There is no stopping singer Usha Uthup. She has been crooning for nearly 60 years, and shows no signs of stopping.
As she turns 78, Usha is full of beans, no sign of being a has-been. “I am comfortable where I am. I never learnt music. I never had the power of knowledge. What I do follow is the undying faith that every song I sing is much above me. Even if I sing Rumba ho a million times I still treat it with the same reverence. The song is always above me and each time I try to sing it, I look up at the song and try to reach its level.”
Usha Uthup looks back with utmost admiration at the Mangeshkar sisters as her role model. “I belong to a generation that worships Lataji and Ashaji. I began my career as a night-club singer and I still feel very proud of being a club crooner. I remember singing at clubs like Talk Of The Town and Jazz By The Bay in Kolkata. I was a concert and club singer. I wasn’t a playback singer. Lataji and Ashaji were playback singers. I was not. What they could do , I couldn’t. And inversely I’d like to think what I could do no one else could.”
Asha Bhosle, confesses Usha Uthup, is role model. “My relationship with Ashaji has always been one of , ‘Oh my God!’. It’s love, awe, and respect all rolled into one. I love Ashaji to death. I can never talk enough about about how her music and art affect me. I’ve always adulated and adored her, though never imitated her because that would have been pretty suicidal for my career. But my feelings for her run and deep wide. Ashaji knows my great reverence for her.”
Usha Uthup feels every singer in the past has a unique place. “I realize each artiste each singer has his or her own place , and that cannot be taken away. Why can’t we all accept that? It would life so much easier for all artistes? In mythology you have Rama, Krishna and Shiva and the one cannot do what the other can. Tell me who can sing like Hariharan and Yesudas? Today, we have Arijit Singh, who has swept across the nation’s emotions. Each time I hear Arijit’s song I am moved to tears. But that doesn’t take away from the way Shankar Mahadevan or Hariharan move me. When I listen to a vintage Marathi Bhaav geet of Lataji I still cry.”
Usha Uthup gives immense credence to originality in singing. “Until some years ago, every female playback singer was trying to be either a Lata Mangeshkar or an Asha Bhosle. In all the reality shows you saw kids singing like them. But when it came to live performances everyone wanted to sing like Usha Uthup. Do you know why? Because I was original. Copies don’t last.”
