Playback singer Amal Anthony Augustin has collaborated with some Brazilians for a video song in Brazilian Portuguese, to celebrate the FIFA World Cup
Move over Shakira. It’s no longer ‘La la la’, it’s ‘Gol Gol Gol’! In a true example of how football bridges the divide between nations, language, colour and creed, Thrissur-based playback singer and composer Amal Anthony Augustin and a few of his Facebook friends from Brazil have come out with a world cup tribute song, ‘Wow Gol Brasil 2014 Tema da copa’ – in Brazilian Portuguese!
“We are a bunch of friends, music lovers who are part of the online group ‘Spring Tunes’, which has several thousand members from across the globe. Given how passionate people are about football, my friends, Brazilians Elliz Rocha, a teacher and a gospel singer from Igarassu in the north of the country, near Recife, and Luana Thoreserc, a writer and lyricist from Sao Paolo, and I thought it would be great to collaborate on a song to celebrate the World Cup,” says Amal.
The young singer is best known in Malayalam for the melodious number ‘May masame’ from Rupesh Paul’s My Mother’s Laptop, with music by Sreevalsan J. Menon. Amal was the winner of the 2006 edition of the music reality show ‘GandharvaSangeetham.’ The 29-year-old, who has an M.Phil. in music, has since sung for a handful of movies such as Asuravithu, Swapaanam, Sollamatten, and Saint Dracula, with his latest being the duet ‘Ven Megham’ in London Bridge. He’s also a trained classical vocalist, at present under the tutelage of A.E. Vamanan Namboothiri, and a deft hand at piano and Western music, which he learnt from Fr. Thomas Chakalamatath of Chetana Music Academy, Thrissur.
Amal composed the peppy tune for ‘Wow Gol Brazil’ and also sung the number along with Elliz, the lyrics of which were written by both Elliz and Luana. “The song welcomes all nations to the vibrant land of Samba and Bossa and starts off with the line ‘Uma só nação/ Uma só voz’ that means something like ‘join us together in love, one voice that unites the world – goal.’ I have used a lot of traditional Brazilian rhythms for the song and it took almost three months to make because of the research involved,” says Amal. Singing in Brazilian Portuguese was also challenging, he says. “Thankfully, many of my Brazilian friends on Facebook helped me out by sending voice messages via Whatspp on the correct way to pronounce the words. Elliz and Luana and Neil Nascimento, who did the musical arrangement for the song, also coached me through it,” says Amal. The video of the song was shot partly in Thrissur and partly in Brazil. “We would send audio and video clippings to each other to check and counter-check. Luana handled the direction and another friend Rafael Marcos Jesus, did the editing,” explains Amal.
It was uploaded on YouTube in the first week of June and already has over 13,000 hits. “Our song is promoted by the Igarassu government on their official pages and the Mayor of Igarassu even promoted the song on his official page,” says a thrilled Amal.
The friends are now getting ready to release the English version of the song. ‘Spring Tunes’ group members Suja Rachel Joseph, a Malayali who lives in the United States, and Manuel Joseph wrote the English lyrics.
“Apart from Elliz and myself, one of my students, Anugraha Raphy, has also sung for the English version. We have already recorded the audio and the video as well, which will go live on YouTube in the next couple of days,” says Amal. Meanwhile, Luana, Elliz, Amal and Neil are so excited by the response to their maiden album that they are planning to start a band together.
“I guess I will have to learn Portuguese…,” says Amal as he signs off.