I’ll show you a place/ High on the desert plain, yeah/ Where the streets have no name.” – ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ by U2

Passing through at least a kilometer of a barren land on one side, and what looks like fungus-dominated water on the other, before you hit a roundabout and are greeted with cleaner streets (in comparison), you know you’re heading in the right direction. In this vicinity, the likes of Coke Studio, Pepsi Battle of the Bands and other programs have been shot. Not naming the studio is due to security as Pakistan is – once again – caught up with more political upheaval than previous years.

Celebrating two decades in the business, Lux Style Awards, in its 20th edition, toned down the number of invitees including many celebrities, pre-issued a requirement for vaccination for Covid-19 and divided the show in multiple segments. Unfortunately wearing masks, a prerequisite was not followed by all even as distance was maintained.

With the show being recorded live and particularly for a television audience, the music segment began first and in most exciting fashion with combined performance of an anthem called ‘Sitaray Sitaray’. As Bilal Maqsood told Instep, he composed, wrote and produced the thumping track, befitting of the event while Aag’s Usman and Haroon arranged and mixed it. Featuring Pakistan’s present and future superstars, the track was performed by and featured Aima Baig, Asim Azhar, Uzair Jaswal, Natasha Baig and Young Stunners. “I only make a cameo in the video when I sat on a piano in the last part of the song. I did not sing in it,” Bilal Maqsood confirmed. He also noted that the joke Ahmed Ali Butt (read: inappropriate) made about divorce was related to Strings. “I said ‘band thaa, toot gaya. Dosti ab tak hai’(It was a band; it broke but the friendship lives on.” In other words, Bilal Maqsood isn’t divorced.

The anthem, ‘Sitaray Sitaray’ is above all super-catchy and features the new generation of Pakistani musical superstars, many of whom also found success when they appeared on Coke Studio under the aegis of Strings with Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia at the helm.

Those who won were the underdogs of music, including the talented Abbas Ali Khan. It must be added that music categories should be expanded or reconfigured for the sake of inclusivity. It was nonetheless good to see that those who were repping the music scene at the awards were humble for being nominated in the first place.

“The city’s a flood/And our love turns to rust/ We’re beaten and blown by the wind/Trampled in dust.” – ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ by U2

In between red carpet moments and giving interviews to various media outlets, Baluch Twins, nominated in two categories (Singer of the Year and Best Song of the Year) for ‘Tazhn Teehaar’, told Instep that being nominated was an honour in itself. “When we were making this song, which is a Baloch ghazal, we were not thinking about doing something big. We wanted to contribute to our community.”

Reiterating their message, they noted, “This was not about fame but about being genuine. The outcome of being nominated twice is very surreal for us. We wanted to push Baloch music as part of our pop culture vernacular.” They also confessed that a national platform such as the LSA with its illustrious history does push artists forward.

For Umar Riaz, who was nominated in the category of Best Music Video Director for ‘Sakal Ban’ by Mughal-e-Funk ft. Meesha Shafi, the nomination created a sense of acknowledgment. Though he ultimately lost to Hamza Bin Tahir for ‘Teri Tasveer’ by Bayaan, Umar admitted that getting nominated does create a sense of validation for someone who has a number of beautiful music videos to his credit such as ‘Mahi Mera’ for Ali Sethi, ‘Dadra’ by Zeb and Haniya among several others.

Speaking about the larger theme of his nominated music video, Umar told Instep that the idea was, “to take a cue from the music. The music was taking a cue from Hazrat Amir Khusro’s kalaam and interpreting it in a very modern context. Visually, what I wanted to do was take elements from South Asian art, architecture and culture and interpret them in a futuristic context. We took a lot of cues from Mughal architecture, design, symmetry and then applied it to do what the music was doing, which was kind of a peak into the future of where we could take over own cultural elements.”

With surprising victories and the idea to showcase the future of music through performances, LSA 2021 did make mistakes but in the end, irrespective of tardiness on the part of some stars, it did create a sense of hope and the idea that the show must go on, come rain or shine.

– Red Carpet photography by Mohsin Mohammed Ahmed
-Show photography by Faisal Farooqui
@ Dragonfly