Kolkata. Renowned Indian singer Arijit Singh has given his first public musical performance after announcing his retirement from playback singing. The singer, who recently stunned fans by deciding not to sing for films, shared the stage with sitar maestro Anoushka Shankar at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on Sunday.

This collaboration with Anoushka Shankar and famous tabla player Bikram Ghosh is being seen as a new turn in Arijit’s musical career. Arijit appeared somewhat emotional during the concert.

When Anoushka welcomed him on stage, he mentioned that he was very frightened and nervous. On that occasion, he mesmerized the audience by presenting the classic Bengali song ‘Maya Bhora Raati’, composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar and sung by Lakshmi Shankar.

Similarly, Arijit and Anoushka also gave a duet performance of the famous song ‘Traces of You’. On January 27, he had announced on social media that he would not take up any new playback singing assignments from now on.

He thanked his listeners for years of love on his Instagram, mentioning that he wanted to put a full stop to this happy journey here. However, his latest live performance indicated that he will remain active in other genres of music and live concerts.

Arijit Singh, 38, born in Jiaganj, West Bengal, began his musical journey with the reality show ‘Fame Gurukul’ in 2005. Although he did not win that show, his singing attracted the attention of veteran directors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

He debuted in Bollywood in 2011 with the song ‘Phir Mohabbat’ from the film ‘Murder 2’, and achieved overnight stardom with ‘Tum Hi Ho’ from ‘Aashiqui 2’.

Arijit, who has sung over 700 songs in various languages including Hindi, Bengali, and Telugu in his career, has received more than 122 honors, including 2 National Awards and 8 Filmfare Awards. In 2015, he was also honored with the prestigious ‘Padma Shri’ by the Government of India.