Farzana Shapla Salique: Introducing Lalon to the New Generation

Farzana Shapla Salique is popularly known as Shapla Salique, is a singer and songwriter. She is a Bangladeshi. Settled in London, this beautiful lady is a talented singer. She is one of the singers who could establish herself in Bengali music industry despite living outside of Bangladesh or West Bengal. That is quite an achievement.

She was born in Balaganj, Sylhet District in Bangladesh on December 8, 1975. Her family was also into music. Her grandfather, Azfar Ali, was so passionate about music and her brother Uchchall is a skilled tabla player.

At the age of 5,  Shapla Salique she went to London with her mother Hasna Salique, and two brothers, Uchchall (born 1973) and Shochall (born 1978)  to join with her  her father, Abdus Salique .

After passing A level from  Raine’s Foundation School, she enrolled at the University of Leeds to obtain degree in music degree  and then focused on building her career as a singer.

From childhood she has been showing her music talent. She was the prominent singer of the first British Bangladeshi musical group Dishari Shilpi Gosthi. The group sang folk songs of Sylhet and songs of Kazi Nazrul Islam , the National poet of Bangladesh.  The group was founded by her father in 1979 in Shadwell, London. She released albums, performed in television. She also did musical programs in the UK and abroad throughout 1980s and 1990s.

Her first song was released in 1996, “Ziola” in the UK. It was remixed in Dance Wars album.

Shapla Salique has appeared on several television programs- Eastern Eye, Breaking Through and Flame in My Heart.

She has been performing in many countries London, America, Canada and many others.

Her soulful voice and powerful vocals captivated music lovers around the world. Her musical arrangement is combined with jazz, pop, funk, soul, and folks. It is not easy to combine Bangla music with western music but Shapla Salique has been able to do it successfully so far. Before her, no one has been able to do successfully and consistently.

Lalon is a prominent figure in Bengali culture. His music reflects his philosophy. Many of these songs were sung nearly 200 years ago but these songs have not lost their popular appeal as well their relevancy even during our age.

Her new album No Boundaries resonated thousands of souls. Her YouTube channel has subscriber is more than three thousand subscribers and more than ten thousand viewers.

YouTube channel.

Facebook page

Address: www.facebook.com/ShaplaSalique

Facebook is the most popular social networking platform in Bangladesh connecting more than 10 million people. Shapla Salique’s Facebook page has 4,107 followers.

Youtube channel

Address: www.youtube.com/user/ShaplaSalique

Date: May 17, 2012

Subscribers: 3,607

Views: 552,477

These days, Internet created a great opportunity for creative people to promote their work themselves. Youtube is the most popular video channel at present in the world. According to a statistics published by Excelacom, Inc. Internet users around the world watched 27 lakh 80 thousand YouTube videos every minute.

Shapla Salique’s YouTube page contains music videos of her songs and performances in various events.

Website

Address: http://shaplasalique.com

Home

Videos: Contains videos of her performance and music videos.

Photos: This section contains photos of her tours, songs and album covers.

Lyrics: This section is interesting. Here, visitors will get to know the message of the folk songs she sang. All the contents are written in English which means people around the world can listen to, understand and appredicate the folk songs.

Live Dates: This section contains dates of her upcoming performances.

It is through YouTube and Facebook that Shapla Salique flourished and reached to a wider audience. What is perhaps praiseworthy about her is the fact that she tried to grow slowly and solidly. It is not that Shapla spent hundreds of dollars and advertised in Facebook. Instead, she moved forward patiently and to some extent very organically. Bangladeshi media was perhaps somewhat slow to take note but slowly and gradually it is noticing her.

Shapla Salique is trying her best to become a successful signer and at the same time, her music is perhaps introducing Lalon and Bengali music to many people who otherwise would have forgotten their heritage.