What is every music event like? A crowd full of strangers dancing to the same beat, yelling out the same lyrics and uniting in the most rhythmic way possible, right? Had it not been for a friend who suggested me the song “Street Boy” by Nucleya, I do not think I would be writing this today. Having said that, Udyan Sagar as a solo music producer/artist from Agra, India, brings a unique twist to the ways music can be experienced. Composition of tunes that you can choose to listen to any time of the day, be it a long drive from your house to work, in a club or something you could dance to. Had somebody told me a year back that I would get to attend Nucleya’s concert, that too in Toronto, I do not think I would have believed them.
![]()
Fortunately, bringing the traditional Indian beat fusion to Toronto, the first stop of Nucleya’s North American Tour, brought an unexpected yet diverse Indian crowd together for a singular event. On June 09, 2017 after a welcoming performance by The Desi Subculture, Udyan Sagar aka Nucleya, came on the stage of Adelaide Hall with a gleaming smile, a response to the hooting happiness of the crowd gathered just to listen to him play live. Personally, I have never been a huge fan of Electronic music and still consider myself not in complete admiration of the particular genre. However, if you give me a song like Laung Gawacha, it becomes really hard for me to not sing along or dance to it.
Even though the event was not advertised extensively, Nucleya delivered a piece of India through his music to the audience of Toronto. With just a few Torontonians in the venue, it seemed quite interesting to have an Indian artist perform in a location other than India, making Americans feel minoritized.
As he began to perform around midnight, each individual awaiting their favourite Nucleya song to be played, escaped that very thought and threw themselves into a trance. The vibrancy of the live performance created an exclusive ambience for the crowd to connect with each other on an international level.
At the end of it, the eager crowd kept incessantly requesting Nucleya to continue performing. Having left the stage twice, he decided to come back and play for his lively audience and tell them how loved he felt. Keeping that in mind, for his very first performance in Toronto, a considerable yet diverse lot of people turned up. Reflecting on the experience, every person in the room felt a sense of belonging through a changed outlook on feeling accepted in a multicultural society outside of their own. The night ended at 2:00 am with a content smile on every person’s face and conversation between strangers at 250 Adelaide Street West.
Text and Photos by Latika Singh Verma, for The Curator Mag.
