In the recently concluded Coke Studio, Season 5, two female artists - Sanam Marvi and Meesha Shafi - came out very strong. Both have powerful voices and both posses unabated energy. Hailing from Dadu, as a little girl Sanam was influenced by Abida Parveen and decided to pursue singing as her career. In 2004, a regional Sindhi channel, finally gave Marvi her first opportunity to sing on air. After this a slew of performances followed. This year Marvi was featured in the song 'Koi labda' in Coke Studio Season 5 which was written and composed by band members Haroon Shahid and Hasan Omer. The song also included a qawwali by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan called 'Menu chad

kalli nu tu challeya'. Having studied Sufi music extensively, Marvi aims to spread the Sufi belief in love and peace through her music to global and local audiences. Marvi is in her element with compositions of mystics such as Baba Bulleh Shah, Baba Sheikh Farid, Sachal Sarmast and Shah Abdul Latif.

Meesha Shafi has proved to be one of the most dynamic artists of Coke Studio. And her voice has added a new dimension to a range of traditional and modern music. In Coke Studio, Episode 5, Meesha paid tribute to one of the greatest poets in the Urdu language - Faiz Ahmad Faiz by singing 'Dasht-e-Tanhai'. Faiz Sahib was a close friend of Shafi's grandfather and the song holds very deep personal meaning for her. She wanted to perform it in memory of Faiz Sahib for the 100th anniversary of his birthday which was last year. Originally sung by Iqbal Bano, Meesha did justice to this legendary song and re-created the magic of romantic poetry!

- F. Z