ISLAMABAD, April 7: One song into Quratulain Balouch’s concert Friday night and the crowds were mesmerised by her voice – hauntingly exotic that melted the mild chill over the Rock Musicarium.

There was something special that made the audiences feel as if the voice was coming from the bottom of her soul reaching theirs. The clarity in QB’s voice spoke out to them and the depth drew them in. When both things happened at the same time the fans knew they were listening to really beautiful singing.

Ms Balouch popularly known as QB blew the crowd away when she opened the act with the soundtrack of TV serial Humsafar. Then she set the stage on fire with her voice reaching a stunningly high pitch when she rolled out a cover from Adele’s “Rolling in the deep”.

One of the fans paid her tribute saying he would rather like to have QB’s slightly faster version blasting from the speakers of his car than the original.

Her voice was simply out of this world and seemed to be made only for live performances when she sang the Coke Studio version of “teray ishq main”. There was no doubt Quratulain was a star on stage.

Instrumental virtuosos followed when she introduced her band members on acoustic and electronic guitars and drums. And the fans kept cheering, waving and shouting out loud “QB” as long as the group performed till late in the night.

Her performance followed an opening act by Bilal Saeed who has gained recognition for his compositions like “12 Saal”, “Kangna” and “Mahee”. He built up the tempo when he sang cover songs like “Subha honay na de”. Audiences jumped and danced to the beats and sang along. Kangna seemed so much in demand that Bilal performed it thrice – though it became quite annoying the third time – nonetheless the audiences went crazy.

The same crowd, however, struggled to like the opening act by a local band of teenagers. Still people were generous enough to cheer them on stage for their hard work.

The same could safely be said for the DJ who unnecessary shouted and screamed before and after the performances. And QB was wise enough to say she was better off without extra vocal accompaniment. The concert was organised by a private firm Slash (a media company) that announced its official launch with a bang.