Current Final

Tag: Music

  • Grammy organisers eliminate ‘secret’ nominating committees after allegations of corruption

    The organisers of music’s Grammy Awards on Friday announced an end to the so-called “secret” committees that have led to allegations that the highest honours in the industry are open to rigging.

    The Recording Academy said that nominations for the next Grammy Awards in January 2022 will be selected by all of its more than 11,000 voting members, instead of by committees of 15 to 30 industry experts whose names were not revealed.

    The Academy was slammed last year when Canadian artist The Weeknd got zero Grammy nominations, even though his critically acclaimed album After Hours was one of the biggest sellers of 2020.

    The Weeknd, in a Twitter post last November, said “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency.”

    The Recording Academy said in a statement on Friday that the changes were significant and were made “to ensure that the Grammy Awards rules and guidelines are transparent and equitable.”

    Allegations that the Grammy nominations process is tainted were made in a legal complaint filed in early 2019 by the former chief executive of the Recording Academy, Deborah Dugan.

    At the time, the Academy dismissed as “categorically false, misleading and wrong” Dugan’s claims that its members pushed artists they have relationships with. Dugan was later fired.

    American pop star Halsey, also shut out of the 2021 Grammys, last year called the nominations process “elusive” and said she was “hoping for more transparency or reform.”

    Former One Direction singer Zayn Malik called in March for an end to “secret committees.”

    “I’m keeping the pressure on and fighting for transparency and inclusion. We need to make sure we are honouring and celebrating ‘creative excellence’ of all,” Malik tweeted hours ahead of the 2021 Grammy Awards ceremony.

    Malik had also lashed out the awards saying: “Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations. Next year I’ll send you a basket of confectionery.”

    The Recording Academy on Friday also said it was adding two new Grammy categories — for best global music performance, and best Latin urban music album — bringing to 86 the total number of Grammy Awards each year.

  • VIDEO: Man plays violin while paragliding to overcome fear

    VIDEO: Man plays violin while paragliding to overcome fear

    A musician who was scared to go paragliding for the first time played violin while in the air to steady his nerves.

    Fikret Eren, who teaches violin, brought his violin to distract himself from his fear and played his violin midair to soothe his first flight nerves.

    Eren’s friend Semih Er who is a professional paraglider invited him to visit the skies for the first time in a tandem paragliding session.

    Read more – Man steals car after test drive, demands money to reveal location

    Eren said he was scared about taking his first flight when his friend suggested him to play the violin to distract himself during his flight.

    Eren brought his violin along to play the instrument high over the province of Kayseri in Turkey.

    Er said Eren overcame his fear and is now ready to enroll in a class to get his own paragliding license.

  • Gomal University fines students for listening to music

    Dera Ismail Khan’s Gomal University has fined two students for listening to music on university premises.

    According to reports, the university has imposed a fine of Rs 5000 on the students of the Institute of Computing and Information Technology ( ICIT ) department for listening to the music in the department “while classes were in session.”

    Chairman of the ICIT Department Zia Ud Din said the two students had been playing music on a Bluetooth speaker in a teaching area of the university.  

    He said that “[their action] disturbed the classes ongoing in the department at the time”.

    As per details, one of the students was enrolled in a Master’s programme at the university while the other was enrolled in the undergraduate programme.

    “Music that disturbs the educational environment” is banned in the university, said Gomal University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Iftikhar Ahmed, clarifying that the administration does not have any issues if someone is listening to music without disturbing others.

    He also said that the administration has only banned smoking, drugs and political activity in the varsity.

    Earlier, a university in Lahore expelled two students for publicly expressing their love on university premises.

  • Zayn Malik slams Grammys for excluding him

    Zayn Malik slams Grammys for excluding him

    Zayn Malik has hit out at the Grammy Awards for excluding him, five days before the music ceremony is scheduled to take place.

    Read more – Shaan Masala spotted in Gigi Hadid’s spice cabinet

    “Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations. Next year I’ll send you a basket of confectionery,” wrote the livid musician in a tweet.

