'No' to 'commercial' songs
She says, ' Feelings must be deep rooted in all songs. Emotional tunes and lyrics should be able to stir the listeners to a melancholic state of mind. I am proud to say that my father was adept in doing so and it is from this feeling that I am inspired to keep away from rendering 'commercial' songs. The Carpenters is my favourite, their lyric and music are still my favourites.
Samina Chowdhury, her sister, has the same feeling towards music like Fahmida. When Samina sang the popular song Ekbar Jodi Keu Bhalobashto for a film and drew the attention of the audience Famida fell behind. But Fahmida says, 'I don't feel it as an obstacle to fame since our main target is to sing really good songs.'
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Fahmida is basically a presenter of modern songs. . She also performs Tagore songs on request of her listeners. She plans to release a mixed cassette containing songs of Tagore, Nazrul, Lalon, Atul Prashad, Rajanikant, modern and folk shortly.
'Music videos are important for exposure of music,' she says, 'Because of the diffusion of the satellite culture into ours, time is changing fast. Therefore, we must keep up with new trends and styles. Music has taken the audience to a point where the visual is very important for both the singers and the listeners. People don't listen to the radio as much as before. Now television is a big medium, even vaster than the cinema. A good music video reaches the audience very easily. But, the videos should have a story behind them. The concept of music video here is still not up to the mark.'
Fahmida is working on her new album which will be released next Eid. It is a duet with a promising singer Nipo with whom she released another album Yusuf Julekha which was well appreciated by the critics and listeners. The new album contains songs that are Ghazal based. Songs like Shararat Kedechhi, Ja chale Ja, Palabe Kothay Tumi Bolo Na will attract the listeners.