I believe 'Sayonee' is absolutely meant for Ali Azmat's voice: Ali Noor

Well, don't we all agree?

KARACHI: The 10th season of Coke Studio kick-started on a low note with its flat rendition of the National Anthem. We sincerely hoped that the rendition would be the only loop in the hole, but sadly we were wrong.

Case in point: Junoon's most beloved song Sayonee.

Even though Coke Studio most of the times marvel at their takes on legendary songs such as Afreen Afreen, this year's take on Sayonee sadly missed the mark.



The song was heavily criticised by anyone and everyone, calling out Coke Studio for an awful take on it.

Produced by Strings, music directed by Junoon's Salman Ahmed and sung by vocal maestros Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Noori's main man, Ali Noor, we expected a musical blockbuster. Alas, that wasn't delivered.

In case you haven't listened to Coke Studio's rendition, here it is:


And here's what people had to say:

*No Comments*

Ps. I think Salman Ahmad should better come outta this delusion that he can use the name Junoon everywhere.

— Mehwish (@Mehwish_dr) August 18, 2017

With due respect to RFAK and alinoor, these seasoned artists couldn't do justice to the legendary vocals of @RealAliAzmat .Cudve been better

— Ali Shahzad Paul (@alishehzadpaul) August 18, 2017

Where do I un-listen to this one??? Its not even the end of the day yet & I am so so disappointed already. Ya-Allah.

— Mehwish (@Mehwish_dr) August 18, 2017

https://twitter.com/NeddirRorre/status/898528233964044288

However, Noor wasn't the one to let the criticism faze the love he feels towards the song and Junoon itself.  In a recent video, Noor responded to the critics in the most graceful way possible.



When asked as to what his retort to the critics would be, the Manwa Re crooner asserted, "I think what's important to say over here is that I believe that this song is absolutely, absolutely meant for Ali Azmat's voice."


"My relationship with both Salman Ahmed and Ali is very very old, it's almost five, six years even before Noori," he added.

Discussing the history Noor shares with the legendary song, he quipped, "When I first met Ahmed, it was at my grandfather's law firm for a case. The case was that his song, Sayonee was banned by PTV and Ahmed wanted a notice to be sent to the publication. After the notice was sent, and the ban was lifted. It was then when they went to India and Junoon became huge!"



"It was then Ahmed gave me his own guitar. I wrote Mujhe Roko because I was so inspired by him," he added.

He then said, "The fact that I have such long relationship with this song and I got a chance to sing it, that's a huge thing for me. No criticism in the world is of any value since my emotional connection to the song is a huge deal for me."

"As far as Azmat's voice is concerned, it's extremely uncomplicated. This song would have been the best if he would have sung it," he went on.



"I can only hope and pray that some day, Junoon will reunite and will continue to make the magic that they can," he said, adding, "The reason that so many people are so critical of it is because many of us can really, really relate to it."

Just for the sake of good ol' times, here's the original Junoon chart-buster: