Remo Fernandes

Introduction

Maria Luís Remo de Bernardo Fernandes Indian-born Portuguese singer and musician is better known by his stage name, Remo Fernandes. Hailed for being one of the forerunners of Indian pop music, he sings movie playback and plays songs from rock, pop, and Indian fusion. His artistic output is a synthesis of the various cultures and genres he encountered both during his childhood in Goa and throughout his subsequent global travels. The music of former European communist republics, Goan, as well as Portuguese music, Sega music, African music, Latin music, dance hall music from Jamaica, and Soca music, are some examples of these influences.

The indie music movement that emerged in everyone's neighborhood in the course of the 1980s was a shocker for Indians who grew up listening to bands like The Beatles, The Bee Gees, and Bono. They started enjoying American pop-rock being owned by their own people, with a dasi twist, on their radios. No one else possessed it but Remo Fernandes.

Later, followers of Hindi songs would recognize Remo as the voice of popular songs like "Jalwa," "Humma Humma," and "Pyar To Hona Hi Tha," but he declined to let his Bollywood successes define him. Rather, fusion gained popularity in these parts because of India's "distinctive superstar." He is a well-known stage musician in India and has participated in several international music events. He has shared the stage with worldwide acts including Queen, Led Zeppelin, as well as Jethro Tull. These days, he creates and performs music in Hindi, English, Portuguese, French, and Konkani, among the other five languages. In the year 2007, he received the Padma Shri award.

Remo Fernandes's Early Life

On the 8th of May 1953, Remo Fernandes was born into the prominent Panjim household. He was raised in the former Portuguese province of Goa, India, which some claim is still somewhat of a tropical beach heaven. The type of setting that leaves a lasting impression on a guy and his music. Belinda, his sister, is a talented Brazilian song singer. Luiza Fernandes is his mom's name, while Bernardo is his father. After completing his education at Panjim, Goa's Don Bosco High School, he spent five years living in the busy, dirty city of Bombay while attending Sir J.J. College of Architecture.

When the term "fusion" was invented, the period represented his first visit and exploration of "real India," which included traveling outside of Goa and creating Indo-Western songs that included setting his guitar so it sounded like a sitar. When Remo was seven years old, a cousin brought back a Bill Haley & His Comets album called "Rock Around The Clock" from London, and that was how he first heard the sounds of rock. He listened to the songs of the most well-known stars of that time period for the following 10 years. Remo's first theatrical appearance took place when he was barely five years old.

After that, he spent 2.5 years traveling within Europe as well as North Africa on the backs of hitchhikers with a sleeping bag and a haversack, singing alongside passing hats in subway lines and on pedestrian streets, composing songs as well as poems, drawing, and taking in priceless multilingual impacts. These experiences would also permanently mark his personality and his creations of music. He wedded Michele Delahaye, a French woman, but the two eventually got divorced. Jonah & Noah Fernandes are the names of their two boys. Noah and Minakshi Damodaran Sundaram tied the knot on the 26th of January 2014. Zenia Santos Costa Pereira and Remo tied the knot in the year 2018. Zenia is a member of Remo's backup vocal ensemble.

Following his extensive European hiking tour and his time in college, he went to Goa and immersed himself in the hippy scene. Afterward, he got to know the Amsterdam Balloon Business, a European band. Remo began to perform during his Goan concerts at Baga Beach. Together with the group's violinist, Lucas Amor, he gave performances in Amsterdam around 1981 and recorded a record titled Venus and the Moon. Together with the bassist Abel, the tabla player Lala, with the drummer Bondo, he founded his own fusion group, Indiana. Remo released his debut album, Goan Crazy, in 1984. He then recorded Old Goan Gold, his second album, in the year 1985.

Remo Fernandes Career

Remo released his debut album, Goan Crazy, in the year 1984. He subsequently recorded Old Goan Gold, his second record, in the year 1985. Using the label "Goana Records," he published this song on a four-track tape TEAC Portastudio recorder. Remo penned the lyrics, created the music, performed every instrument, and sang every note on the majority of his recordings. He accomplished everything by himself, including audio production and creating the album covers. He distributed his cassettes in Goa in addition to postcards, a graphic book of his poetry called Leads, and t-shirts that he created, while his cassettes were being made in Bombay.

