Popular singer Topu has urged people to join the battle to help people affected by coronavirus outbreak through donation and support.

The singer joined live musical session of Resource Co-ordination Network Bangladesh (RCNB) presents 'Music Against Hunger' from his official Facebook page on Sunday.

"People are suffering all over the world due to this pandemic. The privileged community should lend support to the sufferers. I’ve always been loved by my fans and from that responsibility, I joined hands to support as much I can with my abilities as an artist," Topu told UNB.

Also Read:Coronavirus: Bangladesh sees highest 28 deaths in a day

When asked about his first-ever live musical session on Facebook, Topu said, "With the team of 'Music Against Hunger', I, along with three other popular musicians - Rafa, Tahsan and Minar - performed in solo live sessions on Facebook on May 23 and 24. This has been a continuous part of a charity concert series which will continue in future and collect donations from home and abroad for the pandemic victims."

Bangladesh has been grappling with an increasing number of coronavirus cases in recent weeks. The country’s confirmed cases stood at 33,610 on Sunday with 480 deaths.

The government announced a general holiday from March 26 to slow down the transmission of the virus, putting millions out of job.

Also Read:'Music For Hunger' to be unlike anything our audience has seen before: Rafa

Topu said he has collaborated with T-shirt brand 'GoodyBro' to launch his signature printed T-shirts.

“Our slogan is "Buy a T-shirt, feed a family" - as a T-shirt worth Tk 500 is equivalent to providing a day’s meal to a family. This isn’t for business,” he clarified, adding that he handed over a cheque of Tk 51,500 to RCNB on May 19.

“I’m also donating from my part to the fund to help people," Topu said.

During his one-hour live acoustic session, the singer covered his hit numbers at the request of his fans. Topu thanked RCNB and the organisers from 'Music Against Hunger' for providing technical support.

RCNB, the organiser, said the fundraising concert is an opportunity to extend a helping hand to those who have been financially affected in Bangladesh during the pandemic.

Food items will be distributed to the needy people in different districts through the fundraising concerts. According to the organisers, the Public Health Foundation of Bangladesh will distribute the collected money.

Also Read:COVID-19: Lockdown envelopes film and entertainment sphere

Financial assistance can be sent to the Public Health Foundation of Bangladesh's Prime Bank (account number 2503116000594).

Volunteer organisation Dhroopad will be accepting and distributing all concert proceeds collected from outside Bangladesh. International donors can donate to the campaign through PayPal at registrations@dhroopad.org.

Also Read:‘Music Against Hunger’: The charity concert for an era of pandemic

Following the global trend of online concerts, a grandiose online event titled 'Music For Hunger', organized by Resource Co-ordination Network Bangladesh (RCNB) with the participation of four of the heartthrobs of Bangladeshi music - Raef Al Hasan Rafa, Tahsan, Minar and Topu, is scheduled to enthrall audience at home on Saturday and Sunday night. The concert, according to Rafa, one of the most famous singers-composers-music directors in Bangladesh - is going to be  unlike anything that the Bangladeshi audience have seen.

"The music industry around the world has been brutally suffering, ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Many international artists have been participating in fundraising charity concerts via online. In our country, however, I think we have marginalised the performance and compromised the quality in terms of online musical performances - and that we believe, changes tonight," Rafa exclusively spoke to UNB.

As one of the four participating stars of Bangladesh music scene in this special live musical performance, Rafa believes that online is the new medium at least for a year or more during the absence of live crowd-based musical events - and so the professional artists should focus on more enriched and quality performances for the audience of online, something that the organisers of this special charity concert heavily emphasized  on. 

"After being motivated for this noble cause by Shafquat Rabbee Anik bhai from USA, when we got united for the  concert - our main focus was to provide an exceptional musical performance in terms of quality. Performers in the West are doing a number of quality concerts in this crucial time, which could not been possible without adequate and advanced technological support", Rafa emphasized on the necessity of proper assistance behind quality performances.

