Goan (Konkani: गोंयकार Goenkar) is the demonym used to describe the people of the Indian state of Goa,who form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, Scytho-Dravidian and Negrito ethnic and/or linguistic ancestries.^[2][3] They speak different dialects of Konkani natively.^[4] Goan Hindus may refer to themselves as Konkane^{[citation needed]} (Devanagari:कोंकणे), meaning the residents of Konkan. Goanese is an incorrect usage for Goans.^[5]

Language[link]

Goans speak the Konkani language, a Prakrit based language belonging to the Southern group of Indo-Aryan Languages. Various dialects of Konkani spoken by the Goans include Bardeskari, Sashtikari, Pednekari, Antruj bhas, whereas Konkani spoken by the Catholics is notably different from those of the Hindus, with a lot of Portuguese influence in its vocabulary. Konkani was suppressed under the Portuguese rule, playing a minor part in education of the past generations. They are mostly multilingual and Marathi has played a significant role for Hindus especially amongst its monolingual lower castes.^[4] Most Goans were educated in Portuguese in the past. There is a very small minority of descendants of the Portuguese, most of whom are of mixed descent and speak Portuguese.^[6]

They use Devanagari and Latin script for education as well as communication (personal, formal and religious). In the past Goykanadi, Modi, Kannada scripts were used which later fell into disuse owing to many social, political and religious reasons.^[7][8]

Religion[link]

Goans comprise a predominantly Hindu and Roman Catholic population and a small Muslim community. The majority of population in Goa follow Hinduism, and are divided into many different castes and sub-castes, known as Jatis. They use their village names to identify their clans, some of them use titles. Some even are known by the occupation their ancestors have been practicing; Nayak, Borkar, Raikar, Prabhu, Kamat, Lotlikar, Chodankar, Naik, Bhat, Tari, Gaude are few examples.^[9]

The Catholics on the other hand display a strong Portuguese influence, because of the 451 years as a Portuguese colony. Portuguese names are common among the Christians. The Caste system is still followed by Goan Catholics. Some Catholic families also share Indo-Portuguese ancestry. The native Muslims are small in number and are popularly known as Moir (Konkani: मैर ).^[9][10]

Geographical distribution[link]

Goans have been migrating all along the coast and across the world for the last six centuries because of many socio-religious and economic reasons, the diaspora are commonly known as the Konkani people, residing in the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala who do not refer to themselves as Goans. Many Goans have settled in Mumbai (Bombay) in the last century and still identify themselves as Goans. India's Goan population is mainly concentrated in the mega cities like Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai and Pune.^[11]

Until the early 1970s there were substantial populations of Goans in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and Angola. The end of colonial rule and the subsequent waves of explusion of Indians from Kenya and Uganda forced the community to migrate elsewhere.^[11] The Gulf News put the number of Goans residing outside India as approximately 300,000.^[1]

See also[link]

• Goan Catholics
• Goan Hindus
• Konkani people
• Goan cuisine
• List of people from Goa

References[link]

Look up Goan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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Luís Remo de Maria Bernardo Fernandes (Konkani:लुईज रेमो जे मारिया बेर्नांद फेर्नांदेज) more popularly known as Remo Fernandes (born 8 May 1953), is a pop/rock/Indian fusion artist and playback singer from the state of Goa, India. His musical work is a fusion of many different cultures and styles he's been exposed to as a child in Goa and in his later travels around the world. Such influences include Goan and Portuguese music, Sega music from Mauritius and Seychelles, African music, Latin music from Cuba and Nicaragua, the music of erstwhile European communist states, those of the dancehalls from Jamaica and Soca from Trinidad.^[1] Writing and singing songs in English made his success more distinctive in the context of the Bollywood-dominated, Hindi language-based, occasionally even disco music scene that was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. His music, reflecting life and socio-political happenings in India with which every Indian could identify, became popular largely with the growing, English-educated, Indian middle class. A popular stage performer in India, he has also taken part in many music festivals around the world.^[2] He now writes and sings his songs in five different languages, English, Hindi, French, Portuguese, and Konkani.

