Sanu, who is on a US tour, shares stage with New York-based daughter in New Jersey and Washington, DC.
AB Wire
Call it a unique dad-daughter moment.
Music lovers gathered at Washington’s historic Warner Theatre on April 17 were in for a pleasant surprise, when Bollywood legend Kumar Sanu performed with his 14-year-old daughter Shannon.
It was only the second time the father-daughter duo shared the stage — they sang together on stage for the first time in New Jersey the previous night.
The DC duet came at the finale of a six-city US tour — Everlasting Melodies — by Sanu and fellow Bollywood singer Alka Yagnik.
Shannon, who goes by the name Shannon K., was introduced to an unsuspecting audience as a budding musician. It was only after their duet the master of ceremonies, Raviraj Kande, revealed that Shannon was the singer’s daughter.
The teenager, who moved to New York from London last year to pursue her musical career, started with a solo — Adele’s Hello.
“Can you sing four lines with me?” Sanu asked Shannon after she impressively belted out the British singer’s ballad.
“Yeah, it will be an honor,” she replied and it was welcomed with thunderous applause by the audience.
The two sang a version of Dil mera churaya kyun from the movie Akele Hum Akele Tum.
Why did you break my heart?
Why did you fall in love?
Why did you go away, away, away?
“Do you know the song?” Sanu asked his daughter. “Yes,” said Shannon, and went on to sing four lines from “Last Christmas, clearly the song that “inspired” Dil mera churaya kyun:
Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I’ll give it to someone special
“With Dad, it’s the most precious time for me!” Shannon wrote on her Facebook page on Monday, after reposting a video of the duet.
“It was a big day of my life! Shared stage with 2 legends, Kumar Sanu, and Alka Yagnik. I’m on cloud nine,” Shannon had tweeted on Sunday after performing in New Jersey.
Manish Sood, founder of the Intense Entertainment and promoter the show in the US capital, said “the whole audience loved” Shannon’s performance with Sanu, “and it added a great value to the show.” Sood said that “the whole audience loved the fact that they did not know till the end that she is Kumar Sanu’s daughter.”
Shannon, the elder daughter of Sanu, made her first solo single at the age of 12 with a song written by her 9-year-old sister Annabel K. The song, Roll Back the Years, was released on May 24, 2012.
“Returning home from her school one day in tears, Ana explained that one of her friends at school was suffering due to her parents recently getting separated. She soon channeled this inspiration into a set of lyrics which were put to music by older sister Shannon,” says her website.
Shannon has many songs, including Lose control, Just another boy, and Mom to her credit.
According to her website, Shannon learned the Indian classical dance form, Kathak, at a very tender age and first performed on stage at 4. She was also honored and performed dance again, when she was 6, at the Bollywood Awards Night, USA.
The “Everlasting Melodies” tour by Sanu and Yagnik was promoted nationally by Shree Balaji Entertainment and in Washington, DC, by Intense Entertainment. Besides Washington, the two singers performed in San Jose, Houston, Chicago, Detroit and New Jersey.
(This story was updated.)
Watch Shannon K. singing Adele’s Hello