Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; June 14, 2020)

To say that the Coronavirus scare has brought the world down on its knees won’t be wrong. However, this has been a “catharsis of a kind” for singer Sonu Nigam. “I feel reassured that my belief in the true nature of life was actually the truth, and not what the world was trying to make me believe. I was surrounded with people who would broadcast in brazen arrogance that they were the Maai Baaps (creator, provider, sustainer, destroyer) of the music industry and the film industry. I could see the stark difference in my idea of success and their perception of success. I see all that crumble in front of my eyes today,” he tells us.

What came as a big shocker for him was the news of singer-composer Wajid Khan’s demise. “Wajid was someone whom I loved more than he loved me. And I loved loving him…It’ll take me a very long time to come to terms with his loss,” he says.

Nigam, 46, has been stuck in Dubai for nearly three months due to the lockdown. However, despite restrictions being eased amid Unlock 1.0, he has no plans of coming back to India as of now. Furthermore, given that his new house is nearing completion, Nigam says he will not avail the facility of repatriation flights either. “We’ll move there,” he says, adding, “I have a home studio, so I engineer it myself and get my work done. Until the concert scenario opens up, I don’t see any reason for me to leave my son here and stay in Mumbai alone in isolation.”

And even though real-life concerts seem like a distant reality at present, it hasn’t really stopped Nigam from fulfilling his creative urges through the online route. Terming online concerts as “tedious but fulfilling”, the singer explains, “They were my contribution towards the generation of funds for PM Cares Fund. We did a lot of songs, especially one I spearheaded with the Indian Singers Rights Association (ISRA), where we brought 211 singers together for one song, Jayatu Jayatu Bharatam. It is kind of a world record of sorts.”