“Sheil Sagar was 22. He was a singer, song-writer, pianist, guitarist, saxophonist, a low-key comedian... and he had written 16 beautiful songs that I know of!” remembers Sheil Sagar’s friend and Delhi-based singer and guitarist Sana Arora.
Sagar, a rising Delhi-based Indie artist, passed away on 1 June due to unknown causes, dealing a blow to fans of his music. Coming on the heels of the deaths of Sidhu Moose Wala and KK, this was another personal loss for many.
The 22-year-old had risen to prominence through his single “If I Tried” which crossed 40,000 streams on Spotify.
Arora, who had played music with Sagar for three years, told The Quint, “He had been my partner on stage and the best part of my musical journey.”
‘He is Irreplaceable For Me’
Arora, who graduated last year with Sagar from Delhi University's Hansraj College, recalls the first gig the duo had performed together and how natural it felt.
“On 13 June 2019, we had our first gig together. Since then, it felt like the perfect match. All the duo gigs felt organic. Being on stage with him, performing with him, it never felt like we were doing a job or work."Sana Arora
Arora and Sagar were together in Swaranjali, the music society of Hansraj College. "We always performed for the love of music," she said.
“I can safely say that he was one of the most talented and dependable musicians that I ever had the privilege of working with,” she said.
“The trust and the bond we shared on stage together – it’s not something that you come across every day. It was one in a million things for me,” Arora added.
“He’s always going to be irreplaceable. For me, there’s no friend or musician who can take his place.”Sana Arora
The 22-year-old talked about how Sagar was being a fun-to-be-around person, “It’s a cliche... but there really never was a dull moment with Sheil.”
“If you ask 20 people how he was as a person, I’m sure they would mention his infectious laugh or how he would make everyone around him laugh," she added.
Sheil Sagar and Sana Arora
(Photo: Provided by Sana Arora)
‘He Was Going to Record His Albums Soon'
Arora told The Quint that Sagar wanted to perform with a five or six-piece band and was going to record his albums soon.
“He had great things in store for him, as far as his career was concerned," she said.
“Arjun Sagar Gupta, the owner of Piano Man Jazz club, and he were in the process of working on his music and trying to take it forward. He had been looking forward to it,” she added.
Each song he wrote was soulful. His music was personal to him but so relatable to people who heard it.Sana Arora
'He Inspired Me to Write My Own Music'
Arora said that music had been the biggest and most important part of her life since she was a young girl.
"In these past three years, Sheil constantly inspired me to become better, to start writing my own music,” she said.
“More than a friend, he felt like a brother to me. Somebody I could look up to, somebody I could count on. I trusted him, and was constantly inspired by him,” she added.
“This is a video of one of our performances of the song called 'The Best Part'... it kinda was our favourite song and he was the best part of my musical journey... We played this song everywhere. It was our song and will always be,” she told The Quint.
“We were going to have a quartet gig on 9 June. Sheil was very excited for it and we were going to do a whole new set-list,” Arora added.
“I did not feel that it was right to cancel the gig so instead we’re going to do a tribute for Sheil. We’ll play his songs and the covers of songs that he really liked,” she said.
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