Sunidhi Chauhan’s Chennai concert turned into a karaoke night for millennials

From viral mashups to Tamil cinema favourites, Sunidhi Chauhan delivered a high-voltage set in Chennai that had the arena singing every word back to her

In your 30s, your friend will ask you to go to a Sunidhi Chauhan concert with them. It is very important that you respond with a loud resounding ‘yes’. 

On her ongoing I Am Home tour across the country, the playback singer performed in Chennai on February 7, and the audience was not prepared for the enigma that she is; Sunidhi Chauhan’s three-hour long concert was the manifestation of my childhood playlist.

A snapshot from the concert | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

I grew up sneakily switching to Bollywood music channels like 9XM and MTV, just to hear two verses of ‘Mehboob Mere’ and watch Sushmita Sen’s provocative dance. Sunidhi has been around, singing hits from ‘Desi Girl’, to ‘Kaisi Paheli Zindgani’ since before I knew what heartbreak was. But now I am well acquainted with the feeling, and I understand the words. What I was unprepared for, was the force she is on stage. 

She is no longer just the voice behind the songs that made me dance, sing, and push through workouts. For months, videos from her concerts around the country have been going viral, and it became one on the bucketlist for almost every millennial who grew up like I did — memorising lyrics and singing into hairbrush microphones. 

After braving Saturday evening traffic on the ECR for two and a half hours, sweating through all the makeup while walking two kilometres to the concert venue along with thousands of others, and making it barely on time, Sunidhi floated on stage singing ‘Udi’ from Guzaarish. In that moment, all the chaos fell away. It was worth it all, and then some.