    According to details, Malik’s latest album wasn’t eligible for this year’s Grammys because it was released after the cut-off date in August 2020. The lead single for his third album Nobody Is Listening ‘Better‘ was released on September 25, 2020, while the album itself came out in January 2021.

    Later, the British-Pakistani singer clarified that his comments were “not personal or about eligibility”.

    Instead, he was concerned “about the need for inclusion and the lack of transparency of the nomination process”, saying the current system and “allows favouritism, racism, and networking politics to influence the voting”.

    Malik has never been nominated, either as a solo act or with One Direction.

    Zayn’s comments a few months after The Weeknd, who was snubbed in this year’s nominations, accused Grammys organisers of being “corrupt”.

    Audiences and fans had expected the Canadian singer’s hit single Blinding Lights, which has now spent a record-breaking 52 weeks in the US top 10, to be among the main contenders. Instead, he was overlooked in all 84 categories.

    Terming the exclusion “an attack”, The Weeknd had said: “I’m not a cocky person. I’m not arrogant. People told me I was going to get nominated. The world told me. We were all very confused.”

    The Weeknd

    He added that the three Grammys he has “mean nothing” now and called for change within the industry.

    “In the last 61 years of the Grammys, only 10 Black artists have won Album of the Year. I don’t want to make this about me,” he added. “That’s just a fact.”

    Meanwhile, the 63rd Grammys Ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on March 14, with special staging to adapt to the pandemic era.

    The show will feature four stages, each with a small group of performers, nominees and guests, plus a fifth stage for presenters. The stages have been arranged in a circle, while a reduced crew will stand in the centre to film the proceedings.

    Beyoncé leads the nominations with nine in total, including four for Black Parade, a protest anthem released at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests last summer.

    Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift both have six nominations – with Swift hopeful of winning album of the year for a record-breaking third time for her first lockdown album Folklore.

    Performers on the night will include Cardi B, BTS, Doja Cat, Billie Eilish, Haim, Megan Thee Stallion and Malik’s former bandmate Harry Styles, who is nominated for three awards.

  • To celebrate six successful years of PSL, PCB releases first ever music album

    To celebrate six successful years of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL), an album comprising six “Taranay “, was released yesterday.

    The album comprises five tracks – composed and performed by youth artists namely Maanu X Rozeo, Lyari Underground, Janoobi Khargosh, Talal Qureshi and Khumariyaan – and the album also includes 2021 edition’s widely popular anthem ‘Groove Mera’.

    Here is the complete list of Tracks :

    Googly

    “Working with team of HBL PSL 6 has been a dream come true! It was a pleasure working on the song and a process that Rozeo and I enjoyed thoroughly. We hope you enjoy listening to our song as much as we enjoyed making it,” said Maanu [Rehman Afshar], while talking about his experience of working on the song.

    Maidaan

    “It’s heart-warming to see HBL PSL engage artists from all over this diverse country. The band is humbled to have been given a great level of respect and acknowledgement and because of it we’ve put all our energy into our production. Excellent experience through and through being a part of HBL PSL Taranay. Pakistan Zindabad,” stated the band Khumariyaan.

    6ixer

    Talking about the track ‘6ixer’, Singer Talal said, “It has been a great experience working and contributing to the HBL PSL’s original music album. I’ve always been passionate about cricket and when I got this opportunity, I couldn’t say no. With 6ixer, I just wanted people to feel the energy of the game. Due to the pandemic, many people will not be able to attend in person. But I wanted them to feel connected and give everyone something to dance to.”

    https://twitter.com/thePSLt20/status/1363830511345438721

    Bazi Paltay Gi Yahan

    The band Janoobi Khargosh in a collective statement said, “It was a bit of a challenge, creatively, to write a song that would be played for a massive audience in a stadium. Getting this opportunity to compose a song for HBL PSL Taranay allowed us to think in a completely new kind of way. Overall, it turned out to be a rewarding and fun experience, and we learned something new about ourselves: we can do anything we set our minds to.”

