Aima Baig – putting the fun in funkari

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The singer talks to Us about her journey in the entertainment industry, her new song, and her upcoming album

Aima Baig just released her first solo single. That may seem hard to believe, given that she has spent the better part of a decade in the limelight. Surely she must have made other songs on her own and this isn’t her debut solo track? But she hasn’t and it is.

“The [very] reason we are doing this interview right now is because this is my first ever solo single,” the singer tells Us. The song in question is ‘Funkari’, a catchy pop ditty about deception and heartache. “I’ve sung songs for a lot of producers, composers, brands,” she continues, “but it’s just that now there is no brand involved. The only brand is going to be my music, that’s it.”

Journey to stardom

Before she became one of the most popular names in the Pakistani music industry, Aima started gaining recognition for appearing on Mazaaq Raat, a comedy series for which she served as a co-host. She has fond memories of her time on the program and still considers the show’s team “like family”. “They treated me like I was their baby,” she recalls. “They never treated me like an employee; they always treated me like they had adopted me or something.”

The Mazaaq Raat cast and crew taught her a lot and supported her through thick and thin. She was, in fact, recording one of the episodes of the show when she found out about her mother’s passing. “I think Fawad Khan was over. It was a huge deal, obviously, but they stopped the show, they called me over, and then they gave me the day off and also gave me a leave for the next ten days, even though I didn’t want it – I just wanted a distraction.”

Seeing how positively she describes her time on the series, it isn’t surprising that her most vital learning from the experience seems to be that of camaraderie. “Primarily the thing they taught me is that…,” she pauses. “People say there are only bad people in this industry. Aisa naheen hai. You’ll find nice people from nice families with good hearts and good intentions. So I only have good words for Mazaaq Raat. And they taught me that no matter how small the start, if you just keep your hopes high, tou aap kaheen pae bhee pohonch saktay ho.”

Where she reached, of course, was Coke Studio, the uber-popular music show that propelled her to national stardom. “Coke Studio kinda changed everything for me,” she says. Before appearing on this platform, Aima had done quite a bit of work, including playback for films like Wajahat Rauf’s Lahore Se Aagey, projects for ISPR, a tribute for the APS incident, and raising awareness about cancer, a cause close to her heart. But even when her songs – like her playback work – were hits, they didn’t put her in the spotlight. “Nobody knew keh gaya kis nae hai,” she says. “When Coke Studio came out, they showed my face, and … gave me face recognition for sure, so it changed everything.”

She embraced the challenges that came with the show, like getting everything right in three or four takes, and her hard work quickly paid off, making her a household name. Some elements of her success even surprised her. “I never thought in a million years even in a language that isn’t mine – like Saraiki is not really my language – even in that language my song will be a hit and everyone will like it, and that is how I’m going to be recognized in my own country, the ‘Baazi’ girl.”

From collabs to solo

For much of her career so far, Aima’s focus was on playback singing as well as collaborations with other artists. Her voice could be heard in films, TV shows, and commercials, and she worked with the likes of Ali Zafar, Atif Aslam, Asim Azhar, and Sahir Ali Bagga. The reason for sticking to collabs and playback? “I used to be a little camera shy,” she replies. “I was always a very shy kid. I was bashful about being in front of the camera from the start. I have done bachelor’s in film and television as well, so I am somebody who belonged behind the camera. I should be the one handling the camera or looking after the production or whatever. But it’s just that I have to be a singer. So you have to show your face. And then I realized that it’s becoming more fun now.”

The singer is now taking a break from playback to create some music of her own. “[I have] concert, traveling, tours, and now I’m releasing my own album, which is going to be my first chapter. There are a few featured artists on the album but it’s mainly my own music. So I’m focused on that more now rather than singing OSTs or film songs.”

She plans to unveil tracks from her debut record one at a time, offering a slew of singles before releasing the album itself. “I want to give each song it’s importance,” she says. “I feel like if you release all the songs at once, then there are some songs that are very close to your heart but since there are a lot of songs … let’s say there are 6 songs on my album, just for instance, and three of them are hits while three aren’t, and one of those latter three was very close to my heart … so I don’t want to waste a song. So I am going to slowly release them.”

The first of these singles is the aforementioned ‘Funkari’. “This is the first song in six years that I’ve worked hard on myself. And I know how much work went into it, what the process was, how the song was made, and I learned a lot in the process.”

‘Funkari’, Aima explains, is about a person – a guy or a girl (the latter in the video, since the character is portrayed by Aima herself) – who has been played over and over again. “She knows everything and she’s been through this whole cheating game over and over again. And she does not want to show too much in front of him, that ‘oh I know what you’re up to’, but she’s also going a little psychotic.

“It's a very serious matter if you look at it because in [our culture] women keep suffering but don’t speak up. Similarly some men I’m sure also suffer but don’t say anything. And then it turns into a mental disorder. You go into depression and all that. So I think that this song and video show the aspect that the person has gone [crazy]. … This is actually a very disturbed and dark thing that we are putting out there for the world to see and acknowledge that she is actually laughing about [the accident] because she’s gone psychotic because of the traumas she has been through over and over, not talking about them and bottling them up inside.”

The road ahead

What about her acting aspirations? Is there any acting project in the pipeline? “I don’t have anything lined up,” she replies, “but I do have a lot of scripts lying on my bedside table.” While some of these scripts are “great”, none of them have really clicked with Aima, and when she finds one that is to her liking, she says you might see her acting as well. Having done theatre when she was at university, this field just might be a good fit for her. 

Her main focus, however, remains on her music. “I am just counting on my album right now; I think my album is my future – it is going to make my future for sure.” She is torn between two titles for the set but hopes to settle on one soon. 

As for the future of Pakistani music, she says she is in awe of the young talent emerging from the country and sees bright things ahead for the industry. “The world is going to see a part of Pakistan that they have never witnessed [before]”, she promises, “because nobody explored that part of Pakistan and I think we have so much talent and all these kids and all these people have finally been given the chance to show what they can do and what skill they have.” And she feels the efforts and plans of the people in the industry – everyone from organizers to artists – will fill our stadiums with big names performing for music lovers one day soon. “Eventually, I am giving you my words right now, we will have [the likes of] Justin Bieber performing here one day too. Why not!”

- By Sameen Amer

Us Magazine, The News International - 21st July, 2023 *