From T.N.Krishna to Prateek Kuhad, artists are coming together to perform live concerts on social media to make self-quarantine easy, writes Shaurya Thapa
Sure, Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor was busy partying her heart out but other Indian artists are focusing on amusing activities to get their creative juices flowing. From exercising at home, to doodling oranges and tomatoes on Instagram, people are figuring out different ways to beat boredom as they self quarantine. Being locked in doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy music performances. John Legend, Coldplay, and a slew of other singers, have been indulging in virtual live music sessions as a part of an initiative by Global Citizen Festival and WHO. Diplo has been live on Instagram every day, streaming 90-minute DJ sets from the comfort of his home. Meanwhile, pop stars like Charli XCX and Miley Cyrus have been going live to discuss workout plans and self-isolating tutorials.
In India, musician and lead vocalist of The Ghalat Family Ankur Tewari continued this trend as he performed his songs on Insta live sessions. “I wish to be paid not in money, but in playlists”, he said after the live-stream, and many did respond to him with their go-to Spotify playlists. Indie heartthrob Prateek Kuhad too announced that he’ll be having an Insta live concert from his home this coming Wednesday, 25th of March, 9pm onwards. Rockers Indian Ocean have a similar plan but haven’t revealed any details for their live gig as of now.
Prateek Kuhad/Image: Bikram Bose
While artists like Ankur Tewari might be satisfied with just quarantine playlists, there are other lesser-known artists who would lose money with the loss of gigs in these times of the pandemic. Contemporary Carnatic music greats TM Krishna and Allari Subalakshmi are collaborating for an exclusive ‘shut-in concert’ to combat this issue from their end. The livestream concert will commence next Sunday on a website called Shaale. Tickets will be for sale and the proceeds from these would be used to support artists who are struggling with corona shutdowns.
In other news, even Bandcamp attempted to support its artists this Thursday by waiving their revenue shares on all song sales, a move which would put money directly into the artist’s pocket. While this move was just for a day, it still drew praise among artists. These times of self-isolation are also ideal for collaborating with artists or sharing creative knowledge. With this intention, a UK-based blues singer Suzanne Noble created an open Facebook group called Corona Concerts, which nearly has 1,300 members right now. Some musicians share their technical knowledge on this group while others live-stream their performances to receive donations.
On the comedy front, several comedians are using their podcasts to inform their followers on the global pandemic. American comic Andrew Schulz for instance, has been giving comforting ‘survival guides’ for these times, along with some reality checks on the coronavirus. Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V Gordon have also started a podcast called Staying In with Kumail and Emily where they discuss movie and TV recommendations for the ones staying at home. The revenue from the podcast will be given to charities that are helping local American artists affected by the shutdowns.
Vir Das/Image: Netflix
Back in India, Vir Das jokingly announced a Social Distancing Tour with his show venues being his bathroom and bedroom. He has made it an exercise to upload an Instagram vlog on each day of self-quarantining. These vlogs see him writing a corona song, playing board games, and even joining TikTok.
This just seems to be the beginning as many more artists are expected to perform from home during this self-imposed vacation.
