Usha Uthup’s journey of becoming an icon

Brut India

Adele’s “Skyfall”,  Morris Albert’s “Feelings” and now Miley Cyrus' “Flowers”, she can make anyone’s song hers. In 2013, Usha Uthup shared her story in her own inimitable way at an INKtalks event.   : INKtalks

Transcript

00:00I started as a nightclub singer in 1969 in Madras in a small little nightclub called

00:08Nine Gems.

00:09In those days there was obviously no electronic media but the ad said tonight and every night

00:15Usha no cover charge.

00:17I didn't get so many chances to really sing in Hindi films because they always thought

00:22that in Hindi films all the good girls had to sound just so you know with a high voice

00:26and absolutely but there I was sounding like I do.

00:29I picked up more and more languages.

00:32Who cares who sang that song before?

00:34It really didn't matter because I was singing Frank Sinatra, I was singing The Beatles,

00:38I was singing Rolling Stones, I was singing Mohamed Rafi.

00:42I was singing everybody.

00:44Feelings, nothing more than feelings.

00:48Sing young like my ching chow, sing young like my chow.

00:53So much of diversity in just saying Namaskar, Namaskaram, Sat Sri Akal, Salaam Alaikum.

00:59But so much of unity.

01:01Music has shrunk the world.

01:03Music brings people together but for me completely untrained, no formal training at all in music

01:11to be here for 44 years.

01:13You've loved me, you've accepted me just the way I am and you know talking the way I do

01:18is part or wearing the bindi.

01:20Do you like my sari by the way?

01:21Quickly in the minute here.

01:23Bigger one than that.

01:24Come on, it's specially for ring.

01:28My bindi and my flowers and my hair and the bangles.

01:32People would have probably thought that it was a fantastic idea and a fantastic strategy

01:36and positioning and planning but frankly it's none of those.

01:42It just so happened that I was born into a very middle class South Indian family and

01:46the only dress I knew beside the uniform was my sari, my Amma sari in those days.

01:53And in the larger picture though we're all citizens of the world, it's wonderful to say

01:56hey I'm Indian and thank God for the sari.

01:59One of my earliest memories of my nightclub life, by the way for those of you who don't

02:04know I actually, I'm not as bad as I look.

02:07I started as a nightclub singer in 1969 in Madras in a small little nightclub called

02:12Nine Gems and then I got into another nightclub in Savera Hotel in Madras.

02:19In those days there was obviously no electronic media but the ad said tonight and every night

02:25Usha, no cover charge, whoa.

02:29So it actually started then, yeah.

02:32People never imagined that someone looking like me would be in a nightclub and I'm so

02:35grateful to God that it happened that way because I couldn't think of another life.

02:41My music gave me the best things in my life, gave me my family, gave me my husband, gave

02:48me my children, gave me my grandchildren, gave me all of you.

02:53One of the amazing ads that I had or shall I say write-ups was in Hong Kong in the Straits

02:57Times when they said hot chapati, she's good and somebody else said she's Shirley Bassey

03:03in a sari.

03:04I've always appreciated things like that even when they said that I sounded like Tom

03:08Jones or Jose Feliciano, sometimes Frank Sinatra, it's lovely but that's my voice you know and

03:14because of this kind of voice that I have and I had in that time as well, I didn't get

03:19so many chances to really sing in Hindi films because they always thought that in Hindi

03:23films all the good girls had to sound just so, you know, with a high voice and absolutely

03:28but there I was sounding like I do and then hey, I just believed in myself and made all

03:33my limitations into my strengths and that's why I remain original today.

03:37So when people said that I sounded like this one and that one and the other one, I was

03:41really, really happy because I think all that people really want to do or want to listen

03:46or want to feel is a connect with the rest of the world.

03:49Who cares who sang that song before?

03:51It really didn't matter because I was singing Frank Sinatra, I was singing The Beatles,

03:56I was singing Rolling Stones, I was singing Mohamed Rafi, I was singing everybody.

