After a recent disagreement between singers Abhijeet Bhattacharya and Neha Kakkar on a reality show over singers performing at weddings, a lot of musicians shared their views on the same. While most of them saw no harm in performing at weddings, some had a different view. Singer Papon, who does live shows and corporate events, says he doesn’t perform at weddings.

“People go to weddings for a different purpose. The idea is to have fun, meet people, enjoy with them, have food, etc. Music is not the focus there. Hence, I don’t perform at weddings. I like to sing for an audience that treats music as their priority, be it a concert or baithak,” says the singer, who will perform at a concert in Mumbai tomorrow.

While live shows give a lot of creative satisfaction to artistes, they can be very demanding and exhausting too. Of late, there have been instances of unruly audience manhandling musicians, be it hurling a water bottle on stage at a recent Sunidhi Chauhan show or last year’s instances of Sonu Nigam and Kailash Kher being troubled by the attendees.

On audiences manhandling musicians during live shows, Papon says, “Of course it hurts, because people forget that the performer on stage is a human being too. But, I’ve always received so much love from the audience that even if one person ever misbehaved, I let such one-off instances pass, because the purpose of being an artiste is greater than such unpleasant incidents. Being a musician and being able to spread so much joy and happiness is a bigger cause for me.”

On the work front, Papon has a lot of music coming up, including a ghazal album. “As musicians, we know how to make music but releasing it is a task. I am sitting on a lot of film and non-film songs that I’d release soon,” he ends.

The singer says he only likes to sing for an audience that’s focused on music

What: Papon Live In Concert

Where: Infiniti Mall, Malad (W)

When: May 25

Timing: 7.30 pm