. That’s an undeniable
fact. Be it football, dance or music, a Goan can undoubtedly make his or her
mark nationally or even internationally. Recently, a Goan duo generated much
excitement in Assam, when they performed at the North Eastern Futsal League.
The first ever league to focus on Futsal in the country, it had attracted
players from countries as diverse as Spain and Argentina.
Sharlaine Menezes, Goa’s only known female
rapper to have made it performing at the state level, and Georgie N Dias, a
musician, singer and composer, set the stands on fire with their electric
performance. But let’s start from the beginning. The organisers of the league
were looking around for a composer to give them a song that would represent the
values of the league. The league would be held over 7 days, between August 25
and August 31, 2019. It would also be the first mixed gender futsal league ever
in the country. The organisers approached popular composers in Mumbai but
somehow things did not fall into place. Someone in the group chanced upon the
anthem Georgie had composed for FC Goa and they liked it. Loved the vibe it
generated. They got in touch with Georgie and discussed ideas. They negotiated
terms and a contract was negotiated and agreed upon. Georgie was given seven
days to give them a final product. The concept he had in mind required a rapper
and he felt a male rapper would be too mainstream and decided a female rapper
would bring something different into the mix.
A few months earlier, he had chanced upon
Sharlaine on Instagram. A student of Don Bosco College, Panjim, she had gained
confidence writing and rapping publicly. She say, “I took part in various
college events and bagging prizes certainly helped me.” She jumped at the
opportunity when it was presented to her. Georgie used his contacts to get
started immediately. He is a resident of Majorda and is part of a band called
‘The Runks’ and also teaches music at Tiger’s Studio at Parvatibai Chowgule
College. With his production house Six String Production, shooting commenced at
the Birla slum and later at Chowgule’s futsal court. The shooting, editing and
all the pre and post production work was completed in time and the video was
presented to the organisers. They loved it and enthused by the sheer quality of
work presented, invited them to perform at the inauguration.
Assam was an experience Georgie and
Sharlaine will not forget very soon. The weather was very hot, which was a
surprise for Georgie, who expected a very cold Assam. They were also warned
that Assamese audience did not usually stand and join in with the performer. On
the day of the event, everything went topsy turvy. They were expected to
perform the anthem and couple of other songs but a paucity of time meant they
could only perform the anthem. It was obvious the Assamese audience had not
seen anything like this. Georgie displayed his Goan showmanship sharpened
performing regularly live at Goan weddings and caught the fancy of the audience.
After the games, they came back and performed a couple of more numbers to the
great joy of the audience. He says, “They stood up and swayed and danced when
we performed and more importantly, sang along. The organisers later told me
they were pleasantly surprised by the response. I also learnt something about
the people. The general idea was that they loved their rock music but they
loved listening to commercial stuff.”
They were required to stay for two days,
which went by quickly.
Asked what they would like to be doing in
the future, Sharlaine says the response to her rapping was over whelming and
she would like to work with independent musicians in Goa and see how that goes.
She says she intends to give it a great deal of energy to see how far she will be
able to go. As for Georgie, he hopes to compose music that will connect with
people directly. He also says, “We get recognition outside Goa, we receive so
much of praise outside but in Goa it is exactly the opposite.”
Time will tell.
