KOZHIKODE: In the last week of July, a group of artists from the state representing Singing Artists Association (SAA) livestreamed its performances on social media, including Facebook, with an appeal to the audience to donate to help struggling artists from Kerala who had hit a major roadblock since the advent of COVID pandemic.
The campaign organised by SAA aims at conducting a 50-day non-stop livestreaming event with the support of more than 500 artists from different parts of the state, mostly singers and mimicry artists.
Though they could collect only a meagre amount since the 50-day event began some 14 days ago, it was distributed among the artists who are in desperate need of financial support. Salish Shyam, singer and stage performer and state secretary of SAA told The New Indian Express: "The last event I did was in January 2020 and till now, I have had no interaction with the audience as all the events were halted due to the pandemic. We have more than 1,000 singers in our association and most of them are struggling without any income."
Some people have entered daily wage works like painting and construction. "Realising this difficult phase of artists in Kerala, we decided to explore the possibilities of online media to source some funds to help struggling artists," Salish said.
"We could collect only a small sum as donation, but seeing our pathetic condition some organisations like Rotary Club of cyber city and Kozhikode Art Lovers Association came forward sponsoring some of our episodes. Even celebrities like Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri, Arya Nanda, Ramshi Ahammed and a few others performed for our event," he said.
The live event is being organised in different districts where studios are arranged for singers and artists to perform. It will be held in Alappuzha from August 16 to 19, in Kottayam from 23 to 26 and in Idukki from September 2 to 5.