    Laibo

    “We are really proud to present a song for HBL PSL 6 in our own style and language. This is a great opportunity for people to interact with the culture of Lyari and to celebrate its music and its people,” stated the music band Lyari Underground about the track, ‘Laibo’.

  • Is Spotify finally coming to Pakistan?

    Swedish-based audio streaming and media services provider Spotify is finally coming to Pakistan. The biggest music streaming services provider confirmed the news on their official Twitter handle.

    “We launch in 80+ new markets over the next few days. See you soon Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria,” the post read.

    Official Instagram account of Spotify Pakistan also hinted at the possibility of launching their services soon in Pakistan by sharing a post with the caption: “Check it out, a new way to discover and play music is coming your way.”

    According to a report, Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek at a Spotify ‘Stream On’ event said: “This move will make Spotify available to more than a billion people in new markets around the world, with nearly half of them already using the internet.”

    As per Spotify, “Spotify is embarking on a sweeping expansion that will introduce the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service available to more than a billion people in 80+ new markets around the world, and add 36 languages to our platform.

    “By reaching even more countries across Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and Latin America, we’re giving millions of new creators the opportunity to create, discover, and build a career in audio creation—and giving a billion new fans the opportunity to hear it.”

    Last year in November, Spotify created a verified Instagram account for Pakistan, which has gained 24K followers already. However, no official statement was made at the time.

    Spotify is the world’s biggest music streaming platform in terms of the number of subscribers. Users of the service simply need to register to have access to one of the biggest-ever collections of music in history, plus podcasts, and other audio content.

    Spotify, launched in 2008, has grown to be one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world.

  • Azaan Sami Khan says upcoming album ‘Main Tera’ is ‘extremely personal’

    Azaan Sami Khan says upcoming album ‘Main Tera’ is ‘extremely personal’

    Azaan Sami Khan has announced that his upcoming solo album will debut on February 10.

    The music composer of Superstar unveiled the album cover on Instagram, along with an exciting tracklist. Titled Main Tera, the album is Khan’s way of branching into something far more intimate than just producing music for chart-topping movies of recent times.

    According to a press release, the first single from the album, also titled Main Tera, is expected to release on February 10. Khan will be taking over the vocals and song-writing units for the very first time in this album.

    “I wanted it to be extremely personal. It’s almost biographical in some ways. I have delved into the first time I fell in love with somebody, the first crush, the first heartbreak, you’d basically witness a lot of firsts in this as it’s my first album,” said Khan while talking about Mera Tera.

    The singer also revealed that the 9-song track list includes a collaboration with Ustaad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

    Read more – Hadiqa Kiani’s ‘Jaanay Iss Dil’ is Indo-Pak’s first female qawwali

    “For me, the fans and the listeners are the most important,” stated the singer. “So far, they have given me so much love for my compositions in films, so it is equally important for them to know that I haven’t compromised anything when it came to sharing my own album with them. The idea is to give them the absolute best experience that I can,” he said.

    The album announcement completes what has been a remarkable period for Khan, who gave us hits after hits in films like Parey Hut Love, Superstar, and Parwaaz Hai Junoon.

    While a release date for the complete album is yet to be announced, we’re looking forward to seeing what the single has in store for us. The album will be released under the banner of HUM Music.

    Meanwhile, Bilal Ashraf, Mahira Khan, Maya Ali, Amanat Ali and Shafaat Ali congratulated Khan on his new feat and wished him luck.

    “Super excited for you Azaan. All the best my bro,” wrote Bilal on Instagram.

    “Mubarak! Can’t wait to hear this one,” said Maya.

  • Hadiqa Kiani’s ‘Jaanay Iss Dil’ is Indo-Pak’s first female qawwali

    After a powerful acting debut in Hum TV’s Raqeeb Se, Hadiqa Kiani has enthralled fans with her first qawaali Jaanay Iss Dil.

    In an exclusive interview with The Current, Hadiqa revealed that Jaanay Iss Dil is Indo-Pak’s “first-ever female qawwali“.

    The composition is nothing like anything has Kiani has ever done before. The award-winning singer collaborated with the legendary qawaali icon, late Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s patent Tabla player, Ustad Dildar Hussain for Jaanay Iss Dil.

