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.
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📹: INKtalks
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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.