NEW DELHI: A grand music event was held in the capital to mark the 87th birth anniversary of the versatile Mohammed Rafi who left his listeners astounded with the variations in his voice and singing style.

Several young people, many of whom were born after Rafi passed away in 1980, rendered some of his most memorable songs in the programme organized by the Spectrum Music. Well-known musician Satish Popli's Doremi Orchestra rendered the music.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Guest Amarjit Singh Kohli who is Chairman of Yaadgar-e-Rafi Society and SAKHA said it was interesting that Rafi's largest fans were among the new upcoming singers and this was also evident from musical reality shows on television or stage. This was a tribute to the versatility of the singer. He added that listening to Rafi was training in itself for young singers since he had sung devotional, classical, pop, romantic, parody, rock and roll, patriotic, ghazals, qawallis, and even sad emotional songs with equal ease.

Kohli, who had initiated annual programmes of competition of Rafi songs in 1984, said educational institutions should set up departments to study Rafi's style of music and use this for training aspiring singers.

Spectrum Music founder S L Bhola said versatility in music did not come easily but Rafi had proved that he could modulate his style to suit the actor on screen.

Rafi Foundation Memorial Society President Triloki Nath said future generations would wonder whether all these songs so different from each other were rendered by the same person. Nath and Mamta Vani also gave glimpses from Rafi's life between songs rendered by young singers.

Rafi was born on 24th December 1924 in village Kotla Sultan Singh of Amritsar District and died on 31 July 1980 in Mumbai. Rafi learnt Hindustani Classical music under the renowned Ustaad Bade Gulam Ali Khan and Vahida Khan.
He made his debut in the Punjabi Film "Gul Baloch" in 1944 with the song "Soniye ni heeriye ni" set to music by Shyam Sunder. Rafi was so much enamoured of Kundan Lal Saigal that he participated as a chorus singer in Saigal's song "Roohi roohi roohi" (�Shahjehan' in 1946) and also sang one line in solo.

So indispensable was Rafi to Indian film music that music director OP Nayyar asked Rafi to sing the classical song "Man mora bawra" (�Ragini' in 1958) picturised on singing star Kishore Kumar. Rafi also was the playback singer for Kishore in film �Shararat'.

He sang around 26,000 songs and figures in the Guinness Book of Records along with nightingale Late Mangeshkar.