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Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | December 28
Ending the year on a high note, the Nagaland Music Industry has witnessed remarkable strides this year even as Theja Meru, Chairman of Task Force for Music & Arts (TaFMA) observed that there has been an incredible growth in the state’s music ecosystem. Among the many activities of department, the Hornbill Music Festival has particularly seen an upward trend with a traction of more than 2.3 million views on its Social Media page alone over the 10-15 days during the Hornbill Festival 2024.
In what he termed as “the most precious intellectual property” that music has, he attested that many bands that have performed at what is now popularly known as India’s Biggest Music Festival, confessed that it has always been their dream to perform at the Hornbill Music Festival wherein some of them have been dreaming for as long as over a decade.
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Another feat for the music industry this year is the Hornbill Music Festival being featured on WOMEX (Worldwide Music Expo) bag 2024 at Manchester, UK. Describing this as “the most international and culturally diverse music meet in the world and the biggest conference of the global music scene, featuring a trade fair, talks, films and showcase concerts,” Advisor to Chief Minister & Chairman, IDAN, Abu Metha termed this as “taking Nagaland to the world and bringing the world to Nagaland” while looking back on the year that was.
This year, more than 400 musicians and artistes performed at the Hornbill Opening Ceremony while 40+ bands performed at the Hornbill Music Festival with four official partnering countries—USA, UK, Peru, Japan and three music partnering countries including South Korea, Spain and Israel. The Music Festival also debuted 17 singers from 17 districts of Nagaland, who performed on the main Hornbill stage.
One of the major differences Theja Meru saw with the local artistes from Nagaland this year was how musicians like Abdon Mech, KL Pamei and Trance Effect drew a huge crowd for their music alone. “They were no less than any other who came from other parts of the world. We have headliners right here with a huge fan following, people singing their songs from start to finish. Gone are the days where you need to bring in people. They are bringing in the people. The stadium was packed, also testifying that they are as good as anybody in the world,” he remarked.
‘Our vision is to export our music to other parts of the world’
To continue building a very strong music ecosystem is the vision of TaFMA, he conveyed while expressing that, “our vision is to export our music to other parts of the country and the world.” Despite a lot of comments and comparison made with rock legend, Bryan Adams performing in Shillong around the same time, he also stated, “we are not against importing, we will bring them. But our priority right now is music export.”
Towards this end, he further asserted that, “Nagaland has reached a point where we can export our music and not just import music.” Mention may be made here that during the current year, hundreds of Naga musicians performed both in the national and international stage. Reiterating that, “right now, we are building our brand,” he reaffirmed that “our vision is very clear,” which is why they are focussed on the export. “And we exist to propel the talents of our youth in the forefront of entertainment, music business and artistic achievement. Our focus is our youth, developing our ecosystem and exporting,” he highlighted.
In its endeavour to promote local artists and make them big over the past several years, he said, “I am starting to see that trend already and artistes from Nagaland are equal headliners.” “I saw that spirit in attendance number, and people singing their songs and interacting with them,” he added. Stating that this is an affirmation to TaFMA’s vision, he went on to say that the videos and numbers don’t lie and exuded hope that this trend will continue even while underscoring the need to celebrate our own artists first. “We have to start celebrating them first, otherwise nobody will,” he maintained.
Toyota Ki for Art & Music
Having partnered with Toyota for the last 3 years, a permanent structure christened as “Toyota Ki” (TaFMA Lounge) was totally funded and built by Okusa Toyota Nagaland at a project cost of approximately 1.5 crores, supported by Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd.
Even as the Lounge was formally opened on Novemer 27, Theja Meru highlighted that the place will be used for purposes such as residency, small collective meetings related to art, music, or lectures, etc.
In the meantime, he said that some of the milestones and partnerships this year are Sennheiser and Harman Pro India partnering with Hornbill Music Festival. Besides this, an M.O.U was signed between TaFMA and JM International headquartered in Brussels, as a music partner. He also expressed delight that the Director of Global Partnerships, Paras Sharma could attend Hornbill Festival 2024 while META India partnered with Hornbill Music Festival for the second consecutive year.
Among others, TaFMA also organised Asia Music Summit 2024 in February under the aegis of MusicConnect Asia witnessing the presences of 15 Festival Directors from across the globe and showcasing over 20 bands. The Asia Music Summit Kohima Declaration was signed by 12 Festival Directors to further the music mission of the state. TaFMA also organised Ticket to Hornbill—India’s Biggest Band Battle.
One of the special projects of TaFMA this year is the launching of CEMA (Centre of Excellence for Music and Arts) in Kohima by the Chief Minister of Nagaland and Dr. A.R Rahman, who also unveiled the teaser of Headhunting to Beatboxing at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, France.
Theja Meru further placed on record his gratitude to the Chief Minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio for his leadership and for encouraging and giving TaFMA a free hand to run it. He also thanked the Advisor to Chief Minister, Abu Metha for his unwavering support and Dr. AR Rahman, who, he said, is like a big brother and writes to them from time to time to check on the children of Sunshine Orchestra, a project under the AR Rahman Foundation.
‘Nagaland has come a long way and we can only go up from here’
Stating that “we are definitely not where we long to be—we have a long way to go— but we are not where we used to be,” he however affirmed that, “Nagaland has come a long way and we can only go up from here.”
Further pointing to the talent of young people, he said, “we are driven by the energy of our young people” and also cited the number of YouTube videos being released and songs being written. “When there is so much talent, if I don’t do my best, I would fail them terribly as someone, who has been in this industry for more than 30 years, and now occupying a chair. I don’t have a perfect system but at the end of the day, when I leave TAFMA, I should leave with the satisfaction that I did my best. I gave my utmost best. I have no more to give and I should step down when my time comes,” he put across.
He also encouraged artistes to continue to work hard while indicating that we live in a world which is very inclusive. “And with the idea of inclusivity and diversity, we stand a greater chance for success. Now is a good time for Naga artistes,” he added. To the art fraternity from the area of literature, film, theatre, fashion, and dance, he expressed “apologies” for not being able to do much as an Arts body. But coming year, let it be different, he pronounced even while urging experts from the mentioned fields to come and share ideas with TaFMA since, he acknowledged, “we are also not able to focus on everything.” “So, we need experts from those fields so we can do more. We need to meet more often and share ideas so we can do more to grow the sectors which are not being given too much attention,” he urged.
“We need to be more aggressively pursuing each other instead of waiting for each other,” he articulated while pointing out that, “there’s room for us to grow together” if the communication gap is reduced.
