A bygone era comes to life
In total 90’s mode: The Soul Sounds. Pic by Indika Handuwala
Life is short, yet music is timeless, it resonates throughout the generations. They promised to take the audience back in time, to the 90’s and that is just what Soul Sounds, Sri Lanka’s all-female choir did with their show ‘Totally 90’s’ in early (August 6 and 7) directed by Soundarie David Rodrigo.
It is not every day that you see a group of girls, parading around in the fashions of the 90’s; we’ve long since moved on to fancier clothing but the careful selection of costumes brought to life, what was once in style during the era, delivering that sense of nostalgia.
From Lilanka Boteju and Shehara Liyanage, sporting a 90’s Rock and Roll look, to Nilanga Jayawickreme displaying a Grunge outfit and Roshni Gunaratne in a floral printed dress, their attire was diverse and the girls were definitely in character that evening.
The music was no different. The songs were carefully chosen and executed with such precision that only a well experienced choir could deliver. The choreography added to it all, neatly tying all the performances together.
Soundarie together with the band comprising Dhanuksha Seniviratne on keyboards, Pathum Fernando (Malla) on lead guitar, Pradeep Rodrigo on bass, Guyrika Weerasinghe on percussion and Christopher Prins on drums, carefully led the girls to explore several different genres on stage.
The evening was a fundraiser for the educational programme of the Shilpa Children’s Trust. The children from the trust had also prepared a song for the show.
Backed by the choir, they braved the stage with a beautiful cover of ‘I believe I can fly’, which received a standing ovation from the crowd.
Following the break, the choir unleashed their local powerhouses. Shehara and her powerful cover of “I will always love you” (made famous by the late Whitney Houston) stood testimony to some of the amazing talent that Sri Lanka has to offer. She was followed up on stage by the brilliant Dinushka Jayawickreme, who rendered a wonderful performance of “It’s all coming back to me now.”
The choir’s performance of Backstreet boys, ‘Everybody (Backstreet’s back)’ and November Rain by Guns N Roses were definitely crowd pleasers. As the familiar tune of ‘Everybody’ picked up, combined with the funky dance moves that were taken off the video, a loud ‘Whooo” was heard from the audience, that was clearly in high spirits.
‘November Rain’ brought about the same energy as Dinushka, Lilanka, Manisha Hannan and Nilanga delivered an ending to what was definitely a night to remember.
Meanwhile Roshni, who was behind the choreography for the show along with Shehara, said they had drawn inspiration from seeing how people have grown up listening to the music of the 90’s and how it has shaped their lives.“We wanted to retain some of those nostalgic moments in terms of choreography as well as the singing,” she added.
A lot of elements were taken from the music videos itself but as the choir had to work with individual mikes, they gave it their own twist.“We looked at each song, its rhythms, mood, and style and sought to incorporate it in a manner that would work well within a choral group dynamic,” she said.