The late Alfred Rose was and remains the melody king of Goa. His lyrics were beautiful, having sung with ease and never repeated a tune in his albums. No one has taken his place. Alfred Rose regaled the listeners of Konkani music, first on his own with his outstanding solos. He released duets on HMV, with various singers, then with Rita his wife and later, with his children. He was the first Konkani artiste to release a cassette of his songs, the first to produce musical shows with original songs and one of the tiatrists and singers to have his own band, The Rosebuds Swing Band. Songs by Alfred Rose are still loved by fans of Konkani music and these still sound great.
Engelbert Rose is his son. He was up on the Konkani entertainment circuit when he sang ‘Punn Tum Mhozo Daddy’ a beautiful duo with his dad that was recorded for HMV. Engelbert along with his brother Schubert went on to record some more songs with their mother and father, and the children were loved by the audience.
Engelbert Sidney Rose Fernandes was a student of Victoria High School, Mumbai and completed college at St Andrew’s. In school and college he was a regular at singing competitions, bagging many awards. His performance on the Konkani stage continued for many years along with his father. After the demise of Alfred Rose, Engelbert stopped performing Konkani shows and joined a band named ‘Infra Red’, performing for many shows in Mumbai. He played the keyboards and sang. After that he joined ‘Rockin Marmalade’ and still plays for this band. They play for food festivals, parties and weddings. Engelbert, on his own is also a compere and master of ceremonies. He currently works with Play Time, an events company that organises events for bollywood stars and others.
However, Konkani is in his blood and on the 80th birth anniversary of Alfred Rose, the family organised a musical show in memory of the late melody king. This was well received by the audience. He later rendered a couple of songs for ‘Mhozo Heartbeat’, an audio disc from Sunshine Productions. He also performed at the Food Festival in Goa. His rendition of ‘Celina’, a great track by Alfred Rose, was thoroughly enjoyable. In the near future, an audio disc of Alfred Rose’s songs will be released by the family.
Mariano Fernandes is responsible to bring Engelbert onto the Konkani tiatr stage. Last year he came along with Alria, his sister, to perform in Mariano’s tiatr. This year he joins in the opening song of ‘Tujem Bhangar, Tujeach Angar’ and later returns for a duet with Scully and a solo too. Engelbert had the audience responding and enjoying both his songs that have his original lyrics.
Engelbert enjoys singing and wishes to continue performing in tiatr whenever a good offer comes by. In the meanwhile he is based in Mumbai and is occupied with assignments.
