Meesha Shafi’s art of genre-fluidity and music philosophy

July seems to be the month of Meesha Shafi. While her ties to Pakistani music remain strong as ever, confirmed by the fact that she lent her voice to the year’s biggest film (London Nahi Jaunga) and dropped the independently produced ‘Rajkumari’ after Coke Studio 14’s ‘Muaziz Sarif’ with brother-rapper Faris Shafi, Meesha has a lot more on the mind.

At the 17th edition of TDMosaic Festival (after a strict lockdown in Canada), the Canadian-Pakistani artist brought the house down with what is easily one of her best live performances to date. The response she received is evident of this fact. Held on July 22 and 23, 2022, at Celebration Square, Mississauga, the festival fell during South Asian Heritage Month so it was a perfect fit. As Meesha belted out her repertoire of electric songs, the audience responded with as much enthusiasm as Meesha Shafi performed. She also dressed for the occasion, wearing an orange blouse, matched with a sari with pink edges, colorful bangles and a choker reminiscent of works by Pakistani artisans. The mix and match of the bright and subtle colours, as well as the accessorizing made the look both polished and an ode to South Asian tradition and contemporary style.

TD Mosaic noted on its website about the 2022 edition: “Welcome to TD Mosaic 2022. After two years of lock downs and limited public interaction, we are ready to get back to the “Normal”. With care and with hand washing stations and hand senitizers and many times masking up in public places, we are pleased to announce the dates for the outdoor festival events of TD mosaic Festival and Rock The Coliseum, Indie Music Festival. Our lineup is an exciting mix of artists from various genres and ethnic variety as we present artists from Mosaic Soundz, season 1. We will bring people together for a cultural and social experience.”

The festival included other prominent names such as Ali Kazmi and Josh, the music duo ft. Qurram Hussain and Rup Magon, but netizens and the audience present were celebrating just how Meesha Shafi put up a glorious performance. On her part, the artist who owns every stage she is on said, in an Instagram post, “Thank you, my heart is full.”

The performance does make you aware of the fact that in addition to her growth as an artist, since Meesha has delved into writing and backing her own music, in more than one capacity, her presence in the local music scene is terribly missed but her presence as an artist is taking her places.

With all her accomplishments of just these past six months behind her, we can only hope her next song and potential performance - in any format - is well on its way.

Meesha Shafi’s career has come full circle, though. From appearing in music videos and tryst with fashion to her days with Overload, followed by appearances on a number of corporate-backed music shows for several years, she has honed her skills as a singer and songwriter.

The recent years can only be described as an audio-visual voyage where Meesha has taken listeners to an exoplanet with a personal narrative including subtle reflection, tongue-in-cheek moments, odes to feminism, breaking societal shackles, innovation instead of imposition and admission of a rebellious inner and outer world. She did all this through her music. So, it isn’t surprising that she slayed the show in Toronto. Meesha also spoke to The Arts Guild prior to the TD Mosaic Festival just last month. Some snippets from the interview below…

Addressing the question on what her music philosophy is, Meesha noted, “I do feel like (unconsciously to a point) and now aware of the fact that I don’t like to confine myself when it comes to what kind of music I make or what I write about or even how I sing it.”

She carried on, “Sometimes I like to throw curve balls and it makes it fun for me as well, having like a chameleon like quality to how I will sing from song to song. It’s not that intentional but it is definitely my way of playing. And having fun with what I do is to kind of reinvent and explore my range and there’s really no end to it.

“So, I do that and also because I am an actor, a lot of performance comes into the vocalization, expression and tone and just going from one vocal tone to another or a certain role-playing quality as far as vocalization is concerned. It is something I’ve noticed along the way that I do that and enjoy it a lot.

“The music itself as far as genres are concerned, I have done so many by now that I think it’s become obvious to audiences as well. I’m clearly not sticking to one but just like the vocal tones, it makes it a lot of fun for me. I do genre-bending stuff; sometimes it’s kind of hard to define what exactly it is as well.”

Meesha went onto explain how people have used different names in terms of genre from rock to pop to Sufi. It’s an intelligent, refreshing video featuring one of Pakistan’s and now Canada’s foremost musical talents, and at close to 12-13 minutes, it isn’t so long that you might lose interest. Check it out - now.

–Find the full interview on YouTube by searching The Arts Guild