Mika, master of ultimate party songs, tells PRAKRITI ROY why he has sung the soft Punjabi number ‘Maa’ which is way out of his genre
His latest single is a soft Punjabi number titled Maa, very unlike any of his previous tracks. But rocking crooner Mika says he had many reasons for doing this hatke song. For one, he wanted to sing for his mother and this was a perfect fit, the first song he actually found worth singing outside of his genre. Moreover, there are hardly any songs dedicated to mothers which have actually left a mark on listeners.
Mika was inspired to work on this number when he met illegal immigrants abroad, people who had not met their mothers for years and could do so only when they got deported. The video encapsulates the growing up and growing apart from your mother.
With this tribute to his mother, Mika has brought back the solo trend. “The singles trend has been prevalent in the Punjabi music industry even if not in the rest of the country. These days, all hit singles that become popular come from Punjabi singers. Now, I feel it is coming back in a big way across the country. Even I had stopped making singles because I have become too involved with Bollywood music,” he says.
Maa, meanwhile, is on a roll. “For me, the best compliment is when Amitabh Bachchan appreciates a song. And this one has been shared by him on Twitter and Facebook. He was moved by my song and that is a great achievement for me,” says the singer.
Mika does not have any misconceptions about the type of songs he sings. “My songs are usually those that come at the end of a movie and have no relation with the story. I am called in to give a hit party song for a film after the movie has been made and it always works for the film. Maa is something totally different,” he adds.
Mika believes it has become easy for a singer to get a hit but what is important is to sustain the momentum. “It is important to be a good performer. All the names you hear over and over again are the ones who are great performers, like Jagjit Singh. My aim is to keep myself sustained. I don’t care about awards much,” he says.
Starting with this new single, Mika has decided to change his career path a little. He will be gradually going into composing music, something that he started with. He wishes that one day he gets back the trend of one-man show where a single person does the composing, arranging as well as playing the instruments.