With episode six launching this week, Pepsi Battle of The Bands, Season 03, has reached that point where we finally have our top two bands of the year, Xarb and Bayaan, who will be competing each other in the next two weeks with an aim to win the title of the best band of the country. The episode starts with a scintillating and vibrant performance by Meesha Shafi who is seen performing a reinvented version of Madam Noor Jehan’s song, ‘Koi Sarda Aye Te Saray’. She literally sets the stage on fire and effortlessly delivers an electrifying performance with her band while keeping the original essence of the song intact. As Meesha’s fashion sense is always on point, her attire also compliments her performance and gels in very well with the theme of the song, making her stage presence look more lively and energetic. The first performance of the knock-out round was Bayaan’s rendition of ‘Tha Yaqeen’ originally sung by Naheed Akhtar and picked up by Asfar because of the fact that the song is his mother’s favourite. Their performance set the mood right for the episode as the arrangement of the song and the way it was delivered was very well received by the judges. XARB band followed next with a simple disco groove in their rendition of the famous song of Madam Noor Jehan, Jhanjhar Di Pawan Chankar and stole the hearts of the judges. Fawad commented and Faisal agreed that this is the kind of the version that anyone would easily fall in love with even if they haven’t heard the song before. Published in Daily Times, August 22nd 2018.