A grand music concert is being organised as part of Ilaiyaraaja’s 76th birthday celebrations on June 2, at EVP Film City in Chennai. Titled ‘Isai Celebrates Isai’ the four-hour concert will feature many hits and, for the first time, Ilaiyaraaja will be playing music live.
Singers KJ Yesudas, SP Balasubrahmanyam, Usha Uthup, Mano, Bombay Jayashree, Sudha Raghunathan and others will perform. This is SPB’s first public event with Ilaiyaraaja since their fall out over royalties in 2017. He confirmed his participation and released a video inviting people to be part of the event. “Isaignani Ilaiyaraaja is organising this event for the welfare of all musicians. With love, I invite everyone to come and participate with us,” he said.
Isai Celebrates isai by #Mercuri#LiveInConcert #IsaingnaniIlaiyaraaja#maestro #ilaiyaraaja #SPB
Held on June 2nd,2019 !! pic.twitter.com/iWUrwJ6WG2
— Diamond Babu (@idiamondbabu) May 19, 2019
KJ Yesudas also said, “My friend Ilaiayraaja is organising this program for our musicians family. I invite all music lovers to be part of the evening.”
KJ Yesudas Invites You For Isai Celebrates Isai | 02 June 2019 | #Ilaiyaraaja Concert – Chennaihttps://t.co/6XJxj5P3Ij#ilayaraja #KJYesudas #SPB
— IlaiyaraajaFans (@IlaiyaraajaFans) May 17, 2019
Ilaiyaraaja’s team said they have been planning the concert for many years. The event is an effort to raise funds for Cine Musicians Association. Speaking to Silverscreen, Dhina, the president of the association said that the concert will be unique. Ilaiyaraaja, who has mostly shied away from speaking about his process, will be playing live. “He won’t be composing a new song. In a five minute segment, a scene from Mouna Raagam will be screened and Raja sir will play the film’s background music live,” he said.
A source from Ilaiyaraaja’s team also told Silverscreen that preparations were on and Ilaiyaraaja will be meeting the press in two to three days for more announcements. A song list featuring all-time favourites from over the years will be finalised soon. He had earlier said that they were working for SPB to be part of the event. SPB had not attended Ilaiyaraaja’s 75th birthday concert, the mega event organised by the Tamil Film Producers’ Council in February this year. KJ Yesudas and S Janaki, who have also worked with Ilaiyaraaja on many legendary songs, could not attend much to fans disappointment.
The 76th birthday concert collections will go to the Cine Musicians Association. Tickets are priced from Rs 499 to Rs 10,000, and are available on Paytm and Insider.in.
