Speakers at an album launching ceremony yesterday said private organisations should come forward with an aim to nurture the country's diverse cultural traditions as well as to uphold its cultural heritage.
“Such type of initiative should be taken in future in more numbers. Though we have such a huge cultural bank but we could not pick up the talents from the bank,” said eminent media personality Mostafa Monwar at the launching ceremony of a song album under Celebrating Life, a nationwide composite competition.
Celebrating Life, a film- photography-lyrics contest jointly organised by The Daily Star and Standard Chartered Bank, released the album titled 'Music for Celebrating Life… Volume 1' at a colourful ceremony at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the city last night.
Earlier, Mostafa Monwar unveiled the album along with veteran singer Ferdousi Rahman, StanChart CEO Osman Morad and Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star.
Stressing on the private organisations to come forward to encourage artistes, Ferdousi said, “The artistes in our country are still being neglected to a great extent. I hope the songs that have come out of the competition would celebrate our life.”
Mahfuz Anam said, “The 'Celebrating Life' is celebrating the joy, festivity and struggle of the countrymen. Our dream is to celebrate these altogether. Our effort is to strengthen collective self-confidence by upholding the positive and creative field of work in our country.”
Eminent singer Shakila Zafar, Fahmida Nabi and Nasim Ali Khan sang from the album in between the gap during the delivery of speeches. Prominent media personalities and dignitaries from different professions also attended the ceremony conducted by Elita Karim.
The album featured 10 songs of the winners of the competition. Prominent musicians and singers transformed the 10 lyrics -- five in Bangla and five in English -- into songs.
The winning lyrics were selected from around 8,000 lyrics during the competition that awarded grand reception to 27 people under three categories -- photograph, lyrics and film in August.
Under the banner, the organisers will hold district-level festivals in Barisal, Bogra, Chittagong, Comilla, Cox's Bazar, Jessore, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Rangamati, Rangpur and Sylhet soon.
Singers of the album include Subir Nandi, Mashiur Rahman Rinku, Samina Chowdhury, Fahmida Nabi, Shakila Zafar, Syed Abdul Hadi, Nasim Ali Khan, Pancham, Shafeen Ahmed and Tipu.
Musicians of the album are Nakib Khan, Foad Nasser Babu, Bappa Majumder, Fahmida Nabi and Hasan Tipu. In addition to the songs, the album includes a track composed by Shimul Yousuf.