"From the beginning, we kept that mindset that we will maintain the highest possible quality, something that can be useful even for the future arrangements like this - and for the last couple of days we have worked extensively so that we can provide an overall better experience to our audiences at home, as they are donating for a noble cause in this charity concert. Our audience comes first and they deserve the best", Rafa thanked the organizers, audience and donors.  

Regarding the problems music artists are facing in terms of online performances, Rafa believes that Internet Service Providers (ISP) have major roles to play in this situation. "As both the artist and audience are using internet as the medium, I believe the ISP companies can surely lend a hand of support in terms of sponsorship or at least with stable assurance of their service - something that came to aid performers in the West."

The concert, hosted by Zunaed Rabbani and Juneyna Kabir, will be broadcast live from the official Facebook page of 'Music Against Hunger' at 10 pm on Saturday. Rafa and Tahsan will participate in the concert on Saturday night while Minar and Topu will participate on the second and last night on Sunday.

Aiming to help the pandemic affected people who are financially devastated by the Coronavirus scourge, the fundraising concert is an opportunity to donate towards vulnerable families in Bangladesh and session musicians whose livelihoods have been severely affected by Covid-19, stated the event organizers.

Food items will be distributed to the needy people in different districts of the country through the fundraising concert. According to the organizers, the Public Health Foundation of Bangladesh will distribute the collected money. Financial assistance can be sent to the Public Health Foundation of Bangladesh's Prime Bank account number 2503116000594.

Voluntary organization Dhroopad will be accepting and distributing all the concert proceeds collected from outside Bangladesh. International donors can donate to the campaign through PayPal at registrations@dhroopad.org

Close-up and Bioscope and ABC Radio are co-sponsoring the concert online. Further information will be available at Music For Hunger’s event page at Facebook and https://choloshobai.com/campaign/music-against-hunger/.

Online streaming platform Bioscope will also stream the concert at the app and private FM Radio station ABC Radio will broadcast the concert at their Facebook page at the same time. 

Popular lyricist-singer duo- Shomeshwar Oli and Imran Mahmudul-  are coming up with a new song titled ‘Baba’ this Eid, at a time when the music industry is suffering due to coronavirus pandemic.

The song was composed by Shahriar Alam Marcell. Oli, the lyricist, said the song was written for a drama which will be aired during the Eid holidays. Both the song and the drama will be released by local production house CMV.

“Parents are not lifeless to the offsprings. They always stay by their progeny as a shadow. But the children are apathetic about their parents. This is the thought we have tried to put into tune,” Oli told the media.

“I sang before dedicating to our mothers, but this is the first time when I am putting my voice for our fathers as well,” Imran said.

Oli and Imran had paired up before.

There are many more songs written by Oli which gained popularity among listeners.

The first instalment of a two-night residency in virtual space through Facebook, titled ‘Music Against Hunger’, is set to invade living rooms, dormitories, bedrooms and wherever else Bangladeshis may crawl into wherever they may be resident in today’s world - with the same noble aim as another famous gig in the nation’s history. 

To paraphrase the chorus to the song written by a fairly well-known Beatle back in the day: ‘give some of your bread, to get the starving fed.’ Or as the cry went up, more famously from the outro: ‘Relieve the people of Bangladesh’. 

Back then, it was the ravages of a war, at once terrible yet necessary. Today it is in the midst of a pandemic that has fair-well brought the entire human race to its knees. Every nation is fending for itself only. Madison Square Garden? Not open. Thankfully, almost 50 years later - we don’t need them. 

Today the task falls upon every Bangladeshi, or scrap that - anyone in any corner of the world, who traces a lineage, a feeling, a language, that tugs at their heart’s strings (the music!) from that land wrought in blood and fed by rivers, where ‘Sylhot’ and ‘Chittagong’ and ‘Dahkka’ all come together - to pool our resources. The emaciated child with the begging bowl in front of the world no longer cuts it. We know where we’ve been - the Valley and the Wharf and among the Bedouins, fairly buzzing with your accent from Noakhali. Let’s now give back to where it all began - where people are still dying, as the ‘hunger victims’ of COVID-19. 

