Article by: Mr. Ahmed Jahangeer Khan
The Only thing better than singing is more singing (Ella Fitzgerald). A beautiful quote which describes the passion of all the singers of the world, I looked around and found this one artist who indeed is a staunch believer of this quote.8th May 1993, a child was born to a family in Quetta. From his first cry, he sounded like a singer as described by his parents. From the rich soil of Balochistan, a passionate and ever so talented singer emerged and within no time he reached the good heights and believes that even sky is not the limit for him. Mr. Daniel John the person which we’re going to introduce today.
From his early education from St. Francis’ Grammar High School, to his Graduation from (BUITEMS), he has always been a shining star on the educational side. In his chase of catching his dream, he made sure that his education is never compromised. This is what helped him to gain the confidence if his family and they supported him whole heartedly. He used to sing at home initially and the story changed when he realized how gifted he was when he first competed in a singing competition held in his collage, which he won eventually. Form their onwards, he never looked back. BUITEMS indeed provided him with the best of platforms to portray his skills. He won the best singer award from his university for consecutive 3 years. Through BUITEMS, he spread his wings a bit more and has performed at major events of the city.
He still remembers every single thing on the day BUITEMS Celebrated its 10th Anniversary. Daniel got a chance to perform in front of a huge crowd along with Respected Delegations and Staff of BUITEMS University. All his efforts paid off and he won that singing competition. “I had belly jitters, felt like I am going to fall as the roar of the crowd was deafening. As I walked u the stage, I remember my legs were shaking, but then, something amazing happened. I closed my eyes and felt an inner power coming out of me. This is when I found all the missing pieces of my singing puzzle. Everything started falling in its place, and I performed to my highest standards. It was magical… simply magical”.
While Daniel was gaining momentum with each passing day, and he was working hard on enhancing his singing skills to higher levels, he kept on winning many competitions held inside BUITEMS and Intra-varsity level. Lady luck again went in his favor as in the year 2015, Vintage Studios Quetta, collaborated with BUITEMS student affairs department and announced a singing competition; winner of which will get his own original song to be produced by them. As things were suggesting, he again stood 1st in the competition, his first single “Tu Meri Jaan” a national song reached 7,000 views on Facebook within a week. In that same year Mr. John performed at Independence Day Function organized by ISPR, his soulful performance stunned the crowd as he sang “Aye Watan ke Sajilay Jawano”. As narrated by Mr. Daniel “I remember, the whole crowd at the Ayub Stadium was shell shocked, they were silent while I was singing. Once I ended the song, I could hear the chirping of birds too, and then the roar and claps came in. I started feeling goose bumps all over my body, with teary eyes”.
Among his other accolades, he has performed at the stage of COMSATS Islamabad, has shared stage with the Legendary “Naeem Abbas Rufi” and has performed on key occasions like Defence Day, Teachers Day and others; several times. His Facebook page “TOOTA GUITAR” is quite famous in University circles and the fan base is increasing every day. He alongside BUITEMS Band had come up with their PEACE ANTHEM recently. The response to that has been amazing as a Major Talent Booster PATARI has taken it and they have launched it from their platform. Regarding this venture John added: “THE PEACE ANTHEM (AMAN KE RANG) is a brain Child of my friend, my brother SAUD WAQAS, who is one of the most amazingly talented people. I respect him a lot as we started our musical journey together, and our recent collaboration has gained major success. I am sure that we will be working on many such projects in coming years too”.
During this interview, we found how decent and down to earth this guy is. He made sure that we are comforted to the best of his capacity. There were many candid moments, as he sang few of his favorites songs for us. He revealed that he is inspired by a lot of singers as he believes in versatility. From Mehdi Hasan Khan Sahab to Lata Mangeshkar, from Muhammad Rafi to Ustaad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Sahab, From Sonu Nigam to Michael Jackson and from Sajjad Ali to Eagles, his phone is filled with quality music. He believes that singing is a never-ending journey you will learn thousand things each day and still a thousand are left to be learned tomorrow, it never ends.
He is working hard on learning new things and is experimenting a lot. He reflected that a lot is in the making with is in the pipeline. 2018 will bring us some quality music from Daniel, as he promised that this year is going to be a game changer. We called it a day with Daniel’s message for the youth: “For the youngsters I only have one thing to say; never back down and never give up, if your effort is pure and you work hard to achieve anything, you will get it for sure. It is all about how to perceive things, because even IMPOSSIBLE when perceived differently; sounds I’ M POSSIBLE.”
#BalochistanStars #Balochistan #Pakistan