04:02I sometimes wonder, maybe this is a good question for Inc, what do you do if you want to sing

04:07and you never had any training and you never had an original song to sing?

04:12Hey, you just sing anyway because a song is a song is a song.

04:19It just gets people together and for everybody who ever heard me before would know that some

04:25of my biggest songs were the James Bond movie songs and I've done each and every one, recorded

04:29all of them, though many people think that only Madonna recorded Fever, well she did

04:36but I recorded that in 1969.

04:39Can you imagine?

04:40So many years ago.

04:41So I feel proud to say in front of all of you, let me sing for you a beautiful song,

04:46the Oscar winning song, Skyfall.

04:50Make me do it like I've never done before, yeah?

04:52We have it.

04:53Thank you, lovely, whoa!

04:54You've got to make me do it because I depend on you.

04:56So to believe that you're in India, in God's own country, Kerala, Cochin, listening to

05:13Skyfall in a sari, thank you.

05:21Let the sky fall, when it crumbles, we will stand tall, face it all together, let the

05:34sky fall.

05:37When I started very early in life realising the power of music and knowing that it had

05:42absolutely no barriers of caste, colour, creed, language, gender, sex, age, nothing.

05:48And I picked up more and more languages, I did 17 Indian languages and 8 foreign languages,

05:54almost every day we sing in those, yeah?

05:56I was in Nairobi singing at the International Casino and I was singing in this amazing place

06:01which had an Italian management and there I was singing, feelings, nothing more than

06:07feelings, trying to forget my feelings of love, teardrops and I noticed this Italian

06:16management come up to me in a hurry and said, ah, bella bambina, you sing beautifully,

06:21you've got a beautiful body, I'm liking your body, I love the way you're singing.

06:26So I said, then what's the problem?

06:27He said, ah, but you've got to stop singing now because you keep on singing and singing

06:32and singing, then there is no money for the drinking and the people are not making the

06:36deal making a noise, only you are making the noise.

06:39So I said, what would you like me to do?

06:41He said, why don't you just stop?

06:43And then we got this beautiful Chinese lady who is going to be singing feelings as well.

06:47So in walks this beautiful Sandra Lang who sings feelings and this is how she sang feelings

06:51on that very same night that I was performing.

06:54I didn't say the word.

07:12Whatever it is.

07:13And there it was that my very amazing old friend of my family, Dr. Buddha Lingam, he came right

07:21from the top of the hall and he said to me, my goodness, Usha, what a wonderful way you

07:26are singing.

07:27I've been following your career for so many years.

07:29I said, I got no career to follow, baby.

07:32And I says to him, what would you like me to do?

07:35Yeah, you've come right in the middle of the show.

07:37He said, no, you see, people are thinking that we don't know any English songs and you

07:41have been able to prove to the whole world that you are singing so beautifully.

07:45Please let me also sing this song.

07:47I was absolutely flabbergasted.

07:49How would I give my time to him?

07:50But then he insisted and he was there with his veshti tucked up like that.

07:54So I said, OK, go ahead and sing.

07:55And then he looked back and he said, may I please borrow your musician?

08:00I said, you can take my musician, but I don't know whether he wants to be borrowed by you.

08:05Well, anyway, they settled it.

08:06And this is the way he sang feelings, ladies and gentlemen.

08:09Feelings, nothing more than feelings, simply touching my heart with feelings of love.

08:27Teardrops rolling, simply rolling down my face, simply touching my heart with feelings of love.

08:36Feelings!

08:37What can I do?

08:38Feelings!

08:39Why did you have to go away?

08:41I simply cannot understand it at all.

08:43You see, these inky people are doing that.

08:45Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

08:48And then I said to him, look, you've got to stop it right here.

08:51And then he, the Chinese and myself, we started singing.

08:54Feelings, nothing more than feelings.

08:58Ching yang lang mak ching chow, ching yang lang mak chow.

09:01What an amazing audience!

09:03Superb!

09:04Superb!

09:05Thank you very much.

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