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Syed Waqeel Ahad

He sings, he writes, he composes. In the last few years, Syed Waqeel Ahad has given our musical panorama a number of soulful tracks. “I carefully try not to sing peppy tracks which are only about love and romance, instead I prefer singing songs where the lyrics are more subjective and contain a message,” says the extremely gifted singer. Despite receiving institutional training in Nazrul Sangeet and Classical Bangla songs, he explored other genres of music to the best of his abilities. A Baul lover himself, he prefers to spend much of his time with the Bauls in Kushtia to discover the roots with folklore and traditional cultural life. This week the Star speaks to the multi-talented musician about his dreams, inspirations and much more.

Childhood Dream
When I was child, I only wanted to grow up and have all the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. That was my only dream.
 
First Guru
Shumon Ahmed Ranjan. He used to teach my sister and my aunt music and I joined the class too when I was in class three.

Your Musical Inspiration
Lalon, Rabindranath Tagore and Bob Dylan.

The First Song that You Learnt
It was a Tagore song called Dariye Accho Tumi Amar Gaaner Opare. I remember winning the third place in a singing competition the very next day of learning the song.

Biggest Achievement of Your Life
I was awarded with the MTV Gold Disc award recently for one of the folk songs that I sang, which is undoubtedly one of my significant achievements. Also, throughout my musical career I've come in touch with many gifted musicians who have enriched my journey of learning in some way or the other. I consider this association as an achievement as well.

What You Don't Like About the Music Scene of Today
There has been a growing practice of copying music from other cultures in the name of globalisation. At present we can sense a strong influence of Indian music in our deshi music. There is no harm in taking inspiration from music of foreign cultures, but what hurts me most is that we often lose our own essence while doing so.