India’s most celebrated ‘Fadista’ Sonia Shirsat is keen to secure the future of this melodious Portuguese musical form in Goa and as such, conducts classes to train the aspiring ‘Fado’ singers as well as create a knowledgeable audience.
Under the initiative of ‘Fado de Goa’, Sonia has been instrumental in conducting classes for over 300 students; across Goa in Margao, Panaji, Vasco, and Mapusa, where the highest number of students – 85, started out in a batch. “The whole idea of Fado de Goa is to protect, promote, preserve the Fado in Goa and spread it,” emphasised Sonia in an episode of the ‘Fascinating Conversations’ series on @LiveNewsGoaTV.
With ‘Fado’ becoming her identity over the last two decades, the ambassador of Goan music to the world has a holistic vision associated with her mission of mentoring and she has worked very hard to frame the guidelines for a unique model of teaching. Sonia, who sings in a mind-blowing 16 languages, has also been categorical that her ‘love with Fado is for the music itself, just that it happens to be sung in Portuguese’.
“There was nothing to refer to. Nobody taught Fado here in Goa; traditionally, nobody teaches Fado in Portugal either. Fado is a style that you learn by immersing yourself into that form. Moreover, I had to keep in mind that majority of these students won’t be speaking Portuguese or they will not have listened to a lot of Fado in the past; I had to create a syllabus, chapters and topics,” explained Sonia, who as the years flew by since taking to singing Fado in 2003 saw that most of the known and dedicated Fado faces – most of those were senior citizens, were passing on.
“The idea was not only to create Fado singers but also to create an audience. So that, if somebody comes and sings in Goa, there would be an audience that would be able to understand whether it is a Fado or not…Fado has been in Goa for so long, it shouldn’t die!,” asserted Sonia, who was conferred with prestigious Ustad Bismilla Khan Yuva Puraskar 2016 by Sangeet Natak Akademi.
