I adore Sonu’s voice and also have his cover versions of Mohammed Rafi hits and also devotional tracks that he did very early in his career. Sonu Nigam has gone on to become a household name and his songs are all hits, super-hits, mega super-hits and so on.

On the 30^th of July Sonu was to perform at the KICC and the date also coincided with his birthday. What an honour to have this superstar celebrate his special day with us here in Nairobi! I was really looking forward to this concert and so were my kids. They’re both fans as well and for the first time ever asked me if they could go to a concert. I’d do anything for my kids and since they’d done well in their exams and brought in a good report I thought they deserved a treat.

On Friday, the day before the concert, I had to drop by the Tribe Hotel to go for a meeting and to pick up some documents. I was sitting in the foyer when I heard someone call my name and when I looked up Sameer, a very close friend of Sonu’s, was calling me up. I politely declined as I had to meet someone and I also realized that there was a press conference going on as Javed from the Star’s Asian Scene was also there. Eventually I finished off with my meeting and Sameer called me again so I went up and he escorted me right into the room where Sonu was giving his interview.

What a lovely chap he is and I am not just saying because I’m star struck. I’ve heard of so many people who speak so highly of this humble yet such a talented young man. I sat there until the formal interview was over and introduced myself and he shook my hand and Javed and I requested him to record a message for East FM, which he kindly did into my fancy BlackBerry. I was really chuffed.

The lady behind Alishan Entertainment, who had organized Sonu’s concert, Priti Patel had put together a birthday party for Sonu that same evening at the Tribe and I suddenly found myself invited to the party. I was really touched. No. Not really. I was so EXCITED! And then the next thought – I have NOTHING to wear!

Black is always a safe colour so I threw together a black outfit with fancy heels and bag and I was all sorted. I shared the dinner table with East FM’s Operations Director Jasmine, her husband Xerxes, East FM’s Vice Chairman Piyush Shah and his lovely wife Nisha and of course Javed. Eventually Sonu made an entrance and cut his birthday cake and we took pictures with him and earlier on, while waiting for Sonu, I was chatting with my brother Sukhbir on the BlackBerry messenger and he told me to pass his regards to Sonu. When I did mention Sukhbir to Sonu I was really chuffed to get an extra hug and longer time having my picture taken. Sonu and Sukhbir know each other very well and I guess it paid to name drop for once! Oh, what a groupie I am!

The concert next day was phenomenal, as you read earlier this week in Javed’s column in the Asian Scene, and my kids and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My friend Salima was with us and we really did have a brilliant time. Sonu performed fantastically for more than three hours in front of over 3000 Nairobians who were singing along with him and his band was out of this world. None of that karaoke stuff, no sir!

I feel this was a fantastic opportunity for me, and also I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time and got to meet this talented singer too. And yes, if I ever got the chance to watch him live in concert again, I would definitely do so, without a second thought.