    “Qawaali is indeed the purest form of music. Having had the opportunity to jump into a genre that is somewhat outside my comfort zone, I have an even greater appreciation for the art that is Qawaali,” said Kiani while talking about her latest venture. “The opportunity to work with Ustad Dildar Hussain, someone who has been an important part of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s entourage was nothing short of extraordinary.”

    Later, while celebrating the qawwali’s success and the response it got, Hadiqa said that “this was a project of love”, adding that she is grateful that her audiences “were able to connect to our message through the power of pure music.”

    “No auto-tuners, no heavy machines, just the beauty of our regional music, our language, our instruments,” she added.

    Meanwhile, the poetry of the qawwali has been selected by Abrar Hussain and verses of numerous classic poets have been incorporated to enrich it with Girah Bundi.

    The qawwali has been musically arranged and recorded live by one of Pakistan’s leading music producers and Hadiqa’s long-time collaborator and brother, Irfan Kiani, without the use of click track or auto-tuners. Kiani also incorporated the all-elusive Sarangi instrument to add to the beauty of this qawaali. The sound has been mixed and mastered by Eva Kiani.

    Read more – Hadiqa Kiani pays a rich tribute to Ertuğrul with a song in Turkish

    The qawaali has been produced by Mian Yousaf Salahuddin for Sufiscore and has been visually captured by director Abdullah Haris. Mohsin Naveed Ranjha did the wardrobe while Shahama Sajid designed the set.

    Listen to it here:

  • Taylor Swift surprises fans with a new album ‘Evermore’

    Taylor Swift surprised fans with a new album titled Evermore, her second album of this year, saying “we just couldn’t stop writing songs.” Evermore comes less than five months after Swift’s eighth studio album Folklore.

    The award-winning singer described the 15-track album as a “sister record” to Folklore, which she produced entirely during the coronavirus lockdowns and released unexpectedly in July. Folklore, a change of style that showed an indie-folk sensibility, earned Swift some of the best reviews of her career as well as triggering six Grammy nominations, including for the coveted album of the year.

    “To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs,” Swift wrote on Thursday. “I’ve never done this before. In the past, I’ve always treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one after an album was released. There was something different with Folklore. In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning.”

    “I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found in your lives. So I just kept writing them,” she added.

    The mysterious William Bowery, who Swift last month revealed was a pseudonym for her British actor boyfriend Joe Alwyn, is also credited as a co-writer on the new album.

    Evermore features collaborations with alternative artist Bon Iver and Aaron Dessner, guitarist with indie rock band The National

    Taylor also dropped the music video for its lead single ‘Willow’, which she directed herself.

    In the YouTube chat before the album’s premiere, Swift revealed the meaning behind the visual. “One scene represents how I feel about fame,” she said.

  • Uzair Jaswal drops new single ‘Yaadaan’ ft. Minal Khan

    Uzair Jaswal drops new single ‘Yaadaan’ ft. Minal Khan

    Uzair Jaswal just dropped a new single Yaadaan, the music video of which features Minal Khan. And like most of his songs, this one is also about heartbreak.

    According to the singer, “Yaadaan is a song about heartbreak. It’s a nostalgic journey down memory lane. Bittersweet, just how life is.”

    In the music video, Uzair can be seen reminiscing about lost love. The video shows Uzair and Minal first as a happy couple but their love story ends up having a sad ending.

    The video has been directed by Adnan Aslam and Umair Mushtaq, while the vocals and guitars were recorded by Sarmad Ghafoor.

    Prior to the release of the single, there was a lot of buzz surrounding it after Jaswal posted pictures with Minal on Instagram, with fans speculating whether the two celebrities were starring together in a drama or a music video.

    Jaswal is a Pakistani singer, songwriter, and actor who has been making waves in the Pakistani music scene. He was also the youngest Coke Studio’s sensation. Meanwhile, Minal has gained popularity with of her recent drama Jalan in which she perfectly portrays the evil and narcissistic sister, Nisha.