Songs of Yesteryear

The song was first aired in the show “Soptoborna”. One can even say that, after the introduction of pop songs, the program “Soptoborna” was able to reach the pinnacle of success. Popular artists such as Ferdous Wahid, Firoz Shai, Fakir Alamgir, Pilu Momtaz were frequent in the show Soptoborna. Apart from these artists, there were also presence of Rabindranath Rai, Mala Khan, Shompa Reza. Surprisingly! The one whom we know as the king of pop in Bangladesh, Azam Khan came at the last episode of Soptoborna.

Pop songs become a raving hit after they were showcased in the program Soptoborna. Its popularity spread rapidly among the mass, just like the hot molten lava. Before that the popularity of pop concerts was fairly limited to school-colleges areas. The songs had no whatsoever connection with the common people. But interestingly! After the showcasing of a pop song in the Soptoborna program, it became a general hit among the common mass who greatly started to love it. This popularity of pop song lead to the formation of lots of bands. The first band to perform pop songs in television was called “Jinga Band”. The band which was led by Shafayat Ali performed in lots of television to perform Bangla pop songs. The main two singers of the band were 2 sisters, Nazma Zaman and Samia Zaman. The drummer of this band was also another popular artist Linu Billah. Another band called “Souls” used to come from Chittagong to perform songs in television.  

In the world of pop music, we got many artists who rose to fame with pop songs, but as time went by they faded away from the world of music. 

The song “Emon Ekta Ma De Na” which was sung by Wahid, composed and written by Opu, was the only song that was done by him. After that he went onto become a doctor in Los Angeles. Abdullah Abu Sayed was able to showcase lots of talented artists with his various magazine programs If these artists were given the opportunity to stay in the music world then they would have surely done a lot for the television. Abdullah Shibli, who was a custom officer, sang a song with the words “Ghiye Bhaja Porota”. This song is surely intact in the memories of those people who were present during that time. After that, the name that comes to in our mind is that of the comedian actor, Hitlu. Hitlu many jokes are still afresh in his audience mind.

In the television world, many artists come and disappear. Now the only thing that remains still is the love of audience and the fond memories.

The writer is Managing Director, Channel i 
Translated by Imtiaz Salim