LAHORE: Veteran singer Shabnam Majeed says that under a foundation she has established and named after her deceased son she is working to train children in singing instead of begging on the streets.

“A large chunk of our youth is loitering around aimlessly on the streets. I want to try to convince and audition them to turn them into trained singers,” said Ms Majeed.

She said it was a challenging task to train such children, but she would try her best to discover the best voices from among them. The prime objective of the Lucky Ali Foundation, she said, was to help the needy, adding that by opening up doors to opportunities one would realise the wealth of talent these street children had. The singer also said that she would gather young singing talent initially from Punjab and later other provinces.

Ms Majeed told Dawn that she would soon visit colleges and universities of Lahore to discover talent. “In the first phase, we shall focus on Lahore, and in the second other parts of Punjab. In the third phase, we will travel to other cities of the country,” she said.

“We shall try to come up with original music compositions for the voices we select,” she explained.

Ms Majeed, who started singing at the age of seven and is a recipient of the Pride of Performance award, has taught children at the Lahore Arts Council. She regretted that there was no patronage for music and many singers, who dedicated their lives to music, were leading secluded lives.

“It’s a pity that Ustad Tafu Khan, who composed music for over 700 films, has not been honoured by the government.”

She further said that there was a need to teach music in schools. A government-run institute for singing and composing music as well as for the revival of classical, folk, light classical and even popular music was direly needed, she added.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2018

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