Written By Telesha Ramnarine
POPULAR Bollywood singers Jeffrey Iqbal and Gunjan Singh enthralled fans on Saturday with stirring performances at the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha’s Diwali Utsav held at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal on the East Coast of Demerara.

Gunjan captivated the audience with her melodic voice and charming personality.
The audience loved her as she dished out the soul reaching: ‘bahon mein chale aao’ and continued to thrill her listeners with badmash dil, chura liya hai tumne, bole chudiyan, mujhe teri mohabbat ka, aap ki nazron ne samjha, raat baki baat baki, piya tu ab to aaja, aaj ki raat, yeh mere dil pyar ka deewana. She ended with chikni chemeli.
Just before a 30-minute break a shower came down which continued until Iqbal came on stage, but because of the rain the crowd was reduced but willing to brave the rain just to listen to him.
Meanwhile, the show also featured magnificent performances from the Dharmic Nritya Sangh, Sookrane Boodhoo and Rekha Singh. The show’s chairperson was the talented Dr Vindhya Persaud, new President of the Sabha.
Attending was President Donald Ramotar, and other government functionaries including Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, former President Bharat Jagdeo, Culture Minister DrFrank Anthony, and Finance Minister Ashni Singh.
Digicel, Icee, Blue Waters by Southland Inc, E-Networks, NTN Radio and Television, Rent-a-Tent, Pepsi and Sunburst, all chipped in to make the show possible.
Singh and Iqbal arrived in Guyana on Thursday and were both excited to perform for their fans. Both of them were here last year when they performed with Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal.
Gunjan has had a multi-faceted career, with several chart-topping songs. She was the winner three years in a row of the All India (National) Award, has performed extensively on the international stage and was the main artiste on the sound track of one of the most successful films ever, ‘Bend It Like Beckham’.
She has sung for in excess of 20 albums, most of which went Platinum within six weeks and Triple Platinum within 12 months. Her song ‘Kawan’ became a massive hit all over Europe and North America and was voted ‘Track of the Year 2005’ by BBC Asian Network. She has performed several times for BBC events in the UK.
US born Jeffrey Iqbal’s career on the world stage began when he was chosen in a talent search by the legendary music director AR Rehman from among thousands of applicants to perform at Rehman’smega concert in New York.

Thereafter, Jeffrey entered ZEETV’s US version of Saregamapa, emerging as the first runner up and gaining direct entry into India’s Saregamapa show. During his stint as a Saregamapa contestant, he received accolades from some Hindi music industry’s greats like Asha Bhonsle, Shankar Mahadevan, Himesh Reshammiya and Adesh Shrivastav.
Jeffrey recently released his first Bollywood song ‘Rubaru’ for the film Deheradun Diary. The song has garnered rave reviews. Jeffrey performs regularly across North America and is known for his signature dance moves and energetic upbeat style, making him immensely popular with the young fans.
In 2012, he was invited to tour with Bollywood’s current playback Queen Shreya Ghoshal and he performed in Canada, USA, UK and the Caribbean. He left audiences everywhere wanting more. Jeffrey is currently working in his own album ‘Sukoon’ which will be released shortly.