To promote creativity among artists, more than 20 artists performed at the first ever Nazhoen Gokab’s B-Pop show on May 29 at Lugar Theater in Thimphu.

The show began at 2:30 pm with performance from Gokab dancers, followed by a series of songs and raps by different artists.

The theatre exploded with excitement as the artist took on stage. When the lights went out, another performance was added to the list of programmes as the audience joined in to sing until the lights came back.

The show explored various themes: love, devotion, gratitude, tribute and dedication.

Producer and owner of M-Studio, Choeying Jatsho, said that youth have been reaching out to their own small audiences in their own ways. “We felt it was very important for them to have a bigger platform to promote their creativity.”

He said that themes were based mostly on true events the artists have lived. “Music comes from embracing yourself. Everyone has a different story to tell. There would be originality so.”

Choeying Jatsho said that teamwork and the originality of the show, including the sound, music track, dance, lyrics, graphics, and lightings made the show special.

The organising team comprising of more than 30 people took more than two months to make the show a success.

Twelve singers were selected from among 18. The singers were asked to submit original song tracks for selection. The dancers included winners of the Gokab dance competition held last year.

Two founding artist of B-Pop, rapper Kinley Wangchuk and singer Ugyen Dorji, popularly known as Ugyen Panday, also performed at the show.

Choeying Jatsho said that the surprise artists were chosen from those people who the youth look up to. “They have worked hard to make music pursuable.”

He said that there is talent in Bhutan as Bhutanese by nature are creative and skillful, especially when it comes to songs and music.

“Now it’s all about nurturing and guiding them, not exploiting them,” Choeying Jatsho said. “We can never grow as a country and emerge in global music if we keep pulling each other down.”

The crowd was also made aware about the importance of copyright and how to support the artists.

The events was sponsored by Department of Information and Media, Ministry of information and communications.

 Karma Cheki