Tour good - Maha melodious

Mahalakshmi Iyer is used to 'once mores' from her audiences. In fact, once when the singer rendered her hit Kabhi Sham Dhale at a live show, she had to perform it four times! Mahalakshmi, who is raring to start another live tour to US and Canada with Shankar Ehsaan Loy with hits like Bol Na Halke Halke, Chup Chup Ke and Aaj ki Raat, goes live:


WHO: Mahalakshmi Iyer
WHAT: On entertaining fans with live shows
WHERE: At her residence

Taking stage

Even though I've done playback, ad jingles and featured in quite a few albums, the thrill of singing before a live audience is unmatched. The adrenaline rush that you get when you hear the thunderous applause, is simply great. I'm very excited about touring with the Shankar Ehsaan Loy camp once again. We have a great connection. A few days ago we were shooting for a promotional video and I don't know how four-and-a-half hours just flew by. We were in splits throughout. By the end of it, Shankar said that we were going to have a blast on the tour and I couldn't agree more.

Mic testing

I really admire the trio for their talent, camaraderie. There are times when I'm recording a song and I notice Shankar and Jaaved saheb (Akhtar) cracking up. The atmosphere in the studio is always light with them around. (A R) Rehmanji is another great musician to work with. He can instantly give your song a direction, and you the much needed confidence. I've always benefited from his inputs and if I were to describe him in a word, it would be 'spontaneous.'

Music to my ears

I love listening to his music (Rehman's). Having said that, I also enjoy other artists and genres. Ghazals are my favourite, but I also listen to jazz, blues, folk and western bands. I have a bias towards old-timers like the Carpenters, Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, etc. For me, the only classification is a poor song or a good song ufffd the genre makes no difference. Bollywood tracks also make it to my playlist, though I sometimes feel that the Hinglish influence is corroding into the poetry that was so characteristic of our songs in the past. But I suppose, adding a few English lines here and there is okay as long as the lyrical quality of the song isn't diluted.