Hosted by Geocities
Hilath's Home Page
Literature
Feedback:
[email protected]
Dandana - the music sensation from Fuahmulah
by Hilath Rasheed
From Fuahmulah, south of the equator, a five-member boy band made way their way to the north last year. At Haa Alifu, the northernmost atoll in the Maldives archipelago, the band from the penultimate southernmost atoll, performed in Dhiddhoo, to the delight of thousands of people who gathered to witness Youth Day activities on March 1, 1999. Their long voyage paid off. Overnight, Dandana band became a music sensation.
Within a short span of one year, music from Fuahmulah's Dandana band swept across the Maldivian music landscape, attracting appreciation from music commentators and applause from newfound fans.
"It's a wonder that one small band can make a big impact within such a short period of time. They've made their mark and grabbed an equal footing with other established bands," one commentator said.
"The best thing about Dandana is that they write their own songs."
Unlike many local bands which do not produce their own music but instead sing to Hindi or English tunes, Dandana has gone on to write their own songs which they hope to bring out on CD sometime this year.
"We are expecting to produce an album within the next six months," the band's founder Hassan Khalid told Haveeru over telephone from Fuahmulah.
Dandana's work in producing their first album has been hindered by the fact that they presently are on what they call a "tour of experience".
"We have been travelling to resort islands and trying to get established as a band," Khalid said.
This involved learning to sing a variety of English songs, the bulk of them being the most recent popular hits.
"They (tourists) want the band to perform the latest dance and pop hits. Hence, the band has been on a gruelling schedule," Khalid said.
"We can start work on our album once this venture into resort islands ends this month."
Making a base in South Ari atoll Fenfushi, over the last several months Dandana has been both shuttling between resort islands in the Ari atolls and undergoing vigorous training sessions in Western music.
But thanks to lead vocalist 19-year-old Hussein Ibrahim (pictured right), not a lesser sensation himself, Dandana now performs more than 50 English hits much to the delight of visitors.
Hussein's vocals have also been well received among local fans and critics alike.
"The best male vocalist to come in recent times," one commentator said.
Not surprisingly, both Dandana's English songs have been as well-liked as their Dhivehi songs.
"Hussein's great vocals make their English songs as good," one fan wrote in Dandana's chat site.
Recently, Dandana launched their own Internet website, www.dandanaband.com.mv, finally giving fans access to much waited information about the band after shooting to fame from their performance in Dhiddhoo last March. The website has information and photos of individual band members, Hussein, Faulad Ahmed, Nazim Mohamed, Ahmed Shafeeq and Yasir Waseem. It also includes photo galleries of the band performing at various ceremonies. In addition, the website has a chat room, video clips of the band's performances and soon plans to post their songs in MP3 format complete with lyrics.
"The website is not complete. We plan to put more," Khalid said. Though the website can now be freely accessed, Dandana plans to hold a special ceremony to officially launch the website.
"What we have in mind is a special occasion, like the Youth Day," Khalid elaborated; a suitable date for a band like Dandana which comprises of youths not more than 25 years of age.
Waseem, at 24 the most senior member of the group, is a guitarist while Faulad, 21, plays the keyboard and provides vocals. Nazim, 18, is the bass guitarist and contributing vocalist. Shafeeq, 22, is the drummer and also a contributing vocalist but by far Hussein, the 19-year-old lead vocalist seems to have grabbed the hearts of most fans.
Hussein's movements have a natural beat to the rhythm, sending fans into frenzy. (See Hussain singing and dancing to Aa Kujje kay Dhas Vee Fahun at one of Dandana's music shows: Video Clip [MPEG 1.4 MB])
"Enjoyed your performance very much! Love those hip movements you do," one fan wrote in the fan mail page of Dandana's website.
Dandana's success in giving audiences an entertaining performance can be contributed to the training they received in stage performance from top local performer Mohamed Munthasir (Munko) of Theatre Mirage.
Dandana has most recently performed at Fitr Eid festivities at the artificial beach in Male. Fans can be assured that more sensations are on the way from the band across the equator.
This article appeared in Haveeru Daily on 20 Jan 2000