The Facebook Live Lockdown Star group was started with a simple aim. "We just wanted to entertain people during the lockdown," Bengaluru-based Dr Annabelle Haiden, one of the admins, tells us. Initially it was just a few friends. But the popularity of the group grew so much that they were getting daily requests from about 200-300 people to join the group. Today it has over 31,000 members from all over the world, and it's growing by the day, Annabelle tells us. From small children, to people in their nineties, the group has a place for everyone! The live performances on the group, not just entertain, but also give some hope and comfort to the members, especially in these tough times. It is also an incentive to stay home during the weekends and stay safe!
The group has contests and quizzes, and apart from that, every weekend they host full day marathons of live performances. Each marathon begins at 10 in the morning and goes on till midnight and sees performances the whole day. One city is allotted to each marathon. Till now the group has had three seasons of marathons and has covered eight cities, such as Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai and Chennai, and has three more lined up for this weekend.
One of the notable performances has been by country music sensation Bobby Cash. Cash is known for albums such as State Of My Heart, Yeh Pyaar Hai, Ruk Ja Baby and Hail To The King. Bengaluru-based country music duo, Sanjay Bose and Adrian Dass aka the Crooning Cowboys, have also performed in the group. "Representing Bengaluru under the banner Bangalore BarITones for The Facebook Live Lockdown Star marathon gave me, personally, a great deal of satisfaction since we were singing to a global audience of over 32,000 members. The feedback. recognition and appreciation we received from all quarters of the world was simply fantastic! During the one allotted hour we performed, we did mainly country and western numbers with a lot of harmony thrown in. Admins Brian Cotter, Annabelle and the organising team did a superb job in coordinating the entire show!" says Sanjay. Adrian adds, "It was a proud moment for us to represent Bengaluru. I personally believe that this platform has brought a lot of people together who really did not know each other and it was the common love for music that made this possible. Kudos to the organisers and all admins of the group." Pune-based Robie Wood and 12-year old Bengalurian, Jaden Byford were selected to perform on Radio Australia's Country Music Channel after their performance on the group.
Looking forward, when the pandemic is over, the admins would also like the group offline. "But for now we are taking it one step at a time," Annabelle sums up.