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29 March 2024

I will never give lip service on stage, says Malayalam singer

Malayalam playback singer MG Sreekumar.

Published
By VM Sathish

Popular Malayalam playback singer MG Sreekumar, who has sung more than 3,000 film songs, said doing lip service by superstars and singers in stage programmes and public performances is not a healthy trend and a senior performer like him will never cheat the audience by indulging in such misconduct.

Talking to Emirates 24|7, the popular Malayalam singer, who is behind many hit songs in Mohanlal movies, said he was saddened by the controversy generated about the alleged poor performance including lip service performance during the inaugural programme of National Games held in Thiruvananthapuram a month ago, in which Mohanlal and other members of Lalism, a new music troupe created by the Malayalam superstar, has got an assignment worth Rs20 million (Dh1.15 million).

Sreekumar, who was in Dubai for Radio Me 100.3 FM music show, said he was only a paid singer in the Lalism troupe.

“I was only a paid performer in Lalism programme. I cannot talk about the controversy about Lalism band performance. The stage was huge and Mohanlal took the responsibility of singing a number of songs. While getting on to the huge stage itself was a tedious task and any artist would get exhausted. It is a common practice that when superstars perform on stage their songs are recorded in advance in studios.

“Even when Bollywood stars perform on public stage, some of the songs will be recorded in advance and lip service is nothing new in the entertainment industry. Nobody can blame Mohanlal because he is not a professional singer,” said Sreekumar, who has completed two and half decades in the music industry.

Lalism attracted a lot of negative social media and media attention for the superstar, who has successfully released a couple of music albums.

Now MG Sreekumar is in Dubai with his own music band, Perform.

Many artists and singers cheat the public by just paying lip service and playing prerecorded songs. 

“I think 80 per cent of songs were sung by Mohanlal himself and twenty per cent were recorded. Many superstars perform on stage use lip service, which is not practised by major singers like him. I am in the music and film industry for two and half decades and I cannot afford to indulge in such practices. I know there are people who perform on public stage with prerecorded songs and lip service only, “he said, adding that he cannot disclose their names.