Coke Studio is undoubtedly one of Pakistan’s strongest exports and it traveled to Dubai this weekend, with a mammoth show titled Coke Studio Live. Produced by Xulfi and held at the iconic Coca Cola Arena, the show witnessed thousands of fans pour into the stadium to experience some of Pakistan’s strongest musical acts take stage.
Coke Studio Live was held at the state-of-the-art venue in City Walk, UAE on October 14th. Peechay Hutt singer Hassan Raheem with Justin Bibis, the dynamic duo of Pasoori stars Ali Sethi and Shae Gill, rapper duo Young Stunners, and the talented Karakoram band were in attendance. Norwegian hip-hop urban dance group Quick Style was also seen performing at the event. And of course, Faisal Kapadia was one of the highlights of the show. Maestro singer and music producer, Faisal set the stage on fire as he performed his classic songs and at one point, was joined by Young Stunners.
In a quick conversation with Something Haute, the singer shared his experience of performing at Coke Studio Live, his hopes for the music industry in Pakistan, recording with Young Stunners, and more.
“It’s great to be back on stage,” he said, elated at the scale and success of the show. “I think the audience, the performers, everybody was very excited, especially in a post-Covid, lockdown era.”
He found the Coke Studio Live experience quite invigorating and was all praises for Xulfi.
“The Coke Studio live concert was a magical experience. It was very well conducted and produced by Xulfi and his team. It was an amazing experience for me and everyone involved had a great time and people thoroughly enjoyed the whole journey of this concert.”
He shared his sentiments about performing solo and talked about his new venture.
“For me, it’s a different journey, a new journey of performing solo. This is probably my fifth or sixth (solo) performance and it is exciting. It is a complete reboot and a mix balance of old things and new things that I am trying.”
He also shared his experience of collaborating with Young Stunners for the song Phir Milenge.
To be very honest, I think performing Phir Milenge with Young Stunners gave me this (opportunity) of discovering the booming Pakistani music. After working with Young Stunners I have started loving their music. They have some amazing songs.”
Faisal also talked about how impressed he was with the young talent and that he had high hopes for the music industry in Pakistan.
“I have been listening to Young Stunners, Hassan Raheem, Shamoon Ismail, and Abdullah Siddiqui. I also really like Karakoram and recently I heard a song by Abdul Hanan. There are so many new artists who are coming in and these are very exciting times for Pakistani music. Every time a new breed comes in there is a shift. We saw this back in 1989 when Vital Signs, Awaz, Junoon, and Strings all came and a similar thing happened in 2001 when Fuzön, Call, Noori Aaroh, EP (Entity Paradign), Jal, and everybody came up. This is probably the third wave of which Young Stunners, Hassan Raheem, Shae Gill, Abdullah Siddiqui, and Karakarom are a part. These are exciting times and it is fun time to be around.”
