In his 47-year-long career, Sonu Nigam has considered late singer Mohammed Rafi a guru. Now, the singer is set to pay homage to the veteran by performing at a tribute concert on Rafi’s birth centenary on December 24. Titled Sau Saal Pehle, the show will mark Nigam’s first-ever Rafi concert in India.

“Rafi sahab is not just my guru, but also my pir (spiritual guide), who I have worshipped and sought permission from before every song I sing on the mic. I’ve cried in admiration listening to him. To realize that he chose me to do his centenary show reassures me that my reverence has been reaching him in the other world. He is blessing me,” he tells us, exclusively.

Sharing how “it’ll not be an ordinary concert”, Nigam says, “It’s akin to my life getting encapsulated into a concert. Every song and emotion his music conveyed will be relived by me and the audience. It’s going to be a festival — the Mohammed Rafi Festival.”

On doing his first-ever Rafi show in India, Nigam says, “I performed three concerts, titled Rafi Resurrected, in 2008, in the UK. It marked my collaboration with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. It’s been 16 years since my last Rafi show. So, I can’t wait to take the stage in Mumbai on December 24.”

Sharing how the idea of this tribute show came about, he adds, “It’s surreal that it was ideated by the families of both my gurus — Firdaus Rafi ji and Shahid Rafi ji from Rafi sahab’s family and Rabbani Mustafa Khan and Namrata Gupta Khan from Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan sahab’s family.”