2016 is best remembered (and it is important to remember and reflect on it) as the year of rock-bottom, from which the only way is up.
It was also the year that some pretty awesome South Asian music rang out in London. We’ve put a playlist together of the best of 2016 – our favourite songs that were either performed in London, or featured in a movie that was screened here, or in Amjad Sabri’s case, were played endlessly during an awful, fateful week in June. In remembrance of the most unforgettable fact that 2016 was generally an unrelenting cluster****, we’ve kept it mellow.
The highlights include Coke Studio 9 hit and sublime moment from our first ever Funoon Salon, Noori’s Paar Chanaa De; Karam Mangta Hoon by the late, great Amjad Sabri; the lilting Bolna Mahi Bolna from one of our favourite Bollywood movies from 2016 Kapoor and Sons; Tanya Wells’ viral cover of Mehdi Hasan’s Gulon Mein Rang Bhare; the lovely vocals of Sabiyha in Flux’s amazing first album in Sundown; Rain of Colours by the brilliant revivalist Nepali band Night; Ali Sethi’s soul-settling rendition of Ghalib’s Aah ko Chahiye from the movie Manto; Naughty Boy‘s super duper smash hit Runnin’; and T5 from the Swet Shop Boys’ ground-breaking first album Cashmere.
The playlist is below. Enjoy!
By Seema Khan and Nadia Rahman
Posted on 13 January 2017
