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We The People: Singing Truth To Power

Goan tiatr singer, Olga Vaz, is known for her sarcastic and critical anti-government songs

When 10 out of 15 Congress MLAs joined the BJP after the 2022 Goa Assembly elections, one of the strongest voices condemning the move was of sin­ger and self-styled ‘Political Queen’, Olga Vaz. The 40-year-old is Goa’s only woman political singer, known for mincing no wo­r­ds in her songs on corruption, government apathy and inj­us­t­ice of any kind. In retaliation, she released a video, titled BJP-­­che Flight Chuklem (BJP missed the flight) on her eponymous YouTube channel, pointing out that the politicians who had promised to never leave Con­g­r­ess did so out of greed, thereby violating voters’ trust.

Her other recently popular video was Serkar Hasta, Gorib Rodta (Government Laughs, The Poor Cry) aft­er an RTI revealed the state exchequer had spent Rs 5.5 crore on the swearing-in ceremony of Goa CM Pramod Sawant. Like most of her kantare (songs), it addr­e­s­ses socio-political issues: A viral video of a disabled wom­an crying after the local MLA refu­sed to help her, the swearing-in cerem­ony; the Goa home minister caught dri­nking from a mine­ral water bottle that cost Rs 850. “Goans don’t have money to eat, but these politici­ans continue to loot us. I’ll keep spe­aking the truth. I’m not afraid.”

Vaz became passionate about politics and singing by watching her father Liban, a tiatr writer-composer and news junkie. Tiatr is a form of Goan Konkani theatre that combines pordhe (acts) and kantare that mirror the socio-political issues of the times. News on atrocities committed on women like rape, murder, would ang­er her, and when she started acting in tiatrs, Vaz would request fellow artistes to mention such news in their songs. “Finally, I got to sing a political song in Roseferns Dramatic tiatr. The audience called for an encore 7-8 times, which O Herald reported as a record the next day!”

Vaz is among Goa’s few political tiatrists, such as M. Boyer, Wil­­li­mix Mazarello, Tomazinho Cardozo and Francis de Tuem. She has performed the world over and is booked for seven sho­ws in the UK and France next year. Every day, she gets 2-3 calls from fans requesting her to sing on problems like rising petrol prices, lack of proper jobs, etc.

Audiences also enjoy colourful words like colv­ont (person of loose character) that she uses to call out people in her songs. “I don’t hide behind hints, but name the person I am criticising. This way, even my aged or illiterate fans can vote for the right cand­i­date.” As she is currently recuperating from a long illness, there’s a slight delay in her video responses, which would otherwise be out within a day or two of a headline news.

Loved ones keep trying to restrain her with messages like: ‘leave this’, ‘you’re a wom­an', “But I get angry when I hear of any injustice to a wom­an.” Luc­kily, Vaz has a great support system. She credits her success to late mother Jackline and husband tiatrist Anil Pednekar. “Two fans nursed me when I was hosp­italised.” When goo­­ns tried to disrupt a recent performance at Mandur and take her to the cops, the audie­nce stopped them. After she sang about a politic­ian, his men allege­dly bro­ke the doors to barge into her guest house. “But my hus­band said I need not worry, filed complaints and got the doors repa­ired,” says Vaz.

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(This appeared in the print edition as "Angry Young Woman")

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