Live in Concert – September 30, 2025
The man who turned pain into protest comes home for a night of reckoning and rebirth
By Sanjoo Thangjam
When Manipuri youth of the 1990s first heard the raw, electrifying sound of The Power of Attraction, they knew something had shifted. The singer was neither polished nor conventional, but he spoke a truth that had long been silenced. He was Tapta — born Loukrakpam Jayanta — a man who turned his personal struggles into the voice of a generation. Today, decades later, that same defiant voice is set to return.
On September 30, 2025, after years away from the stage, Tapta will perform live. For his fans, the concert is not just entertainment — it is the long-awaited comeback of a cultural firebrand who has never stopped challenging silence.
Organisers have confirmed that the venue of the concert will now be at Ema Lai Khulembi Lampak, Khurai Sajor Leikai, Imphal. TAIFUM officials have clarified that tickets already issued to TAPTA fans, donors, and invited guests remain valid, and they have appealed to media across Manipur to publicise the venue change and cover the cultural event.
Tickets for Tapta’s much-anticipated concert are available exclusively online through Mayflos. Priced at ₹300 plus a ₹7.50 service fee, the entry passes went on sale at 10:00 AM on August 15 and will remain available until September 30 at 11:00 AM. Fans can secure theirs via the Mayflos website to witness the return of the firebrand voice of Manipur.
Behind this grand comeback also stands TAIFUM (Tapta Institute of Fusion Music), a pioneering platform built around Tapta’s vision of fusing tradition with contemporary sound. TAIFUM has nurtured young talents, experimented with new styles, and kept Tapta’s legacy alive across generations. The institute’s role in this concert ensures that the comeback is not just about nostalgia, but also about carrying forward a living, evolving movement of music.
As a journalist with The Morning Bell, I had the privilege of interviewing Tapta four times. Those conversations, still available on our YouTube channel, remain some of the most candid he has ever given. I remember asking him once if he feared backlash from politicians or groups. He smirked and replied: “If I stop singing out of fear, then I was never meant to sing at all.” That defiant spirit still defines him today.
That same spirit also follows him beyond the stage. In July 2025, the Sessions Court in Bishnupur granted Tapta anticipatory bail in connection with a case registered at Churachandpur Police Station. The order directed that no coercive action be taken against him provided he cooperates with the investigation and remains within the state. His legal counsel emphasized that Tapta is a peace-loving artiste whose music reflects the realities of Manipuri society rather than any intent to divide communities. For many of his listeners, the case was yet another reminder that Tapta’s voice — provocative to some, inspiring to many — has never been easy to silence.
Early Sparks: From Tabla to the Stage
Jayanta was born on March 30, 1966, in Naranseina Mamang Leikai, Bishnupur. His uncle Gandhar, a musician himself, first taught him to sing and play tabla. The boy often performed at Likon Sanaba, a community festival, where villagers chuckled at his small frame yet marveled at his confident voice.
When Gandhar passed away, Jayanta could have stopped. But his cousin O. Thoiba stepped in, nudging him toward All India Radio’s children’s programme. Nervous yet determined, Jayanta sang before the microphone for the first time. “That was when I realized I could reach beyond my village,” he later recalled.
Guwahati Days: Defiance in Twelve Evictions
His postgraduate years in Guwahati became the crucible of his music. With his first guitar, Jayanta practiced obsessively. So much so that his landlords threw him out — once, twice, until it became twelve. Each time, he packed his bag with nothing but books and guitar. “I was stubborn,” he laughed years later. “I told myself, if they want silence, I will give them noise in another house.”
The defining blow came when Ranjit, a well-known guitarist, refused to teach him. “He told me I wasn’t good enough,” Tapta remembered. “That humiliation burned me. I swore I’d become better than him.” What might have broken others, hardened him into a self-taught rebel.
Family Duty vs. Musical Destiny
Back home, Jayanta’s family urged him to pursue computer science. A career in music, they argued, was unstable, unworthy. But Jayanta’s mind was set. He joined the Bina Musical Club (later ANASEL) and played for the Tamna Musical Centre. He also joined a cultural troupe, traveling village to village, often eating little more than rice and boiled vegetables but always carrying his guitar.
His first paid performance came at Rudra High School during Saraswati Puja. He received ₹50, which he spent on tea and snacks for his friends. “The money was nothing,” he would laugh, “but the applause was priceless.”
Birth of Tapta: The Sound of Defiance
In the mid-1990s, Jayanta rechristened himself Tapta and released The Power of Attraction. Overnight, Manipuri music was never the same.
The album’s songs were not about love or heartbreak but about life, unemployment, corruption, the chaos of survival.
Tracks like “100 Bulb” and “Bomb Bomb” were written in his school days, scribbled in the corners of notebooks. “100 Bulb,” he said, came from sitting in a dingy room where a single weak bulb flickered, inspiring him to imagine what a hundred could feel like — a metaphor for energy and rebellion.
Though the album was a sensation, Tapta sold the rights for ₹10,000. Years later, he admitted: “I was cheated, but maybe that was the price to start a revolution.”
Music as Protest, Music as Identity
Tapta’s concerts were nothing short of catharsis. In one memorable performance at BOAT (Bhaigachandra Open Air Theatre), the crowd drowned out his voice, chanting his lyrics back to him. Young boys climbed trees, women waved their hands like protest banners, and Tapta stood there, guitar in hand, grinning: “This is not my song anymore. This is theirs.”
His music gave words to the unspoken — drugs, insurgency, broken politics, fractured identity. Where most singers crooned romance, Tapta turned the stage into a people’s parliament.
In another of my interviews, reflecting on the chaos of Manipur, he said quietly: “I don’t write songs to please anyone. I write because silence is more dangerous.”
Recognition and Resistance
In 2019, the Manipur University Students’ Union (MUSU) named him the “Inspirational Singer of Manipur.” The award recognized not just his voice but his courage to stand unflinching where others stayed silent.
Legacy of an Unbending Voice
For over thirty years, Tapta has been more than a musician — he has been a mirror. A mirror reflecting Manipur’s pain, rebellion, humor, and hope. He is controversial, he is celebrated, but above all, he is unignorable.
His journey — from being thrown out of houses in Guwahati to making entire stadiums sing with him — is proof that revolutions sometimes begin with a single stubborn note.
And now, as he readies to take the stage again on September 30 at Khurai Sajor Leikai’s Ema Lai Khulembi Lampak, Tapta’s story comes full circle — from a young rebel with a guitar to a legend whose people still wait for his song.
Tapta remains, simply, the firebrand voice of Manipur.
(The writer is a journalist and also a Social Activist for People Who Use Drugs (PUDs).