What do Carl Douglas’ Kung Fu Fighting, Nazia Hassan’s Disco Deewane, and Lorna’s Mogacho Uzo have in common, apart from the fact that all three were massive hit songs?

The Konkani song Mogacho Uzo, first released in 2005, saw a resurgence in 2025, driven largely by a cover version from The 7 Notes Band. Their rendition struck a chord with younger listeners, some who had probably not heard the song before, and quickly went viral.

That said, even they would agree that nothing quite matches the charm of the version by Goan legend, Lorna Cordeiro. With lyrics penned down by Neves Oliveira, Goa’s ace Konkani lyricist and music by Maestro Josinho, Mogacho Uzo will make you want to dance. The infectious energy of the arrangement, combined with the unmistakable, powerful vocals of Lorna, pulls you effortlessly into the magic of the track.

However, not everyone realises that the music for Mogacho Uzo was originally produced by the British-Indian producer Biddu Appaiah. Born in Bangalore, Biddu is a celebrated music producer, composer and singer-songwriter, and is widely regarded as one of the pioneers who helped shape Indian pop and disco music.

One of his best-known productions is the catchy Aap Jaisa Koi, sung by the then 15-year-old Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan for the Bollywood film Qurbani. The song’s success catapulted Nazia to stardom.

Riding on the popularity of Aap Jaisa Koi, Biddu went on to produce the album Disco Deewane for Nazia and her brother Zoheb Hassan. The album became a defining moment for Asian pop, charting in several countries well beyond the Indian subcontinent. Nazia and Zoheb later went on to record three more albums with Biddu, selling millions of records worldwide.

Before his successes in India, Biddu had already built a reputation in Europe, producing international hits such as Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas and I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance) by Tina Charles, among several others.

This brings us back to Mogacho Uzo. Biddu was also the music producer behind another Tina Charles hit, You Set My Heart on Fire. Mogacho Uzo is, in fact, a Konkani cover of You Set My Heart on Fire. While the lyrics are not a direct translation, both songs share the same underlying theme, making the Konkani adaptation feel both familiar and distinctly Goan at the same time. In the Konkani version recorded by Lorna, music credit is given to Maestro Josinho, whose arrangements do justice to the spirit and energy of the original track.

Unfortunately Biddu is not credited on the CD as the producer of this catchy tune and I wonder if he’s heard the Konkani cover.

While the song is now covered by many local bands, I still haven’t come across a mash-up of You Set My Heart on Fire and Mogacho Uzo, which feels like a missed opportunity, given how naturally the two tracks belong together.

Coincidentally, Uzo, a Goan band, performed this song at the Christmas party I attended last year, and all I could think of was that a mash-up of the two versions would be completely up their alley.

Lorna’s voice on music produced by Biddu makes for an unsurprisingly powerful collaboration, made even more remarkable by the fact that they are true contemporaries. Lorna turned 81 in August last year, and Biddu turns 81 today.

As Jimi Hendrix proved with his reinterpretation of All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan, a great cover can breathe new life into a song. In much the same way, Lorna’s Konkani version of Biddu’s original track arrived nearly 30 years after the first release and gave it a fresh cultural identity of its own. When The 7 Notes Band revisited the song almost 50 years later, it found yet another audience, proof that a well-crafted composition can continue to get people grooving across generations.