The Mary McBride Band gripped music lovers with a pleasant medley of American favourites at the Pakistan-American Cultural Centre (PACC) last week. Mary McBride and her band were visiting the city for the third time at the invitation of the United States Consulate General in Karachi. They sang a few of their own numbers and finally ended the show with Dil Dil Pakistan at which the audience couldn’t stop but get up on their feet dancing and singing along.

“Tonight, we are celebrating music and its power to bring people together,” said John Warner, the acting Consul General of US in Pakistan. During their visit to the city of lights, the band recorded a fusion song, Home, with Sounds of Kolachi, and spent time with children of special needs at Dar-ul-Sukun orphanage. They also conducted a music workshop for the students and faculty of the Karachi Arts Council’s Music Academy.

The band has released four albums – Everything Seemed Alright, By Any Other Name, Every Day Is a Holiday and The Way Home. Mary, the lead singer of the band, received significant acclaim for her performance of No One’s Gonna Love You like Me on-screen and on the soundtrack of the Academy-award winning film Brokeback Mountain. She has also performed with Elton John. Since 2011, Mary has served as a Cultural Envoy for the U.S. Department of State, and has performed with her band in more than thirty countries, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Afghanistan, and Russia.