As long as that music we all love is playing, you know there’s no end to our possibilities. 

And so heading into the occasion of Eid-Ul-Fitr, the special concert is being organized by Resource Co-ordination Network Bangladesh (RCNB) with the participation of four of the heartthrobs of Bangladeshi music - Raef Al Hasan Rafa, Tahsan, Minar and Topu.

The concert, hosted by Zunaed Rabbani and Juneyna Kabir, will be broadcast live from the official Facebook page of 'Music Against Hunger' at 10 pm on Saturday. Rafa and Tahsan will participate in the concert on the first night, and Minar and Topu will participate on the second and last night on Sunday.

Online streaming platform Bioscope will also stream the concert at the app and private FM Radio station ABC Radio will broadcast the concert at their Facebook page at the same time. Hosts Zunaed Rabbani and Juneyna Kabir are also the co- in-charges of the concert.

Aiming to help the pandemic affected people who are financially devastated by the Coronavirus scourge, the fundraising concert is an opportunity to donate towards vulnerable families in Bangladesh and session musicians whose livelihoods have been severely affected by Covid-19, stated the event organizers.

Food items will be distributed to the needy people in different districts of the country through the fundraising concert. According to the organizers, the Public Health Foundation of Bangladesh will distribute the collected money. Financial assistance can be sent to the Public Health Foundation of Bangladesh's Prime Bank account number 2503116000594.

Voluntary organization Dhroopad will be accepting and distributing all the concert proceeds collected from outside Bangladesh. International donors can donate to the campaign through PayPal at registrations@dhroopad.org

Close-up and Bioscope and ABC Radio are co-sponsoring the concert online. Further information will be available at Music For Hunger’s event page at Facebook and https://choloshobai.com/campaign/music-against-hunger/.

Little Richard, one of the chief architects of rock ‘n’ roll, died Saturday after battling bone cancer. He was 87.

Pastor Bill Minson, a close friend of Little Richard's, told The Associated Press that Little Richard died Saturday morning. His son, Danny Jones Penniman, also confirmed his father's death, which was first reported by Rolling Stone.

Bill Sobel, Little Richard’s attorney for more than three decades, told the AP in an email that the musician died of bone cancer at a family home in Tullahoma, Tennessee.

“He was not only an iconic and legendary musician, but he was also a kind, empathetic, and insightful human being,” Sobel said.

Born Richard Penniman, Little Richard was one of rock ‘n’ roll’s founding fathers who helped shatter the color line on the music charts, joining Chuck Berry and Fats Domino in bringing what was once called “race music” into the mainstream. Richard’s hyperkinetic piano playing, coupled with his howling vocals and hairdo, made him an implausible sensation — a gay, black man celebrated across America during the buttoned-down Eisenhower era.

He sold more than 30 million records worldwide, and his influence on other musicians was equally staggering, from the Beatles and Otis Redding to Creedence Clearwater Revival and David Bowie. In his personal life, he wavered between raunch and religion, alternately embracing the Good Book and outrageous behavior and looks - mascara-lined eyes, pencil-thin mustache and glittery suits.

“Little Richard? That’s rock ‘n’ roll,” Neil Young, who heard Richard’s riffs on the radio in Canada, told biographer Jimmy McDonough. “Little Richard was great on every record.”

It was 1956 when his classic “Tutti Frutti” landed like a hand grenade in the Top 40, exploding from radios and off turntables across the country. It was highlighted by Richard’s memorable call of “wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom.”

A string of hits followed, providing the foundation of rock music: “Lucille,” “Keep A Knockin’,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Good Golly Miss Molly.” More than 40 years after the latter charted, Bruce Springsteen was still performing “Good Golly Miss Molly” live.

The Beatles’ Paul McCartney imitated Richard’s signature yelps — perhaps most notably in the “Wooooo!” from the hit “She Loves You.” Ex-bandmate John Lennon covered Richard’s “Rip It Up” and “Ready Teddy” on the 1975 “Rock and Roll” album.