Staff Reporter:The occasion of the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence, the ‘Golden Jubilee Bangladesh Concert’ was held at Madison Square Garden in New York, USA on Friday. The concert was performed by the world famous band Scorpions. Bangladesh’s Chirkutt were with.
For the first time in the history of Bangladesh, a band performed at the historic Madison Square Garden in New York. The Chirkutt was taken to the Madison Square Garden stage at 8pm local time in New York on Friday. Although the world-famous Germany band Scorpions was able to impress the local and foreign audiences at the concert, the Chirkutt of Bangladesh could not satisfy the expatriate Bangladeshi audience in comparison.
Junaid Ahmed Palak, Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology, delivered the welcome address in English at the beginning of the Golden Jubilee Bangladesh Concert on Friday (May 6) local time.
He said the money raised from the concert would be spent on cyber security for children from poor and underdeveloped countries. He said the work would be done in collaboration with UNDP.
In addition to visiting ministers and members of parliament in the United States, Bangladesh’s ambassador to Washington M. Shahidul Islam, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Rabab Fatima, Consul General of Bangladesh in New York Dr. Monirul Imlam, MD of Hi-Tech Park Authority Bikarna Kumar Ghosh, Minister (Press) of Bangladesh Embassy in Washington Sajjad Hossain Sabuj were present at the concert.
Later Minister for Liberation War Affairs AKM Mozammel Haque, State Minister for Information and Technology Junaid Ahmed Palak, MPs AKM Shamim Osman, Nurul Islam, Nahid Khan, Aparajita Haque and Rabindra Sangeet artiste Kaderi Kibria joined the national anthem. Many visitors including Bangladeshis stood with them and sang the national anthem.
Then the popular Bangladeshi band ‘Chirkutt’ came on the stage. ‘Chirkutt’ begins their presentation with ‘Dhanadhanye Puspe Bhara’. Then one by one they sang country songs, songs of awakening and their own basic songs. “Being able to sing in Madison Square Garden is a great achievement for them,” said Sharmin Sultana Sumi, the band’s singer and group leader.
The auditorium was full of people. A few videos were shown in front of them showing the development and progress of Bangladesh. People from different countries flocked to watch the concert organized by the Hi-Tech Park Authority of the ICT Division of Bangladesh. At the beginning, the expatriate Bangladeshis are angry that they did not know much about the Golden Jubilee Bangladesh concert.
The 20,789-seat auditorium in Madison Square Garden was packed to the rafters. Most of them were foreign visitors, especially Europeans. They came to listen to the songs of the world famous Germany band Scorpions.
The Scorpions band’s massive campaign across the United States attracted a large number of foreign visitors.
Fans of the Scorpions in the United States are selling new sloganTickets to See the ‘No One Like You’ Rockers Live and Available Everywhere tickets and Sold. Foreigners buy tickets from the websites of NJ.com, Stabhub, Ticketmaster, SeatGreek, Ticket City and Mega Seats. The expatriate Bangladeshis and the audience did not know that tickets were available on these websites. One week before the event, the expatriates came to know that the ticket is available only on ‘ticketmaster’.
Read more: 95% Bangladeshi don’t know about ‘Bangladesh Concert’ in USA
The reason for the large number of spectators at the Golden Jubilee Bangladesh concert is the ICT Ministry of the organizing government. They did not have much publicity. The local event management organization called Mainstream Media did not disclose the details of the event. Out of the 15 weekly newspapers published from New York, only 4/5 of the newspapers published advertisements of without liability. These advertisements do not mention the schedule of the concert, ticket price, where to get the ticket, who can be contacted if necessary. It’s just a propaganda campaign. The ads did not mention the address of Madison Square Garden.
The time limit for the Bangladesh Band Band was only 30 minutes. The artists were just in a hurry. As a result, almost every song is sung sthayee and first ontora only. They did not sing any song related to the liberation war. Although two patriotic songs were performed, the audience commented that the singer was not very good. Sharmin Sultana Sumi, the vocalist in the Chirkutt, spoke more in English than in performing the song, causing annoyance among the listeners. Although she sang in Bengali, she said everything in English, which the listeners could not easily accept.
Among the expatriates in the United States, it has been reported that heroic freedom fighters, eminent personalities, established writers and journalists have got the opportunity to enter the auditorium free of cost. However, the leaders and workers of Awami League did not get any free ticket. For this reason, many have expressed intense anger.
After the program, US Awami League leader Hindal Qadir Bappa wrote on his Facebook status:
He further writes that the 71st Independence Struggle is going on. After 51 years of independence, the Golden Jubilee Bangladesh Concert was held today, May 6, at Medicine Square Garden, New York, to commemorate those emotional moments. Organized by the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Leaders and activists of the United States Awami League spent several days trying to find the organizers. I moved at the request of the leaders and workers. Three / four days ago, the Consul General was informed by a call, said. Mr. Siddique and Mr. Samad have been given the responsibility. It was narrated that Mr. Siddique had just joined the office of the Consul, and Mr. Siddique’s Amolnama. No More Siddique, was presided over by Mr. Siddique in the presence of the Leader Mr. Siddique. Honorable Kassul Sahib, sincerely requested to send the list and a list of about 70/80 people was sent through Dr. Masood Sahib. I also gave tickets to 4 members of my family, and all of them were dropped. I lost to Vivek, so I gifted 4 tickets to former student leader Masud Mollah. My two daughters are upset, but I have nothing to do. It is against my policy to enjoy a concert in the Garden of Medicine Square, leaving out hundreds of Awami League leaders and activists. Many more like this have made dozens of negative comments on Facebook status.
BP/SM
