Oscar-winning composer A R Rahman launched the official Commonwealth 2010 Theme Song Swagatham yesterday at a ceremony in Gurgaon. The song has been sung by ARR himself, and at the launch ceremony too ARR sung it to the audience. Sure the song is marked by signature innovative orchestral elements from ARR, starting with the harmonic a cappella-esque start suddenly graduating into the rock song punctuated with Punjabi elements. But when taken as an anthem, Swagatham is missing something somewhere. For an event being hosted by India for the first time, the song doesn’t sound as special as it should. Plus the lyrics don’t seem that appealing either. The arrangement would of course delight any fan, yours truly included, and this song shall form a part of my playlist for days to come, but if I were to make a list of the best anthem/theme songs of ARR, this might not feature in it. And for an event as big as CWG I was sort of expecting to hear a classic from the maestro.
You can listen to the song online here or here. No credits for singers or lyricist are out yet, and I could make out just Rahman and Blaaze on vocals.

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