Weight. Adnan Sami has something to say. When he was on the UK leg of his marathon world tour, the singer with the golden throat was amused and bewildered by reports back home that he had decided to shed avoirdupois on his concert colleague Amisha Patel’s say-so. “Amisha is a friend and she’s with me on this concert tour. She’s a lovely girl. But she isn’t my dietician. Yes, I’ve decided to lose weight. It has been weighing heavily on my mind ? and other places, ha-ha ? for quite some time. Close friends and wellwishers have expressed concern. In fact, a journalist-friend made bold to ask me how I don’t get breathless and wheezy. All I’ll say is, it’s God’s benevolence. My voice is entirely His gift. And I can no longer endanger it. Hence the decision to shed the kilos.”

Adnan surprises us by revealing that he used to be ultra-slim at one time. “But certain emotional disturbances in my life a few years ago forced me to become a voracious eater. Once I started it was impossible to control my weight.” Adnan is talking about the messy divorce with Pakistani actress, Zeba Bakhtiar, and the ensuing custody battle for their son, which took their toll on the crooner.

“But now all that is behind me. I’m going through great times. My world tour’s an unqualified success. After the US and Canada I’m now in the UK [at the time of interview]. At Birmingham, Manchester and Leicester we were sold out. At Leicester, fans who couldn’t get into the stadium demanded the gates of the stadium be kept open so that they could hear me singing while standing outside. We obliged, of course. It was a very cute situation.”

Ecstatic by the response, Adnan continues: “I had one date at the Wembley Stadium. Tickets for that were sold out in two days. I had to do an additional concert on the following day. Both the days I performed in a daze to a sellout audience. What a dream come true! During my last UK tour I was honoured at Wembley for becoming the first Asian performer to perform to sellout crowds on two consecutive nights. By God’s grace I’ve now performed the same feat again. What more could I ask for? Of course, after I lose weight, my audience would have less of me to love. But some sacrifices need to be made for the larger good?or shall I say?for the smaller good?” Adnan chuckles happily.

SKJ