Zoe Viccaji
Coke Studio house band alumna, Zoe Viccaji, returns this season as a featured artist, coming back to what she says feels like ‘home.’ Music being an integral part of her life and personality, Zoe has been performing since she was a child. She started in her early years with concerts for imaginary audiences with her siblings, progressing to church choirs, her first band, the ‘Ganda Banda’s’ at the age of 17, and, later, in Nida Butt’s productions of Mamma Mia and Chicago. Zoe featured on Coke Studio as a backing vocalist for three seasons and eventually won an audience for herself with a widely successful cover of Strings’ Mera Bichraa Yaar. Since then, Zoe has released a solo album, Dareeche, which won a Lux Style Award, and has released several singles in Urdu, English, and even Chitrali, showcasing her versatility as an artist. Having studied under the tutelage of Ustad Naseeruddin Saami and his son, Rauf Saami, Zoe has explored the world of Eastern Classical music, giving her the ability to cross genres. Always looking to evolve and grow in her art, Zoe continues to learn and train, incorporating what she discovers into her craft.
This season, Zoe returns to her Coke Studio family for her fourth performance as a featured artist, in a song that pays homage to a time when pop tunes reigned supreme on Pakistan’s airwaves.
“I think people are trying to come back to Eastern music. There’s this thirst to know our roots again, where we originated [from] in this part of the world. That’s what I’m trying to do with new music. I will write something in a Western way because that is what I was brought up with, but my instrumentation [is inspired by] theory of raags and notes. I’ve grown up with Western styles; the idea is to see how I can make that fuse with Eastern. At the end of the day what is music? It is something which is emotionally transporting you. How do you do it? I don’t know if there are any rules. But my mission is to try and find a new way of doing it.”