Lawrence Gomes (extreme right) along with his family.
DOHA
As a youngster, Lawrence Gomes considered football as his future and singing as his passion.
Having long hung his football shoes, Lawrence thought of giving his singing passion a new direction, the end result is a song ‘Ek Avoichi Kunnam’ dedicated to his mother-in-law on her 75th birthday.
But the effort was not easy, he had to toil hard just like he did many years on the football field, initially with the Mundvel Sports Club and thereafter with Salgaocar Sports Club, with whom he served with distinction for many years, winning many trophies on the way.
As a midfielder for Salgaocar SC, Goa and India, Lawrence faced many situations when he had only the goalkeeper to beat in one-to-one situations. He frequently emerged on top outwitting the rival goalkeeper, thanks to his calm and composure nature on the field.
That was some years back, but the lessons of hard work, dedication, discipline and team work always came handy in his life away from the football field.
The Vasco-born Gomes knew all along that he had a talent for singing but being preoccupied with football, his singing was confined to an unusual audience, his Salgaocar SC and Goa teammates.
The singer inside Lawrence came out in full gusto at Salgaocar Club parties, and occasionally singing on train trip to different parts of India to participate in different All-India invitational tournaments and thereafter the National League Football, later renamed as I-league.
“I always had a dream to sing and record a song one day, and I have sung this song to the best of my ability,” he added.
Playing football before mammoth crowds and in most challenging situations, including those in Kolkata, was a different ball game as compared to facing the camera and recording his first song.
“Yes, it was challenging. Singing in front of my Salgaocar Sports Club was very easy, but to sing in a studio and record your song was challenging and difficult. I had to give it my best to make it stand out,” said Lawrence, who has been based in Feltham-England for the last seven years.
Having set his mind to sing the cover song originally sung by Nephie Rodrigues and lyrics by Jerry, he tweaked it to change the words to suit the dedication to his mother-in-law.
“I heard this song on YouTube, a song by Nephie Rodrigues and lyrics by Jerry. So, I was motivated by some words used in that song. It took me three months to write the lyrics of the song to give it a special meaning and special message to my mother-in-law Maria J Afonso from Vasco,” he said.
Lawrence was hopeful that more songs will follow.
He gave full credit to SebiB for guiding and motivating him in all backroom efforts which went into recording the song.
“SebiB gave me tons of confidence and thanks to his guidance I could complete the task.”
Lawrence said the music editing, recording and filming task for the song had been taken care off by SebiB Studio.
Lawrence, who works for Sodexo Company at Heathrow Airport, is appreciative of many comments he has received so far for his songs, most of them who are football fans in different parts of the world.
Lawrence said besides the football playfield, he has not performed on stage or sung a song.
“The late Mario Menezes was always after me to sing a song in his drama, but I never took up his offer,” he says.
Asked to name those Goan singers who have influenced him, Lawrence said: “Jose Rod is my ‘living legend’. My favourite all-time singers are late Alfred Rose and the current heartthrob Mark Revlon.”
