FAKE ALERT: Lorna’s death due to heart attack rumour is fake, friends confirm singer is hale and hearty

PANAJI: A rumour has been doing the rounds since late evening Tuesday, claiming that Goa’s nightingale Lorna has passed away.

Goans are requested not to spread this rumour. Lorna is hale and hearty, confirmed her friends.

Goan designer Philu Martins shared a post on a popular Goan Whatsapp group “Goan Personalities” confirming that Lorna was hale and hearty and people should not spread rumors about confirming the message, she said.

Prominent Goan fashion designer Verma D’mello also confirmed that the news floating on social media is a rumor and Goan nightingale Lorna is very much alive and hale and hearty.

Prominent Goans Shalom Sardinha of Curtorim and Vladimir de Monte Furtado of Panjim also confirmed that the news is a mere rumor

Lorna Cordeiro, known mononymously as Lorna, is a Konkani language singer from the coastal state of Goa, India, and is popularly known as the “Nightingale of Goa”.

According to her Wikipedia, Lorna admittingly was in an affair with an older married Goan musician, Chris Perry, while they were both working together. However, following their breakup on her 27th birthday in 1973, she was unable to perform for nearly 23 years.

This was because Perry would threaten and even strike anyone who would approach her to sing professionally again. She remained unmarried because Perry also threatened possible suitors.

She began working as a compounder in a dentist’s clinic, and was a victim of alcoholism before Ronnie Monserrate convinced her to start singing again in 1995. She now lives in Dhobitalao, Mumbai.

In her illustrious career, Lorna has sung for many great Bollywood music directors such as Bappi Lahiri, Kalyanji-Anandji, Laxmikant–Pyarelal and Rajesh Roshan. She has even sung alongside Mohammed Rafi (“Maria”) and Sudesh Bhosle.

After her comeback, she has performed in countries of the Middle East like Dubai, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain and even in parts of Europe like London.

She is seen performing in the 2004 Konkani film Aleesha, and the 2019 Konkani musical film, Kantaar, features Lorna singing some jazz songs.