Early years and musical influences[link]

Remo Fernandes was born to the well-known Panjim family of Bernardo and Luiza Fernandes on 8th May 1953.^[3] Although brought up in a Catholic family, Remo says 'When I turned 18, I started thinking for myself; and I realized that god is beyond religion.' Remo's first introduction to rock was at the age of seven, when a cousin returned from London with "Rock Around The Clock", a record by Bill Hayley and The Comets. He claims that it changed his life forever.^[4] He spent the next decade listening to music of that era's most popular icons:

"After about a decade of going crazy over Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, The Shadows, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, one of the greatest influences in my life was the psychedelic music of the 70s, especially the movie 'Woodstock', which I watched over and over again. That was the time when rock broke all barriers and became experimental; Jethro Tull fused it with western classical, Blood Sweat & Tears fused it with jazz, Santana fused it with Latin, Osibisa fused it with African... rock truly became the voice of global youth, no more the prerogative or monopoly of America."

— In an interview to 'The Week'.^[4]

In school Remo developed natural guitar playing skills and along with a talented group of friends, Alexandre Rosario, Rex Fernandes, Nandino Lobato Faria, and Caetano de Abreu, formed a school band named the Beat 4. After graduating from school Remo went on to earn a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from the city of Bombay (now called Mumbai). His love affair with music continued, often bunking classes to work on his guitar technique. He began writing his own songs, playing solo or playing with different bands including one called 'The Savages' led by Bashir Sheikh.

Being one of the few cities in India at the time with a niche audience for Rock Music, he played in concerts and venues such as Shanmukhnanda Hall, Rang Bhavan, and in all the major college campuses of Bombay. He tried to bring an Indian element to the music he played tuning his guitar to make it sound like a Sitar and taught himself to play the Indian flute.^[4]

After graduation, Remo returned to Goa and immersed himself in its once famous Hippie culture. He met a group of traveling European artists who named themselves the Amsterdam Balloon Company, playing in their parties at Baga and helping organize concerts for them. Much later, Remo would team up in Amsterdam with Lucas Amor, the violinist in this group, and cut a song called Venus And The Moon. He formed a fusion band Indiana with two others around this time.

Between 1977 and 1980, Remo traveled to Europe and North Africa, hitch-hiking around eight countries during a span of two-and-a-half years, often singing and passing a hat around in underground stations and pedestrian streets to get by.

"I'd met a lot of European hippies in Goa; I wanted to be an Indian hippie in Europe"

— Remo commenting on his first trip to Europe.^[1]

He performed in shows with fusion rock bands, such as playing an electric guitar with Rock Synergie in Paris. Almost settling in the West for good, he changed his mind and returned to India.

Pre-fame years[link]

After returning, Remo continued to write some of his most memorable socio-political songs, but had to face rejections from Indian record companies. At that time no recording company in India was willing to release his music because it was in English, and did not believe there was a market for such music. Apart from this, in 1980s, there was no air play on radio and television, they were both monopolized by the government, who seem to refuse to accept pop music's existence. Remo Fernandes recorded his maiden album Goan Crazy and a subsequent album Old Goan Gold, on a four-track cassette Portastudio recorder in his home. In these albums he played all the instruments, sang all voices, and was the only composer of its music and lyrics. He engineered the recording and mixing and designed the album covers. He had cassettes produced in Bombay and personally went about distributing the cassettes from shop to shop on a yellow scooter along with an illustrated book of poems he wrote, postcards and t-shirts he designed to promote his albums.^[2][3]

1986 was a turning point in his career when three things happened. First was being invited to play at an official government function in Goa for the then visiting Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. There he sang a song titled 'Hello Rajiv Gandhi' causing a controversy in the local press and then in the national one. But on mailing a press clipping to the Prime Minister and getting a reply back from him saying he'd loved the song and found nothing objectionable in it, this letter, together with the whole story with pictures, was carried in countless national publications.

Second was singing to an audience in Bombay at a concert called Aid Bhopal, held to raise funds for victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, in which he sang two songs 'Pack that Smack' and 'Ode to Graham Bell'. To his surprise, the concert with both his songs, were televised by Doordarshan on four successive Sundays at prime time. In a country with just one monopolistic television channel at the time, that was a tremendous exposure.

