Waheed Jeelani: The soulful voice

“We used to conduct riyaadh for up to 12 hours a day but the youngsters don’t have that patience.”In 2002, Ghulam Nabi Sheikh, music Programme Executive, called Waheed Jeelani and urged him to rush to his studio for a recording session.

Sheikh told Waheed that he urgently needed to record some songs and he couldn’t find better voice than his to do the job. Among the songs there was one song written by Bashir Dada, whose music was composed by Waheed himself. Waheed decided to add the song to the list of recordings. The song had earlier disappeared without trace while being part of a small television serial two years ago. Waheed sang it normally like other songs.

Next day when the particular Kashmiri song was broadcast on Radio Kashmir, it was an instant hit. Barely an hour had passed and Radio Kashmir’s phones started ringing. Listeners were enquiring, praising and demanding the song be broadcast again. Kashmir valley at that time was going through one of the worst phases of violence. The song summarized the pain and its realistic words and soulful music grabbed the hearts of Kashmiris. Some cried, others became nostalgic and many more couldn’t stop remembering those who had departed, and died young.