Music has no boundaries; the right melody can hold on to the attention of the listener,
no matter what the language. In fact, listening to songs in different
languages, known and unknown, has its own appeal. In Goa, listening to and
singing Portuguese songs has quite a few takers, belonging to different age
groups.
One excellent platform for the singing
talent in Goa is Vem Cantar, an annual singing competition that is held in
categories for various ages as well as a group category. This year, Fundação
Oriente and the Heritage Cell of the Rosary College of Commerce and Arts,
Navelim, will organise the 20th edition of Vem Cantar 2018. The contest will
have four categories for individual contestants. The age groups will be 8-11
years, 12-15 years, 16-20 years and 21 years and above. The group singing
competition will have three categories, Junior-A (school level), Junior-B
(higher secondary school level) and seniors.
The Individual Singing Contest will be
held at the Institute Menezes Braganza, Panjim on Saturday, September 22, 2018
at 5pm, where 34 contestants will be participating and theGroup Singing Contest
will be held at the Ravindra Bhavan, Margao on Saturday, October 6, 2018 at
5pm, with 28 participants.
Maria Ines Figueira, Director of Fundação
Oriente, is overwhelmed with the responsethe competition has received. This
year, auditions and a workshop were organised due to an increase in the number
of participants. “We had to shortlist participants for the competition as the
programme would get too lengthy. In the solo singing category, there are ten
participants each in the first three age categories while the 21 years and
above category has four participants. This year, we made one more change to the
competition. Fado singing is not accepted as we felt that the same songs are
repeated for the Fado singing competition organised by Semana da Cultura Indo
Portuguesa (Goa) later in the year.”
With this one condition, though Maria Ines feels there is a drop
in the number of participants, there is still an increasing number of children
participating in the competition. “There are many participants in the 8-11
years category and they are so good, which goes to show that the love for
Portuguese music and songs is only growing in Goa. Many of these children have
seen their siblings perform at the competition and it is heart-warming to see
them on the stage,” she adds.
What
genres of music and songs can one expect at the competition? “There are slow
songs and ballads and even Portuguese music from Brazil. The participants have
put in a huge effort to select different songs and those that were sung last
year are not allowed this year. The audience will get to listen to a whole new
range of songs. Brazilian Portuguese music reaches out to a wider audience as
compared to African Portuguese-speaking countries or Portugal itself,”
concludes Maria Ines.
