'Slumdog' composer to sing, not dance, at Coliseum
"Slumdog Millionaire" composer A.R. Rahman will perform at the Nassau Coliseum on June 11, 2010. Credit: Handout
'I will be singing, but not dancing, of course," Indian film composer A.R. Rahman said over the phone last month from his native Chennai in the south of India.
The superstar was talking about the "A.R. Rahman Jai Ho Concert: The Journey Home World Tour," which kicks off Friday night at Nassau Coliseum, spans almost 20 cities worldwide and ends up at London's Wembley Stadium in late July.
Rahman, who gained global recognition with his score to 2008's "Slumdog Millionaire" - a soundtrack that won two Oscars and two Grammys and has sold just shy of 400,000 copies in America - won't have to worry about dancing. There will be four troupes of performers to handle choreography as well as 20 other musicians and singers.
"In my simple words, it will be the finesse of the West and the soul of the East," the 44-year-old said. Rahman, whose music has graced more than 100 films, told us a little about the show and the future.
What can folks expect at the show?
We're aiming it as a show where everyone comes in and gets a great new experience of this music. If they're fans of "Slumdog Millionaire," then they can hear more of that kind of stuff. And go to the root of where that all came from.
Have you done a tour on this scale before?
We've done stuff, but fewer shows. And the productions that we did were mostly last-minute. They were great shows, but we wanted to go further in so many different ways. I'm very happy with this new tour.
That's why you're embarking on the "Jai Ho" tour now, a couple of years after "Slumdog"?
I have a core audience, of course, but here we wanted to do some more in quality with the music and dancing. We took our time.
How did life change after "Slumdog"?
Back in the U.S., I have a base now. And I spend half my year there and half my year here. And of course signing on with Interscope for an album and working with Nicole . I don't just do stuff for the sake of doing them anymore.
WHAT "A.R. Rahman Jai Ho Concert: The Journey Home World Tour"
WHEN|WHERE 8:30 p.m. tomorrow/Friday/, Nassau Coliseum
INFO $46.50-$246.50 through Ticketmaster, 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com
