RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Bedrid­den for over a year, pop­u­lar lo­cal singer “Ras” Nan­coo Singh has died.

Singh was 73 years old.

Al­though he had no for­mal voice train­ing, Singh rose to fame in the ear­ly 1960s af­ter he be­gan singing singing Bol­ly­wood film songs with the Sawan Ba­har Or­ches­tra of Her­mitage Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do.

He ap­peared on the In­di­an tal­ent show Mas­tana Ba­har on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions and moved from tem­ple to tem­ple singing re­li­gious bha­jans. He lat­er joined many well-known Or­ches­tras in­clud­ing Dil-E-Nadan, Mel­lo Bugs, D. Ram­per­sad and Zee­taz.

His chil­dren An­dra, Andy, Ian and Ryan fol­lowed in his foot­steps, singing chut­ney and Bol­ly­wood songs.

Singh was well known for his white dread­locks which were over 10 feet long.

As a devo­tee of Lord Shi­va, Singh con­tin­ued as­sist­ing in Ram­leela cel­e­bra­tions but in 2013 he fi­nal­ly re­tired af­ter be­ing di­ag­nosed with liv­er prob­lems. In the three years af­ter his di­ag­no­sis, Singh con­tin­ued vis­it­ing tem­ples where he sang bha­jans with Pun­dit Ab­hedanand Shar­ma.

Singh loved singing songs by the great Mo­hammed Rafi songs and he rose to star­dom af­ter join­ing the Gay­a­tones Or­ches­tra in 1975. He lat­er be­gan singing the hits of play­back singer Kishore Ku­mar.

Chut­ney singer Ner­mal Mas­sive Go­sine yes­ter­day ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the Singh fam­i­ly say­ing the East In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty had suf­fered a great loss.

On her Face­book post, Singh’s niece Rash­mie Singh said T&T’s lo­cal mu­sic in­dus­try had lost an icon.

“Un­cle has been the lo­cal voice of Kishore Ku­mar for as long as I re­mem­ber since the days of Mas­tana Ba­har. I re­mem­ber my mom cheer­ing him on and be­ing so small and ig­no­rant I was fas­ci­nat­ed by this “Ras­ta “ singing In­di­an songs with that soul­ful sweet voice and my mom said he got that name cause of his hair was a Ras,” she added.

Pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo said Singh’s death was a great loss to the mu­sic in­dus­try in T&T, the wider Caribbean and North Amer­i­ca.

“He was one of Trinidad’s lead­ing Bol­ly­wood singer of yes­ter­year,” Man­ga­roo said.

Send­ing con­do­lences to the Singh fam­i­ly, Man­ga­roo said say­ing he was deeply sad­dened to learn of Singh’s death hav­ing fol­lowed Singh’s ca­reer since he was a young man.

Oropouche MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal al­so ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly say­ing T&T had lost a great son of the soil. Fu­ner­al arrange­ments for Singh are still be­ing fi­nalised.