Singer Daler Mehendi is to launch a new drive to find hidden singing talents for a new series titled 'Sufi Sultan'.

Announcing this, he said he would want every young person selected to sing for the series of albums on Sufi music, to also plant a tree and contribute to the environment. He also said that he would prefer to collaborate with Doordarshan as it reaches far corners of the country.

He said that he wanted to bring back the beauty of poetry in songs as several albums and even film songs are very vulgar and cannot be sung amongst family members.

Mehndi was speaking after launching 'Jawani Express', a Hindi music album by Gulbarga-based singer Jasbeer Singh.

The album has been launched on Daler Mehendi's home label DRecords and DM Folk Studio.

Ideally, Mehendi said he would like to take one young person from each state, thus making 29 persons compete for the title. He felt that the country needed at least 200 million trees to improve its environment, and he had used his singing and his label to promote this idea.

While ruling out joining politics, Mehendi said he was not averse to singing to promote certain politicians, and had sung a song in praise of Congress after being impressed by former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's efforts to bring more greenery in Delhi.

Jasbeer, who said Mehendi was his inspiration, said the Indi-pop singer had heard him singing some years earlier but asked him to get some training in classical music, which he had done.

Commenting on the launch, Mehndi said: "I was lucky enough to come from a family and legacy of music and thanks to God and my fans, my music journey has been one of fulfillment and fun. I had decided very early on that I would use my position to help new talents especially those from across the country who are not privileged enough to get a good platform to not just get noticed and launch their music but to also in the process to help enrich the industry with these young prodigies".

"I had met Jasbeer many years ago on the sidelines of a concert at Gulbarga where he had approached me and taken me up on my public commitment to launch new talent. At the time I had given him a host of tips and had told him to perfect his art. 'Jawani Express' and Jasbeer have both pleasantly surprised me and have also well surpassed my expectations. Jasbeer is a talented artist, author and composer, and 'Jawani Express' is a fabulous album," he added.

The album contains ten songs, of which three are fast paced and two are rap. A video has been recorded of just one song but another will be released in a few months. Jasbeer has written and composed music for the songs himself, but took help of some established names in Mumbai.