Third was composing and performing the title song for the hit movie Jalwa, which was released the next year, this last event made him instantly famous due to the popularity of Bollywood cinema and of the Hindi language.^[4]

Career[link]

After breaking out with his first hit album "Pack That Smack" in 1986 and "Bombay City" the next year, he became the highest-selling English rock musician in India and the only one in the country to be awarded Gold Discs in this category.^[2] "Pack That Smack" became his first album to be actually released by a recording studio, CBS, at a national level. This was an anti-drugs themed album, especially against addiction to Heroin which contained songs such as Down with Brown, Just a Hippie, Mr Minister - a satire on politician who become inactive once elected to power and So Wie Du - a recording of his performance in Dresden. Bombay City contained hits such as Ocean Queen, Against you/Against me and a hilarious take on the condition of telephone services in India with the song Graham Bell.

Around this time, Invited to attend international music festivals and concerts, Remo again started traveling around the world. His first international event was at the Dresden International Song Competition in former East Germany that attracted competitors from socialist and communist countries. There he won three awards, the Press Critics Award, the overall Second Prize, and the Audience Favorite Award. He once represented India, when it was invited, in the Tokyo Music Festival. He also took part in the Festival of India in the USSR, the MIDEM '96 Music Festival in Hong Kong, besides Festivals in Germany, Bulgaria, Macau, Seychelles and Mauritius. As a stage performer he has by now been to every single continent in the world.

Although the 15-minute title song Jalwa for the movie of the same name released in 1987 made him instantly famous in India, he still resisted the urge to join the commercial Hindi film music industry, as he felt that he would have to compromise his artistic values by doing so and because his command in Hindi prevented him from writing good lyrics.

The next album he released was in 1992 with Magnasound titled Politicians don't know to Rock'n'Roll. Released in the backdrop of communal violence spreading in India, terrible events such as the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and the destruction of the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya, the album expressed the depression of the times. It included songs such as Don't kick up the Rao -a tribute to the then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, A song for India, How does it feel? and a song about safe sex titled Everybody wants to.

In 1995, Remo Fernandes finally moved into Hindi Pop and film music to become a playback singer, by teaming up with the legendary director Mani Ratnam and composer A. R. Rahman. He sang the song "Humma Humma" in the Hindi version of the hit movie they produced - Bombay. The song went on to earn Remo a Double Platinum.

Huya Ho was the next song he composed for the film Khamoshi: The Musical which was released in 1996.

In 1998, along with his newly formed band called the Microwave Papadums. He released his first and only Hindi/pop album to date titled O, Meri Munni( sample (help·info)) and in 2000 became the first Indian solo artist to have a song officially released solely on the Internet. The Cyber Viber generated 16,000 downloads in 2 weeks. Other artists in India who also released top hit songs on the Internet that same year were both Mumbai based artists, Pentagram & Dementra.^[5]

Other collaborations and work[link]

In 1995, during the Channel V Music Awards, Remo, on a bass guitar, and Roger Taylor, on drums, played with Led Zeppelin band members, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.^[6]

When Pepsi USA entered Indian markets in the 1990s as Leher Pepsi, they signed up Remo for an endorsement deal and got him to star in their first two launch ad films, making advertising history in India.

In February 2005, Remo collaborated with Jethro Tull along with renowned Indian percussionist Sivamani, for a concert held in Dubai. They performed tracks such as Mother Goose, Locomotive Breath, and Remo's now very famous Flute Kick also informally called "the flute song".

Until recently, remo has participated in, and helped popularise a local festival called the Siolim Zagor.^[7]

In 2001, three Microwave Papadums band members- Dharamedra Hirve, Selwyn Pereira and Victor Alvares, and Remo's personal assistant Sunil Redkar, were killed in a motorvehicle road accident in Kanpur.

In 2003, on his 50th birthday, Remo held a reunion concert with many of his former band members from The Beat 4, Indiana, and The Savages, besides friends like The Valadares Sisters and Lucio Miranda.

Personal life[link]

He currently resides in his ancestral home in the village of Siolim, in Bardez district of Goa. He was married to a French lady named Michelle, with whom he has two sons Noah and Jonah.

Awards[link]

• Karmaveer Puraskaar Noble Laureates, 26 November 2007
• Padma Shri, 2007

Song samples[link]

•  The Flute Song (help·info)
•  A Konkani Song (help·info)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Siolim Zagor
• Siolim & Cortalim Zagor