If you have an ear for country music, you must listen to Charles Antony, a Kerala-born performer who has sung for and with Diego Maradona and West Indian player Richie Richardson. Shalini Saksena speaks with him about the music scene in India and whether we have an appetite for his kind of music
Charles Antony is not your average solo singer. This Kerala-born has come a long way in the last 20 years. He likes to be called international solo performer. “This is because I am one,” Antony says as a matter of fact. “I have more stage performances or should one say live singing concerts outside of the country than in India,” this western country singer tells you.
But his real claim to fame is that he can sing in 14 foreign languages — Spanish, Italian, French, German, Mexican, Russian, African, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, Sinhala, Indonesian and Malaysian. Interestingly, he has not taken even a single class to learn any of these languages. “It is a gift, one can say. I learnt the words from various friends whom I came in contact with. I just picked up the words of the songs. Some songs I learnt from the tourists who would visit or stay at the hotel where I sang,” Antony says.
The feather in Antony’s cap is that he sang for and with Diego Maradona during the legend’s visit to Kerala in 2012. “For some reason he was very upset that evening. But when I sang for him in Spanish he cheered up and the next day at the function returned the favour by singing a duet with me,” Antony recalls about Maradona.
The singer gave a private performance for the West Indies on manager Richie Richardson’s request. “He is a friend and when the team was in Kerala, he asked me if I would spare time to entertain the players. It was such an honour,” the 42-year-old says, adding that his kind of music has a very select crowd of the 40 plus age group. “Country music is very different. If one is looking for hard rock or metal, they should stay away from my shows as they will not enjoy it. When I am on stage, the audience sits quietly, there’s nothing loud,” he says.
But Antony is quick to point out that today, the music is at a very different level and is easy for people to break into the industry as opposed to 20 years back when he first started. With everything available on the Internet, it is easy to make a name for oneself, he tells you.
“I come from a family of musicians. My elder brother taught me how to play the guitar. While he chose to let music be his hobby, I wanted to make it my profession, a fact that was not welcomed by my parents. They wanted to know how I would eke out a living. Today, I have made a place for myself and my music. I give live performances all over the world. I have a trip planned for the US and Dubai,’ Antony says.