PESHAWAR: In the past decade or so many musicians and singers went silent due to terrorism and extremism, but those who still can cry out ‘Ya Qurban’ melodiously and sing old stories, emotions and anything that embodies Pakhtun culture they must clear their throats as a rewarding competition is just around the corner.

The culture directorate of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is preparing for a unique competition to revive, encourage and reward those who have kept ‘tappay’ – an old genre of the Pashto folk music – still alive.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and adjoining tribal areas as well as Pashto-speaking parts of the neighbouring Afghanistan, music had been the worst victim of extremism. The professional musicians and singers were silenced and those who presented the gross form of the Pashto music – mixing digital sounds with vulgar poetry for CD dramas and films – deprived it of its remaining grace in recent years.

Culture directorate to soon arrange ‘Ya Qurban’ contest

To revive ‘tappay’, which is the verbal history or narration of the past encompassing all colours of Pakhtun folk life, the directorate of culture is going to hold a competition soon after Muharram among the folks good at singing ‘tappay’.

The competition entitled ‘Ya Qurban’ – two words that a tappa starts with – is going to give those who love and have kept this genre of Pashto folk music alive a chance to sing at a bigger forum. The indigenous way in villages still is to invite and listen to village folks who can still sing ‘tappay’ in a hujra or private gathering. Many of such singers are unknown simple village folk.

The government is sponsoring and arranging an event for the tappay singers for the first time.

“Looking at the huge number of people who participated in the rabab competition held recently in the province we came to know how much people wanted such talent shows,” said Adil Saeed, an official of the culture department, explaining why such talent competitions were being held.

“Such competitions will encourage our youth who mostly like pop music to listen to Pashto folk songs too,” he said.

Mr Saeed said that anyone who can sing ‘tappa’ would be able to take part in this competition and there was no fee, no age limit or gender bar on participating in this contest.

He said that competitions would be first held at the divisional level and the winners would be able to compete in the provincial event. The official said that this competition would not only give an opportunity to let those who sing ‘tappay’ express their talent, but the awards which would be given to the best three singers would be named after famous Pashto singers known for singing ‘tappay’.

At divisional level the awards would be named after famous singer from the division and provincial tappa award would be named after famous ‘tappay’ singer Ahmad Khan.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play