For Remo, 1986 turned out to be a fortunate year. He performed a rendition of "Hello Rajiv Gandhi" at an official governmental gathering in Goa for Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was staying there at the time. The performance created quite a stir.

Remo recorded his first recordings in his own house studio while he was a relatively unknown musician in the early 1970s, and afterward, he would ride his yellow scooter throughout Goa to promote them. However, he was soon to become a national sensation, thanks to his successful pop songs in both languages as well as his soundtrack for movies. His amazing musical skill was showcased via his amazing stage shows.

In 1986, he recorded Pack That Smack, followed by 1987, Bombay City, both albums were hits. In addition to performances in Bulgaria, Macau, Seychelles, as well as Mauritius, he began performing in international performances at events like the Dresden International Song Competition, Tokyo Music Festival, Festival of India in the USSR, along with MIDEM '96 Music Festival within Hong Kong.

His fifteen-minute 1987 film Jalwa, which served as the title of the track, went on to become a smash. 1992 saw the release of his second album, Politicians Don't know to rock'n'roll. Remo eventually made the transition to a career as a playback vocalist in Hindi pop and cinema music in 1995 after collaborating with producer A. R. Rahman and filmmaker Mani Ratnam. In the Hindi-language dubbing of the Tamil film Bombay, he sang the tune "Humma Humma". Remo goes on to receive a Double Platinum for the tune. "Huiya Ho" became the following tune he wrote to accompany the 1996 movie Khamoshi: The Musical.

Jimmy Page as well as Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin were joined by Remo on bass guitar as well as Queen's Roger Taylor on drums for a 1995 Channel V Music Awards performance. Remo struck a contract with Pepsi for endorsements and starred in the company's first two launch commercial films when Pepsi initially launched the Indian market in the 1990s under the name Leher Pepsi. He promoted Raymonds as well.

Together with his fellow bassist Abel, the tabla player Lala, as well as the drummer Bondo, he founded his own musical fusion group, Indiana. Remo has played in a number of bands, such as "The Microwave Papadums." Following a gig, on the nineteenth of September 2000, a car accident in Kanpur claimed the lives of Dharamedra Hirve, Victor Alvares, Selwyn Pereira, and Sunil Redkar, Remo's personal secretary. Two CDs, "Symphonic Chants" and "India Beyond," were released by Remo in the year 2002. Those records, nevertheless, were not well received in India. In total, over twenty thousand tapes of his albums "Pack That Smack" as well as "Bombay City" were sold apiece.

Remo got together with his old bands, including The Beat 4, Indiana, & The Savages, for a reunion show in Goa to celebrate turning 50. Twenty-five thousand people came to see the four-hour performance. Remo traveled the world as a band member, playing in cities like Santa Cruz, Mauritius, Brazil, Bahrain, New York, Nairobi, as well as Margao. Motivated by Mother Teresa, Remo recorded an album in two parts called Teresa and the Slum Bum with 35 vocalists hailing from the U.K., Europe, India, & the U.S.

Remo likes to write and has contributed to newspapers and other publications with his essays. Remo Fernandes produced his memoir, Remo: The Autobiography of Remo Fernandes, in the year 2021. In it, he detailed his experiences growing up in Portuguese Goa, discovering his love for songs at a young age, studying architecture in Bombay, traveling by hitchhiking through Europe as well as North Africa with a former partner named Isa, returning to Goa, getting married to Michele, becoming a father, getting divorced, an unfortunate incident including the group's members, and his choice to remain in Porto, Portugal.

Remo Fernandes Awards And Achievements

• Overall Second Prize at Dresden International Song Competition, Press Critics Award, and Audience Favourite Award.
• The Indian government's Padma Shri.
• Karmaveer Puraskaar, an NGO established in Delhi.