Delhi audience is my favourite in India: Shilpa Rao

She took to the stage after almost two years, and the venue that singer Shilpa Rao chose for her live performance is none other than #SaddiDilli. Her mellifluous notes took over Central Park, Connaught Place, as she paid a tribute to late singer Lata Mangeshkar.

“Delhi audience is my favourite!” she tells us, soon after the concert. She adds, “If I get to take Delhi audience for every concert, that’ll be awesome. From the word go, they want to participate.”

Live concerts are something the Grammy nominee, 37, “certainly missed” ever since the pandemic struck. “We’ve done so many concerts here in CP; I know the place inside out. I remember, we got stuck in a traffic jam the last time we came here,” she quips, adding that she feels “very much at home” in Delhi. “I don’t feel like a visitor at all… There’s a lot of music, culture and poetry that comes from Delhi, such as that of Mirza Ghalib,” says the Ghungroo (War; 2019) singer.

The homecoming opens up a box of memories for her. She recalls, “Once, I finished a recording and had time, so I went to Qutub Minar and sat there for a couple of hours. It was a little before sunset, it was beautiful!”

Her gigs at college fests in the city, including Miranda House, Delhi University (DU), are still remembered by music lovers. And Rao would love to relive those moments and make new memories, too. She says, “The pandemic will end faster if we all take precautions. I think we can get back to normalcy in terms of work and entertainment, but with the correct protocols. Once that is in place, it would be great to come and perform at DU.”

Author tweets @siddhijainn

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